Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Moonstone, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Detective Methods and Genre Standards
Intention, Identity, and Personality
Science and Religion
Gender and Victorian Morality
Class, Wealth, and Nobility
British Imperialism
Summary
Analysis
Julia reveals to Clack that, for a long while, she has been “seriously ill […] without knowing it myself.” (Miss Clack worries that Julia might be “spiritually ill,” too.) When Julia took Rachel to her second doctor in London—an old friend of the family—he revealed that Julia has an “insidious form of heart disease” that has left her with only months to live, even though she lacks symptoms. She is in the process of arranging her “worldly affairs,” but she has not told Rachel, out of fear that Rachel would blame herself—and the Diamond—for Julia’s illness (which, in fact, she has had for years).
The fact that Clack immediately thinks about the “spiritually ill” after Julia’s admission shows her profound lack of empathy (despite her professed benevolence). More interested in converting Julia to her form of Christianity than genuinely giving her the support she needs, Clack is blinded by her fanatical ideology. Of course, Julia’s mysterious and untreatable illness is another classic trope from both “sensation novels” and the mystery and thriller genres that emerged from them.
Themes
Clack is thrilled: Julia’s news offers her a “career of usefulness,” namely the opportunity to save Julia through Christianity. She offers meetings with three friends in the clergy, but Julia objects. Clack determines to bring pamphlets instead and rushes out to bring them back before the lawyer’s arrival. Because she cares so deeply about Julia, she even takes a cab—and then gets scorned by the cab driver when she offers him some of her religious tracts, as well.
Clack continues to justify her self-serving, narcissistic, suffocating behavior by recourse to a greater good that only she seems capable of seeing; in fact, Clack is ironically delighted to hear of her beloved aunt’s imminent death, since she cares much more about the afterlife than the present one.
Themes
When she returns to the Verinder residence, Clack finds Julia is busy with the doctor, and is asked to wait with Mr. Bruff, the lawyer, who has just arrived. He is surprised to see her large bag, but she knows that to show him the pamphlets inside would be “to invite an outburst of profanity.” Mr. Bruff agrees that Clack will do as a witness, and she writes that she was delighted to hear that the will does not include her, which means nobody will see sinister motives in her agreement to serve as witness.
Clack recognizes that those around her oppose her evangelism but never questions her right to impose it on the unwilling. Although she claims to be glad that she is not named in the will, Clack’s initial confession to her poverty and delight at Franklin Blake’s check suggests she might be self-deceptively writing the opposite of what she actually feels.
Themes
Bruff then brings up the scandalous news of Godfrey, and Clack reprimands him for repeating the rumor that Godfrey is connected to the Diamond’s disappearance—but Bruff insists that the “ugly circumstances” justify this suspicion: Godfrey was present during the Diamond’s theft and it was no coincidence that the Indians pursued him in London. Clack cites Sergeant Cuff’s conclusion, and Bruff insists that he believes Rachel above all else. Clack points out that, just hours before, Rachel herself proclaimed Godfrey’s innocence—and she savors “the unholy triumph” of confounding Mr. Bruff, who apologizes, compliments her skill in argument, and begins to pace back and forth, contemplating the crime that he now finds “beyond conjecture.”
Clack clearly looks down on the hyperrational Bruff as exemplar of the new amoral turn in Victorian society. While she recognizes that there is something “unholy” about relishing another person’s defeat or suffering, she also seems to make an exception for her own sins, despite chastising everyone around her for theirs. In fact, Bruff is the one who conducts himself in a far more respectful and balanced manner: he accepts that Clack has bested him. His puzzlement at the crime (the truth of which scarcely interests Clack) recalls Franklin’s reaction to the investigation and proves that the mystery of the Moonstone remains a very open question.
Themes
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Although she regrets it while writing her narrative, Clack admits that she butted into Mr. Bruff’s monologue to insist that perhaps Mr. Franklin Blake could be responsible for the theft. Bruff agrees that his grounds for suspecting Godfrey are also sufficient reason to suspect Franklin, who is, after all, famously indebted. However, Bruff is also Franklin’s lawyer, and he explains that his creditors prefer to charge interest and wait rather than collect their debts immediately, and that—more damningly—Rachel was hoping to marry Franklin, whom she secretly loved. And, besides, Franklin so enthusiastically searched for the Diamond, even when nobody suspected him (and so he had no need to throw people off his trail). Bruff considers Clack’s suspicion of him a “monstrous proposition.” All that can be reasonably known, Bruff declares, is that Rachel, Godfrey, and Franklin are all innocent, and that Luker probably has the diamond.
Again, the tension between evidence- and faith-based belief drives apart characters with opposite opinions about the Diamond. Clack reveals her own bias through her lack of self-control; it is important to remember here that Franklin is still compiling and editing the whole narrative, and that Miss Clack is far more forgiving toward him now than when she declared she was grateful to be of service at the beginning of her account. Now, Bruff’s information puts Clack off guard, but it also challenges Cuff’s hypothesis about why Rachel would have stolen the Diamond—her debts (which also would be combined with Franklin’s were they to marry).
Themes
Before Clack can again chastise and contradict Bruff, the servant announces that Julia is ready for them. Clack explains that she has summarized their conversation because it reveals who was suspected of the Diamond’s theft at the time, and so that she can correct her moral balance by apologizing for the “sinful self-esteem” she revealed in her argument with Bruff.
Clack’s justifications for reporting the conversation are actually self-undermining: the only new information in her conversation with Bruff was the fact that Franklin is not being asked to pay his debts, and she boosts her “sinful self-esteem” precisely by disavowing (but never taking real responsibility for) her previous behavior.
Themes
