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
Cuff explains that Mr. Luker accepted the story because he thought “Godfrey Ablewhite was too great a fool to have invented it,” and that Cuff and Bruff agree. Luker offered Godfrey “monstrous terms”: Luker would give Godfrey 2,000 pounds and then release the Diamond to him after a year if Godfrey paid him 3,000 pounds at that time. Godfrey rejected this deal but then returned, realizing that he had confessed to Mr. Luker and could not ensure the gem dealer’s silence unless he “made him an accomplice.”
Godfrey’s plan to make some quick cash backfires because of his stupidity and shortsighted opportunism. Quite the opposite of the brilliant culprit everyone was looking for, he never planned any theft and went on to hide in plain sight throughout the novel: he was London’s prime suspect for the theft during the entirety of Miss Clack’s narrative, but nevertheless refused when she offered to proclaim his innocence.
Themes
Stuck in a “state of helpless despair,” Godfrey realized that, the next day, he had to send 300 pounds to the young man for whom he was trustee. He saw no option but to deal with Mr. Luker (although, had he not owed the man the money, Cuff argues, Godfrey very well might have cut up the Diamond in Amsterdam).
Godfrey’s poor planning continues to undermine his self-interest. He stumbles not only into his crime, but also into endangering himself by leaving the Diamond intact.
Themes
After pledging the Diamond to Mr. Luker, as the reader already knows, Godfrey proposes to Rachel again (but withdraws his offer when he realizes he cannot raise the money he needs from her estate). And, when “the lady at the Villa” finds out about his proposal, she furiously demands money of her own in order to maintain her silence. He tries again to marry (but also fails because of money), but leaves this engagement with 5,000 pounds. He then goes to Amsterdam and makes “all the necessary arrangements for having the Diamond cut into separate stones,” which would have allowed him to pay his debts.
Because love is subservient to marriage and marriage is subservient to property for the upper classes in Victorian England, Godfrey’s money troubles quickly translate into romantic ones, even when he already has the Diamond in the bank. He spends a year frantically trying to compensate for lavishly spending on a woman who is leaving him anyway. His irresponsibility and dishonesty ultimately undermine what he hoped to gain through deceit in the first place.
Themes
In closing, Cuff repeats for the reader that it is still possible to find the Indians, who are on their way to Bombay, where the police plan “to board the vessel, the moment she enters the harbor.” Cuff signs his report.
While the case has been solved and sent out of England—meaning that Cuff’s work is, at last, done—the Indians still have one more obstacle to surmount if they want to bring the Moonstone back.
Themes
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