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
Franklin Blake is “wandering in the East,” changing his travel plans and sending a servant to retrieve mail and money in a city he is no longer planning to visit. The servant is delayed a week, and when he finally meets Franklin again, he presents a letter from Mr. Bruff, revealing the death of Franklin’s father and imploring Franklin to return to England as soon as possible.
After leaving off with Murthwaite’s plans to travel in Asia at the end of Bruff’s narrative, the reader finally hears from Franklin Blake, who happens to be doing just that (on his inherited or borrowed bankroll). Crucially, Blake is also the mastermind who compiles everyone else’s narratives into the novel. Technically its editor, Blake appears not to make any changes to the novel’s testimony, although it would be impossible for the reader to know if he were to omit something.
Themes
Franklin argues that Betteredge’s narrative—and especially the “satirical references to [Franklin’s] foreign education”—unfairly depict him. However, Betteredge correctly shows Franklin’s devastation at Rachel’s rejection and his decision to leave England in order “to forget her.” Over time, the “novelty” of his travels dulled his pain. However, the news that he must return to England after his father’s passing is bringing this pain, and his desire for Rachel, back to the surface. When he arrives in England, he immediately seeks her out. He also learns everything included in the other narratives (except Mr. Bruff’s explanation of Rachel and Godfrey’s motives for breaking their engagement).
Indeed, Franklin takes the opportunity to defend his foreign education from Betteredge’s English pride. Unlike the other male narrators so far (Betteredge, whose emotional outbursts contradict his belief in his own unflappable professionalism, and the completely unemotional Bruff), Franklin is perfectly aware of the emotional games he plays with himself, and the way emotion drives his decision making. While Franklin insists that there is only a slight difference between what he knew at the time of the novel’s events and his knowledge while writing his account (after reading Betteredge, Clack, and Bruff’s narratives), the reader should still ask whether his editorial position colors his recollection of events—he, after all, is not being forced by someone else to stick to “just the facts,” unlike all the novel’s other narrators (who are urged to do so by him).
Themes
Rachel is living with one of her father’s sisters, a widow named Mrs. Merridew, and Franklin goes to her house immediately upon his arrival in England. But Rachel refuses to see him, so he meets with Mrs. Merridew, who repeats that she is “not in a position to offer [Franklin] any explanation.” Finally, Franklin writes Rachel a letter; her response: “Miss Verinder begs to decline entering into any correspondence with Mr. Franklin Blake.”
Even though he returned because of his father’s death, Franklin remains totally consumed by his enduring love for Rachel, who seems to have never gotten over her animosity toward him after the Diamond’s theft. To the reader, of course, their sudden shift from lovers to enemies remains a mystery.
Themes
Offended, Franklin asks Mr. Bruff about the matter—and he does not have any response, either. Bruff simply notes that, while she was living at his own house, Rachel never once mentioned Franklin’s name. Franklin takes out the letter that Julia wrote him after he left Frizinghall, in which she explained that Franklin’s assistance in the Moonstone investigation inadvertently “added to [Rachel’s] burden of anxiety.” Bruff admits that this would be his best guess at Rachel’s motives.
Bruff, tactful and evenhanded as ever, adds nothing to Franklin’s search for an explanation. Through this search, Franklin begins transforming himself into a detective figure (much like Cuff and Betteredge in the first narrative). While Betteredge thought Franklin (and Cuff and Godfrey) knew what was happening in his relationship with Rachel, evidently he does not. Rachel’s absolute silence may be more significant than an occasional mention of Franklin—clearly, there is some unresolved business between them.
Themes
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Franklin decides at once to go to Yorkshire and “find out the secret of [Rachel’s] silence towards her mother, and her enmity towards me.” Perhaps he can even discover who stole the Moonstone by talking to Betteredge, who knows the most about the case. Franklin encounters Betteredge, as always, in his chair in the yard, smoking his pipe and reading Robinson Crusoe, flanked by his two dogs. Betteredge is startled to see Franklin, and Franklin begins to tear up.
Despite Julia’s death and Rachel’s move away, nothing seems to have changed about the predictable Betteredge. Unlike at their previous meeting and despite their occasional, continued jabs at one another, Betteredge and Franklin are clearly thrilled to be reunited and to catch the “detective-fever” again.
Themes
