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
Betteredge remarks that Robinson Crusoe astonishingly foresaw Franklin’s visit. He has opened to the following passage: “I stood like one Thunderstruck, or as if I had seen an Apparition.” He invites Franklin in and explains that, although “the house is shut up, and the servants are gone,” he will do his best to make Franklin comfortable. However, knowing that “the house was Rachel’s house, now,” Franklin feels unable to accept and reveals his reservations—and recent missed encounter with Rachel—to the elderly Betteredge. Betteredge tells a long story about his own wife and concludes that Rachel’s kind of dismissive behavior—“riding the high horse”—is typical of women. “You have put up with Miss Rachel in London,” he warns Franklin, so “don’t put up with her in Yorkshire.”
Yet again, Betteredge considers his fortune-telling successful—indeed, while any unforeseen event would have fulfilled Robinson Crusoe’s prediction, there seems to be very little surprise and astonishment in Betteredge’s life since the initial investigation into the Moonstone, which appears to have sucked all life out of the house, not to mention disintegrated the Verinder family and their network. Franklin’s narration also allows the reader to see Betteredge’s chauvinism from the outside, and his own enduring respect for Rachel from the inside.
Themes
Franklin still refuses to stay at the Verinder estate, and Betteredge recommends the nearby Hotherstone’s Farm. Franklin agrees and begins to set off, but Betteredge asks that they talk immediately about whatever business has brought Franklin to Yorkshire, rather than waiting until the next day. Betteredge hardly believes Franklin when he says he wants “to find out who took the Diamond,” and advises him to leave it alone—since not even the illustrious Sergeant Cuff could find it. Franklin asks about this Sergeant Cuff, whom Betteredge reveals has retired (and managed to grow roses in a way the Verinder estate gardener always insisted was impossible).
As anticipated, Franklin’s return officially restarts the search for the Diamond, which Betteredge seems to have given up. Despite Betteredge’s statement about Cuff, it remains an open question whether he really was right about the case. Cuff’s retirement and success with his roses indicates that he has managed to move past his sometimes taxing job, and of course that he remains as uncannily intelligent as ever—more so than the Verinders in one sense, at least.
Themes
When Betteredge says Franklin can trust him in his investigation, Franklin realizes Betteredge has some undivulged information about the Diamond. Betteredge claims he is “mere[ly] boasting” but Franklin notes that Betteredge’s assistance could “make Rachel come to an understanding with me.” They agree that they will continue to hold Rachel in high esteem no matter what. His trust won, Betteredge brings up Rosanna Spearman’s letter, which remains at the Yollands’ house in Cobb’s Hole. Franklin determines to go immediately, but Betteredge convinces him to wait until the next morning.
Cuff seems to have been right when he called Betteredge “as transparent as a child”—Franklin knows exactly what he has to say to win his confidence. Again, by seeing Betteredge as a character and not a storyteller—now out of control, persuaded by someone who knows better, rather than narrating a situation he does not fully understand—the reader can now get a new perspective on his narrative and begin to reinterpret the initial search for the Diamond.
Themes
