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
At dinner, Betteredge informs the reader that only two of the 24 guests are worth noting, and this because they were the only ones to make remarkable comments about the Moonstone that Franklin had managed to turn into a brooch for Rachel. The first was the talkative and irreverent doctor Mr. Candy, who joked that he would burn the Diamond away for the sake of science, and so that she would not have to worry about guarding it. The second notable character was Mr. Murthwaite, an aloof Anglo-Indian traveler who hardly spoke except to warn Rachel against ever bringing the Diamond to India—for he knew such gems could be sacred, and their bearers’ lives expendable.
Whereas Godfrey referred to the Moonstone as “mere carbon,” Franklin turns it into jewelry for Rachel. Their differing attitudes parallel their opposite kinds of investment in Rachel (Franklin’s is emotional, Godfrey’s more practical). Murthwaite, the representative of the British Empire, offers the Verinders an insight into the Diamond’s origins and true, religious value in India—whereas their other information about these subjects comes from myth and rumor, Murthwaite’s expert opinion elevates Betteredge and Franklin’s fears to the level of verifiable fact.
Themes
The dinner proceeds awkwardly: Mr. Candy, for instance, boorishly suggests that the husband of another guest, Mrs. Threadgall, visit some skeletons at a college—without realizing (or listening to Mrs. Threadgall loudly insist) that the man himself was deceased. Godfrey only speaks to the woman beside him, Miss Clack, who worked with one of his charity groups, and Mr. Franklin—due, Betteredge promises, to his foreign education—manages to offend nearly everyone at the table, which culminates in a shouting match with Mr. Candy.
Mr. Candy and Franklin’s mutually-boorish argument exemplifies the Victorian debates over the validity of science that resurface in the narratives of Miss Clack and Ezra Jennings; yet again, Betteredge assumes that Franklin’s pollution by foreignness makes him unable to gracefully navigate English high society, all while the man he compliments for his grace, Godfrey Ablewhite, seems uninterested in displaying his famous sociability.
Themes
After dinner, as Betteredge arranges the men’s drinks, he hears a sound outside and goes to the terrace to see the Indian jugglers performing outside. Before Betteredge can banish them, the dinner guests follow him outside and grow entranced by the performance—including Rachel, brandishing the Diamond on her dress. Mr. Murthwaite, however, begins talking to the Indians “in the language of their own country” and frightens them, leading them to stop their performance.
The reappearance of the Indian jugglers confirms that the men are following the Diamond, and seem to have understood that it would return to the Verinder residence on the night of Rachel’s birthday. And Rachel remains completely in the dark about the greater significance of the night’s events.
Themes
Everyone returns inside except Franklin and Murthwaite, who call Betteredge over. Murthwaite explains that the Indians are not jugglers, but “high-caste Brahmins,” and that when he told them he knew their true identities, the men recoiled. They must have left their privileged lives at the top of Indian society for a “very serious motive,” Murthwaite explains, and Franklin decides to tell Murthwaite the whole backstory about the Diamond. Murthwaite responds that Franklin has been lucky to survive so far, and that the Brahmins have certainly come to retrieve and return the Moonstone. Franklin has only succeeded because he has traveled in public, with others, and at unplanned times, Murthwaite argues. Betteredge asks whether the Indians would really be willing to kill Franklin; Murthwaite insists they would not think twice about it and suggests the Diamond be divided up, as Herncastle had planned in the case of Rachel or Julia’s death.
The aloof and mysterious Murthwaite—whose personality incorporates some elements aligned with Indianness in this novel, but whose loyalties unquestionably lie with his British friends—comes to the rescue, translating between the two ideologies that divide the British from the Indians. He helps Franklin and Betteredge, who think of the Diamond in terms of its beauty and its monetary value, understand the depth of its religious value to the Indians who have sacrificed their caste (their honor and social status) to make recovering the Diamond their life’s work. While Franklin and Betteredge have previously thought of the Indians as “conspirators” seeking to “steal” the Diamond, now they understand that the Indians are seeking to return it to its origin. However, they never raise the question of the Diamond’s rightful place, and only think about how they might ensure that Rachel holds onto it.
Themes
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Franklin, Murthwaite, and Betteredge decide that they will release the dogs if the Indians return, and then they head back inside. Betteredge turns to Robinson Crusoe and stumbles upon a passage that insists the “Fear of Danger is ten thousand times more terrifying than Danger itself.” Penelope visits to report that the guests are, at last, enjoying themselves, and Betteredge makes a round of the grounds—finding nothing—before everyone takes their carriages home through the evening rain.
Given Robinson Crusoe’s apparent predictive power for Betteredge, he likely expects this passage to demonstrate that he need not worry about the Diamond, even though at the outset of his narrative he revealed that the Diamond was stolen less than a day after Franklin gave it to Rachel. Nevertheless, for the time being, nothing appears out of order.
Themes
