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
As Betteredge and Cuff approach the Shivering Sand, Cuff explains that Betteredge need not defend Rosanna, who “is not in the slightest danger of getting into trouble” because, if involved in the theft, she was “simply an instrument in the hands of another person.” Betteredge and Cuff both ask one another if they know who this person might be. Cuff then asks if Rosanna bought any new linen clothes recently, and Betteredge admits that she has. Cuff laments the misery of human life and explains his theory: Rosanna discovered the paint-stain on her gown and made herself a new one by firelight in the night. But Cuff decided to let her go and follow her to the sea rather than “give the alarm […] to a certain person who shall be nameless between us.” He hopes the sands will reveal where she has gone.
Cuff’s new revelation throws Betteredge—and likely the reader—completely off their previous suspicion that Rosanna might have stolen the Diamond for her own benefit, owing to her past as a criminal and desire for a more interesting life. This is a powerful rhetorical move because this chapter was the beginning of another one of Collins’s weekly serial publications, and beginning this new installment with such a twist was sure to keep his readers captivated. Apparently, Cuff thinks her role in the theft might be connected to her ostensible beloved, or someone else in the house, but he continues to keep the reader and Betteredge in a state of suspense.
Themes
Literary Devices
As Cuff investigates, Betteredge remembers meeting Rosanna at the same place on the Shivering Sand a month earlier. The sun sets and everything but the quicksand falls still; Cuff declares there are no signs of Rosanna, whom he saw earlier that day walking north from the nearby village of Cobb’s Hole. On their way, they encounter a number of discordant footprints pointing in all directions, which Cuff sees as proof of Rosanna trying to cover her tracks and hide her true direction. He suggests they visit the cottage of Rosanna’s friends in Cobb’s Hole, a family Betteredge recognizes as the Yollands and which makes Betteredge think that Rosanna was merely taking her usual walk, rather than doing something sinister.
Rosanna’s behavior is full of ambiguous clues that can be interpreted either as damning evidence of her guilt or, alternatively and just as plausibly, as the comings and goings of everyday life. Betteredge’s recollection of his conversation with her—when she said she imagined she would die at the Sands and then abruptly left upon Franklin Blake’s arrival—is another such clue, and the reader must decide if these are significant or mere red herrings (irrelevant details intentionally incorporated to distract from the truth).
Themes
Literary Devices
When they arrive at the Yollands’ cottage, Cuff and Betteredge meet Mrs. Yolland, who offers them gin and a pipe. Cuff embarks on a long monologue and eventually arrives at the matter of Rosanna, whom he claims to be defending, while Betteredge watches the performance tacitly. On his way out, Cuff proclaims that Rosanna should leave her job, and Mrs. Yolland enthusiastically agrees in her thick “Yorkshire language,” proclaiming that “she is going to leave it!” Betteredge grows confused and “smell[s] mischief in the air,” so decides to get Cuff out—but Cuff sits right down and continues talking to Mrs. Yolland, who admits that Rosanna had come that day to write a lengthy letter to a friend, outside the purview of the other servants. Mrs. Yolland sees this as proof that Rosanna “has got [a friend] somewhere” and will be leaving to join them “as soon as she can.”
Cuff’s meandering conversational style allows him to win Mrs. Yolland’s trust and disguise his most important questions about Rosanna as casual interest. Betteredge grows uncomfortable with this most of all because he realizes that Cuff might have been doing the same thing in befriending him. Ironically, then, the detective appears to be the novel’s most disingenuous and untrustworthy character. Just as Rosanna is a foil for Rachel, Mrs. Yolland is a foil for Julia, and this makes Betteredge uncomfortable because he is so used to tying honor and respect to class status, something Cuff stubbornly refuses to do.
Themes
Betteredge interjects to insist that Rosanna would have told him if she were planning to travel, but Mrs. Yolland insists that Rosanna already “bought some things she wanted for travelling” and gives Cuff some money that she wants refunded to Rosanna for a small tin case and some chains Rosanna had insisted on paying for. Unwilling to help Cuff incriminate Rosanna, Betteredge tries again and again to leave, but Cuff continues talking with Mrs. Yolland about the money, which he convinces her to take back.
Betteredge grows even more frustrated when he learns that Rosanna, whom he believes he has treated well and whose trust he thinks he has earned, has not been completely forthcoming with him and the Verinders. At the same time, Betteredge remains deeply loyal to her and conflicted about the possible effects of Cuff’s questioning.
Themes
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Finally, Cuff and Betteredge go outside, and Cuff admits that he is “puzzled” by Mrs. Yolland. However, he finds it “clear enough” that Rosanna is hiding something in the tin case, sinking it somewhere under the water or quicksand, and leaving the chain available to pull it up in the future. However, Cuff thinks it cannot be the Diamond. And yet this makes no sense: if Rosanna were, say, trying to get rid of her stained dress, she could just drop it in the quicksand from which nothing has ever emerged. Cuff wants to go to Frizinghall and figure out what Rosanna bought for her new dress, but also feels he should stay at the house. Rosanna, too, he admits, “puzzle[s]” him.
What Cuff realizes, in short, is that Rosanna has hidden something so that it may be found later. While the Diamond seems like the most obvious possibility, his unspoken theory continues to stand between the truth and Betteredge/the reader. His admission of “puzzle[ment]” is important because it shows that confusion is a necessary part of the discovery process, a strength rather than a weakness. Of course, Cuff’s attitude contrasts strongly with Seegrave’s aggressiveness and Franklin’s attempts to control the entire house.
Themes
When they return to the house, Cuff stares at Rachel’s room from outside. He sees “lights […] passing backwards and forwards” and seems to make “another discovery.” He tells Betteredge that Rachel has likely “resolved to leave the house […] within the last hour.” When they enter, Cuff is proven right: Rosanna has just returned, and Julia has been waiting to speak with Cuff for an hour. Betteredge is flabbergasted at Cuff’s incredible predictions—and then Cuff declares that he expects “scandal” that night.
Yet again, Cuff makes an inexplicable “discovery” that looks more like the prophecies from Robinson Crusoe or the Indians’ “hocus-pocus” than detective work. The reader is challenged to not only discover what happened to the Diamond but also to retrace Cuff’s mysterious insights, which now explicitly foreshadow sinister future events.
Themes
