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 recalls lying to Penelope about his conversation with the younger Franklin, assuring her that they merely talked politics, and then to Rachel and Julia, whom he told that Franklin came and left simply because of his personal quirks. Penelope then asks about Rosanna, who apparently returned to the house from the Shivering Sand in an emotional frenzy and demonstrated her curiosity about Franklin. Penelope declares it “love […] at first sight” but Betteredge laughs in Penelope’s face until she calls him cruel and he begins to feel guilty.
Although he deeply loves his daughter, Betteredge’s inability to take her seriously or fully empathize with her becomes clear here when he ridicules her hypothesis about Rosanna’s feelings for Franklin. Of course, this also reflects his own apparent incapacity for romantic love, as illustrated by his bland marriage to Penelope’s mother Selina Goby. He publicly contrasts this ostensibly female emotionality with men’s apparent stoicism (talking politics) even though, in private, he and Franklin got quite emotionally worked up about the Moonstone.
Themes
Franklin deposits the Diamond at the bank and returns without issue. Rachel looks more beautiful than ever at dinner, and she and Franklin sing together into the night. He calls her “the most charming girl I have seen since I came back to England.” That night, Betteredge gazes at the full moon before noticing a shadow approaching and jumping into the bushes; he takes out a gun and searches for the apparent intruder but notices only a bottle of black, sweet liquor, which reminds him of the jugglers’ ink.
Franklin and Rachel’s childhood cousin animosity seems to have disappeared; just as Rosanna falls for Franklin, Franklin quickly falls for Rachel, although Betteredge seems to take this latter romance far more seriously. Betteredge begins to discover more clues of foul play—the phantom intruder and liquor bottle—which foreshadow the later importance of ambiguous or seemingly miniscule pieces of evidence to uncovering the Moonstone’s thief.
Themes
