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 notes that, in the days from Franklin’s arrival to Rachel’s birthday, “nothing […] worth recording” happens on almost every day, and so he will only recount the relevant events on a few days. The day after Franklin’s arrival, Betteredge shows him the bottle of liquor and they agree it was the Indians’ “hocus-pocus” tool, although they also wonder whether the Indians might be able to see magically through the iron bank safe that now houses the Diamond. Ultimately, the Indians do not return to the house—although Betteredge believes they must have heard rumors of Franklin’s visit to the bank, and that they could not have seen his visit through their “clairvoyance.”
Betteredge keeps true to his promise to exhaustively record everything of any relevance to the Moonstone’s theft; the liquor bottle remains an ambiguous clue, and nobody knows whether it was left by accident or as a warning. Betteredge and Franklin continue to waffle between rational and otherworldly explanations of the Indians’ behavior; “hocus-pocus” increasingly describes what they fear might be possible, rather than (as earlier) what they found ridiculous and impossible.
Themes
Literary Devices
On May 29th, Rachel and Franklin Blake discover a new hobby—something necessary for “gentlefolks” who often spend their long, luxurious lives bored, idle, or taken to cruel hobbies like dissecting insects and plants or ruining the house for the sake of art. Franklin and Rachel get into “decorative painting,” covering Rachel’s bedroom door with a putrid-smelling mixture.
Betteredge recognizes (but does not denounce) the futility of aristocratic life—people like the Verinders live off property holdings, without anything to do, and their excesses contrast with the poverty and backbreaking work relegated to the British lower classes.
Themes
On June 4th, Betteredge writes, the servants begin debating whether Rachel and Franklin would get married. While Franklin is certainly in love with Rachel, Betteredge considers many of Rachel’s features inadequate (despite her immense grace) and he feels that her independent-mindedness is her singular personality defect, although she is honest without fail—these contradictions, Betteredge thinks, are typical of any woman.
The servants’ gossip about Rachel and Franklin’s love life reminds the reader that they are intimately connected to the Verinders, even if they are working-class people whom the family would never see as equals. Betteredge evaluates Rachel like he does Franklin, but according to a set of distinctive criteria for women that now looks extraordinarily chauvinistic, but speaks volumes about the Victorian insistence that woman should be silent, obedient, and conventionally beautiful. Of course, there is no real contradiction between being beautiful and freethinking—there is only one in Betteredge’s mind, because one is feminine to him and the other is not. Betteredge’s further belief that women are contradictory—but, presumably, not men—proves itself contradictory, since he continually talks about the contradictions among the different aspects of Franklin’s personality (which he ties to different European education systems).
Themes
On June 12th, Rachel writes to invite another of her cousins—Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite, with whom she seems enamored—to her birthday. Betteredge explains that Julia’s sister Caroline married an Ablewhite, who was “very rich and very respectable,” despite his low birth (although Betteredge, in line with “the progress of modern enlightenment,” thinks this is a surmountable defect). Godfrey is the second son of Caroline and this Mr. Ablewhite, and Mr. Franklin hardly stands a “chance of topping [him].” Godfrey is taller and more handsome, a noble and popular barrister who works with many organizations focused on uplifting poor women (and who, in Betteredge’s estimation, makes sure the rich women in charge of such organizations do not get out of hand). Franklin, Betteredge thinks, has no chance.
Godfrey Ablewhite is a clear character foil for Franklin: Godfrey is handsome, upwardly-mobile, and respected in Britain, while Franklin is short and awkwardly-bearded, squanders his money, and has spent almost none of his life in his native country (not to mention never having done charity work). Betteredge’s assumption that Rachel will choose to marry Godfrey because of these concrete advantages reflects his belief in marriage as a primarily economic and social decision, not a personal one based on emotions or interpersonal connections. (Of course, as he notes in regards to Godfrey’s birth, such norms do happen to be changing.)
Themes
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Godfrey Ablewhite writes to accept Rachel’s invitation on the 14th, and includes some poems that Rachel and Franklin mock at the dinner table. Franklin puts up a good fight, too, even quitting smoking for Rachel. Penelope is convinced Rachel will choose Franklin, but Betteredge thinks she will pick Godfrey, whose photo she even keeps in her bedroom. On the 16th, Franklin’s chances worsen when a foreign man comes to speak to him about some old unsettled business (unrelated to the Diamond) and Rachel begins to criticize his foreign ways. And yet, on the 17th, Franklin and Rachel are back to usual, painting the bedroom door.
Contrary to Betteredge’s initial assumptions, Rachel seems skeptical of Godfrey’s overly formal and showy attempts to court her; meanwhile, she and Franklin share a genuine connection and commitment, despite his apparent debts. The apparently universal disdain for Franklin’s foreignness again points to a (particularly, but not uniquely) British xenophobia, the conflation of foreignness with inferiority and blind national pride that many of Collins’s readers likely feel.
Themes
On the 19th, a doctor comes to treat Rosanna, who has clearly fallen for Franklin—no matter how much Betteredge insists he is reluctant to admit it, Rosanna is pursuing Franklin and getting in Rachel’s way, so Betteredge calls the doctor to treat her nerves. While the doctor proposes sending Rosanna to another estate, Betteredge heeds Rosanna’s pleas and lets her stay—which later proves a horrible mistake. On the 20th, Godfrey sends notice that he will arrive the next day, alongside a present pricier than anything Franklin has ever given Rachel. Betteredge writes that he is elated to have finally reached the eve of Rachel’s birthday, which he will recount in the next chapter.
Betteredge’s decision to treat Rosanna’s unrequited love with medicine evidences his complete misunderstanding of what she must be feeling, as well as the common notion (even today) that women’s strong reactions are pathological (or “hysterical”) and not to be taken seriously. This also shows the reliance on medicine to treat this alleged disorder—in other words, to help men manage the normal emotions of the women in their lives.
Themes
