The Moonstone: Dual Narratives, Social Implications, and Symbolism
Kendra Lynch
English 1302
Ms. Olsen
15 March 2011
The Moonstone
Wilkie Collins’s famous detective novel, The Moonstone (1868), takes place in the 1840s during the high-Victorian imperialist age, a time in which the British experienced a long period of contentment and prosperity. During this time, a strong sense of anti-feminism seemed to thrive in British society. Despite this fact, Wilkie Collins did not hesitate to make the women in his novel central characters that have a great influence on the plot. Collins’s effort to balance the plot and characterization in his novel was a great success. The characters in The Moonstone are more than just fictional characters, as they portray various social and religious messages and scores of Collins’s personal ideas. The plot of The Moonstone is stimulated by secrecy, and its story line is further complicated by the suppressed voices of women in the story. Wilkie Collins’s unique narration, complicated social messages, and intricate symbolism are all separate features of the novel that make it outstanding.
The novel begins with a prologue called “The Storming of Seringapatam (1799): (Extracted from a Family Paper)” (Collins 5), when the British are currently raiding the palace of General Baird. An English adventurer named John Herncastle obtained possession of a magnificent, yellow diamond that was sacred to the Hindus. In his last breath, one of the Brahmin men opened his mouth and spoke in his indigenous language saying “The Moonstone will have its vengeance yet on you and yours!” (Collins 6-7). After the prologue, the novel advances to fifty years later. Herncastle willed the marvelous diamond to his niece, Rachel Verinder, who is soon to receive the diamond as a gift for her eighteenth birthday from her cousin, Franklin Blake. “Herncastle’s gift of the diamond to Rachel was not a gift of love but a ‘gift’ of a curse and vengeance” (Grinstein 134). On the night of Rachel’s party, the diamond was stolen
English 1302
Ms. Olsen
15 March 2011
The Moonstone
Wilkie Collins’s famous detective novel, The Moonstone (1868), takes place in the 1840s during the high-Victorian imperialist age, a time in which the British experienced a long period of contentment and prosperity. During this time, a strong sense of anti-feminism seemed to thrive in British society. Despite this fact, Wilkie Collins did not hesitate to make the women in his novel central characters that have a great influence on the plot. Collins’s effort to balance the plot and characterization in his novel was a great success. The characters in The Moonstone are more than just fictional characters, as they portray various social and religious messages and scores of Collins’s personal ideas. The plot of The Moonstone is stimulated by secrecy, and its story line is further complicated by the suppressed voices of women in the story. Wilkie Collins’s unique narration, complicated social messages, and intricate symbolism are all separate features of the novel that make it outstanding.
The novel begins with a prologue called “The Storming of Seringapatam (1799): (Extracted from a Family Paper)” (Collins 5), when the British are currently raiding the palace of General Baird. An English adventurer named John Herncastle obtained possession of a magnificent, yellow diamond that was sacred to the Hindus. In his last breath, one of the Brahmin men opened his mouth and spoke in his indigenous language saying “The Moonstone will have its vengeance yet on you and yours!” (Collins 6-7). After the prologue, the novel advances to fifty years later. Herncastle willed the marvelous diamond to his niece, Rachel Verinder, who is soon to receive the diamond as a gift for her eighteenth birthday from her cousin, Franklin Blake. “Herncastle’s gift of the diamond to Rachel was not a gift of love but a ‘gift’ of a curse and vengeance” (Grinstein 134). On the night of Rachel’s party, the diamond was stolen
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