The Moonstone

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1868

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Part 1, Section 1, Chapters 1-10

Part 1, Section 1, Chapters 11-23

Part 2, Section 1

Part 2, Section 2: “Contributed by Matthew Bruff, Solicitor of Gray’s Inn Square”

Part 2, Sections 4-6

Part 2, Section 7-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Part 2, Sections 4-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 2: “The Discovery of the Truth, 1848-49, The Events Related in Several Narratives”, Part 2, Section 6: “Contributed by Sergeant Cuff”

Part 2, Section 4 Summary: “Extracted from the Journal of Ezra Jennings”

The narrative is now presented through journal entries written by Ezra Jennings. On June 15, 1849, Jennings writes to Rachel to explain that he thinks Franklin was under the influence of opium when he took the diamond, and asks if he can use the Verinder house for the simulation. On June 16, 1849, Jennings and Franklin discuss their plans for the experiment; Betteredge thinks the idea is ridiculous. On June 17, Jennings hears from Rachel: She thinks the experiment is an excellent way to clear Franklin’s name, and wants to be present for it. Jennings tells her that she can come, but that Franklin Blake must not know that she is in the house—otherwise, it could compromise the results of the experiment.

On June 18, Jennings begins preparations for the experiment. He directs Betteredge to have the house set up exactly as it was a year before. On June 19, Rachel writes, agreeing to come to the house in secret. Her aunt, and current guardian, also writes, expressing her annoyance that she has to accompany Rachel to Yorkshire. Meanwhile, Franklin has stopped consuming tobacco and is sleeping very poorly, just as he was at the birthday party a year prior. Jennings is also suffering from more and more pain due to his illness, and worries that he might die or be too ill to carry out the experiment. Bruff has agreed to come to witness the experiment, and Sergeant Cuff, who has now returned to England, also agrees to come.

June 25, 1849, is the day chosen for the experiment. Jennings gives some opium to Franklin in a glass of brandy. Mr. Bruff and Betteredge are standing by to witness the outcome. Rachel is also in the house, although Franklin Blake is unaware of this. Cuff has not arrived in time. A piece of crystal is placed in the cabinet to represent the diamond; Rachel hides in her room, with the door slightly open.

Jennings watches Franklin fall into a deep sleep. After some time, Franklin wakes up, mumbling about putting the diamond in the bank and keeping Rachel safe. Franklin walks out of the room and heads for Rachel’s bedroom, followed by Betteredge, Jennings, and Bruff. They watch him enter the sitting room, open the cabinet, and take the crystal. However, Franklin then lays down on the sofa and goes back to sleep. While the experiment seems to confirm that Franklin unknowingly took the diamond, it doesn’t explain what he did with it afterwards.

Part 2, Section 5 Summary: “The Story Resumed by Franklin Blake”

The narrative returns to Franklin, waking up on the sofa in the sitting room. Rachel is now convinced of his innocence, and the two of them reconcile. Franklin and Bruff head back to London: Since the diamond could be redeemed from the pawnshop any day, they want to keep a close watch. Bruff has hired a young boy named Gooseberry to keep watch on the bank. When Bruff and Franklin go to the bank, they see a dark man wearing a sailor’s uniform, but they become distracted by the sight of Mr. Luker entering the bank. They follow a man in a grey suit out of the bank, thinking Mr. Luker has discreetly passed the diamond to him. However, Bruff and Franklin eventually realize they have been following the wrong man.

Franklin hopes that Gooseberry followed the dark man in the sailor uniform. He goes to question Gooseberry, and is joined by Detective Cuff, who has arrived in London. Gooseberry tells Cuff and Franklin that he saw Luker hand something to the dark man, and so he decided to follow him. Gooseberry followed the dark man to an area near the river, where he tried to board a ship, but was told he couldn’t board until the following day. Gooseberry also noticed someone else, dressed like a mechanic, spying on the dark man, and this other spy was relaying information to an Indian man. These details suggest that the Indians have indeed been tracking the diamond, and are aware that the dark man now has the diamond in his possession.

Gooseberry watched the dark man rent a room for the night in a shabby inn. He also watched as the spy caused a disruption, cleverly leading to the innkeeper disclosing what room the dark man is staying in. This means that the spy could have conveyed this information to the Indians, who would know precisely where the diamond was located. With all this information, Cuff and Franklin hurry to the inn and insist they need to speak with the dark man. The innkeeper lets them in, and they find the dark man dead: He has been smothered with a pillow. Nearby, there is a receipt from the bank and an empty box, indicating that this is indeed the man who picked up the diamond from Luker at the bank.

As they look at the body more carefully, they realize that the dark man is wearing make-up and a fake beard—it is Godfrey Ablewhite in disguise.

Part 2, Section 6, Chapter 1 Summary

The narrative now consists of Cuff providing a formal report.

Part 2, Section 6, Chapter 2 Summary

Cuff reports that Godfrey was smothered with a pillow. The room in which he was staying has a trapdoor providing access to the roof, so whoever killed him must have entered and exited through the trapdoor and taken the diamond with them. Cuff thinks it must have been the three Indians, but he also knows there’s not enough evidence for a legal case.

Part 2, Section 6, Chapter 3 Summary

Cuff explains Godfrey’s motives for the theft. While Godfrey appears to be an upstanding and religious man who is actively involved in many charities, he had a secret life with a mistress. Godfrey got into a lot of debt due to his illicit activities. Godfrey’s financial difficulties led him to woo Rachel, but also to calmly give up the engagement when he learned that the marriage wouldn’t give him access to money.

On the night of the birthday, when Dr. Candy decided to secretly put opium in Franklin’s drink, Godfrey was happy to help because he was jealous of his cousin, seeing him as a rival for Rachel’s affections.

Part 2, Section 6, Chapter 4 Summary

On June 23, 1848, Godfrey turned up at Mr. Luker’s shop with a huge diamond. He wanted Luker to sell it for him, but Luker insisted on knowing how Godfrey acquired the diamond. Godfrey explained. On the night of the birthday, Godfrey took part in secretly giving opium to Franklin. Since he was staying in the room next door, he heard Franklin get up and walk out of his room, and Godfrey followed him. Godfrey watched Franklin take the diamond and also saw Rachel watching Franklin do so. When Franklin walked out of the sitting room with the diamond, he ran into Godfrey and handed the diamond to him, asking him to take it to the bank. Franklin then passed out.

In the morning, it became clear to Godfrey that Franklin had no memory of what had happened, and that Rachel was going to protect him. Due to this, “if Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite chose to keep the Diamond, he might do so with perfect impunity” (466). Godfrey took the diamond with him to London.

Part 2, Section 6, Chapter 5 Summary

Now that Godfrey is dead, Luker explains to Cuff that he agreed to buy the diamond from Godfrey, although he only paid a very small amount of what it was worth. Cuff ends his report.

Part 2, Sections 4-6 Analysis

In contrast with the events that unfold gradually during the 1848 investigation, the plot accelerates as Jennings, Franklin, and Cuff begin to finally put together the complex pieces to solve the mystery. The simulation of the events when the diamond was stolen develops the theme of The Tensions Between Empirical Evidence and Faith. Jennings believes that “[Franklin] may remember, under the influence of the second dose of opium, the place in which [he] hid the Diamond under the influence of the first” (401). Jennings adopts the scientific method—i.e., testing to verify a hypothesis—to attempt to solve the mystery, but he can only carry this so far. The simulation seems to conclusively confirm that Franklin initially removed the diamond but doesn’t explain what happened after that. The efforts quickly return to more traditional forms of police investigation under the leadership of Cuff, revealing that multiple forms of investigation are necessary to arrive at a semblance of truth.

Disguise becomes an important feature in the final confusion of the investigation. Godfrey Ablewhite is able to disguise himself so successfully that his true identity is not revealed until Cuff removes the elements of disguise from his dead body. The trope of a disguise builds on the theme of Public Reputation Versus Inner Nature: Since Godfrey has been able to disguise his true character throughout the novel, he is also able to eventually go a step further and disguise his physical identity even from those who know him quite well.

Disguise also relates to the theme of The Unreliability of Witnessing and Memory, since Franklin Blake, for example, would have genuinely claimed that he never saw Godfrey in the bank. Much of the plot of the mystery is animated by confusion about what individuals think they saw or didn’t see, and Godfrey’s use of a disguise means that the mystery nearly goes unsolved.

Godfrey’s disguise also plays with stereotypes around race and class. While Godfrey himself has “a beautiful red and white colour […] a head of lovely long flaxen hair” (59), he adopts the disguise of a “sailor with a black beard” (451), evoking a man from a much lower social rank and one associated with non-British origins. When Gooseberry comments that Cuff is “washing off [Godfrey’s] complexion now” (458), the young boy draws attention to how Godfrey has incorporated racial stereotypes into his disguise, assuming that a man with darker skin will not be traced back to having anything to do with an English gentleman.

The crime that drives the conflict of the plot ends up being quite banal: There were no complex machinations, just a greedy man who seized on a moment of opportunity. Godfrey Ablewhite is no criminal mastermind, but he was willing to let others suffer while he lied and concealed the theft for his own gain. Godfrey’s motivation—the debts he has incurred because of a secret illicit relationship— provides further evidence of his moral hypocrisy, contrasting with Franklin Blake’s devotion and fidelity to Rachel.

However, this context also implies that the rigid social norms of Victorian society are somewhat at fault for the crime: Godfrey presumably relies on secrecy because he can’t openly have the relationship he wants. Interestingly, Collins himself was the source of some scandal during his lifetime because he never married, but pursued overlapping and long-term relationships with two women, fathering children with one and treating the daughter of the other as his own child. In addition to his own personal relationships, many of the plots in Collins’s fiction explore the darker side of marriage and domestic life, especially how it reduced agency for women. While Godfrey is certainly presented as a villain and his violent death represents the punishment meted out to anyone who ignores the curse associated with the diamond, the real source of evil in the novel is the unquestioning acceptance of norms that enforce secrecy, hypocrisy, and loyalty to systems of colonial exploitation.