The Moonstone

The inciting action of the plot begins with a violent depiction of imperial conquest during the Siege of Seringapatam in 1799. Between 1798 and 1799, British forces representing the British East India Company fought with the Kingdom of Mysore, a kingdom located in what is presently the Karnataka state in southwestern India. The siege marked the climax of this conflict, with the British emerging victorious and Tipu, the leader of the Kingdom of Mysore, getting killed during the conflict.

Wilkie Collins begins his novel with an episode of historical fiction, combining a historical event with a fictional individual (John Herncastle) and an invented incident (no major gemstone was taken during this battle). Significantly, Herncastle’s action is portrayed in negative terms, with his cousin, the narrator, disgusted with what he witnesses and suspects Herncastle to have done: “I turned my back on him; and we have not spoken since” (7).

The theft of the Moonstone from the Verinder house is the primary mystery that drives the plot, but the diamond is actually stolen twice: First by Herncastle when he removes it from India, later by someone else from the Verinder household. This first crime sets the stage for the second crime and, in fact, positions it as a repercussion: After Herncastle kills one of the Brahmin priests who guard the diamond, the priest warns him, “the Moonstone will have vengeance yet on you and yours” (7). Herncastle’s theft of the Moonstone—a sacred object within Hinduism—reflects the cultural and historical context of British imperialism. Collins was writing at a time when Great Britain had achieved significant wealth and global power by seizing control of territory around the globe, and often exploiting resources and local economies. India became one of the British crown’s colonies.

Herncastle’s seizing the diamond represents not only the removal of wealth, but also a lack of awareness and respect toward non-European religions and cultural practices. The novel’s Prologue sets the stage for the subsequent plot to be read as an allegory of Britain suffering consequences from imperial exploitation. Significantly, Herncastle himself does not directly suffer because of his theft, but his actions have repercussions for members of his family. Likewise, while many British people were not directly involved in enacting colonial violence or exploitation, they often benefited from it indirectly, and could therefore be seen as culpable for it.

The shift from the Prologue to the First Narrative marks a transition between narrators. Collins utilizes an innovative narrative structure, in which portions of the novel are presented from the point of view of different narrators. This structure allows for multiple tones and voices to be present in a lengthy novel, enabling Collins to explore a variety of perspectives and introducing the theme of The Unreliability of Witnessing and Memory. Given the centrality of mystery to the plot, this multi-narrator structure implies that truth is not possessed by a single individual: Instead, each narrator will have something different to contribute to the story as a whole. These distinct narratives are provided retrospectively, as an individual character looks back to past events. At the start of his narrative, Betteredge explains that Franklin Blake has invited him to write down events that occurred more than a year ago, with Franklin claiming, “[N]obody knows as much as you do, Betteredge, about what went on in the house at that time” (12).

By requesting and collating these narratives from Betteredge and others, Franklin functions as a kind of surrogate author. This structure, especially early in the novel, assumes that careful recollection and reconstruction of events will help to reveal the truth. However, Betteredge’s transparent reflection about how best to convey his narrative, such as when he wonders about “the question of how [he is] to start the story properly” (17), also highlights the potential fallibility of characters who might forget or omit crucial details. Franklin’s invitation to have others contribute the events they observed also positions the various narrators as akin to witnesses giving testimony in a court case.

Gabriel Betteredge is one of the major narrators, and, significantly, he works as a servant employed by the Verinder family. In the Victorian era, it was uncommon for fiction to be narrated by individuals from working-class backgrounds, as these characters were more conventionally treated as villains, stock figures, or minor characters. Betteredge is a complex character, capable of wry wit and shrewd observations, and presents an outward appearance that is distinctly different from his internal reality, which introduces the theme of Public Reputation Versus Inner Nature. Betteredge jokes that, when asked to write his narrative, he “modestly declared [him]self to be quite unequal to the task […] and [he] privately felt, all the time, that [he] was quite clever enough to perform it” (12).

Betteredge is deeply loyal to and protective of Lady Verinder and Rachel, exemplifying the ideal Victorian employer–employee relationship in which the upper-classes treated their social inferiors with benevolence and were rewarded with loyalty and respect. At the same time, Betteredge is able to make wry observations about the privileged and sheltered life that the upper-classes lead, embedding an element of social critique into the novel.

The character of Rosanna Spearman further develops this exploration of social class. Rosanna’s criminal past is concealed from everyone except Betteredge and Lady Verinder because they believe that others would be unfairly prejudiced against Rosanna if they knew about her past. Rosanna’s history sets the stage for her to function as a red herring—an individual or clue that leads readers to a false assumption. As she has previously been a thief, it seems plausible that she could have been the one to steal the diamond. Rosanna’s social position as a servant and former criminal gives her strong motivation to access the wealth she could acquire by stealing and selling the diamond, but it also reveals social prejudices. Rosanna is depicted as genuinely repentant and haunted by her previous actions, lamenting to Betteredge, “[M]y past life still comes back to me sometimes” (28). For his part, Betteredge’s staunch faith that Rosanna can change reflects his thoughtful and compassionate understanding of human nature.

Betteredge’s narrative is also marked by his frequent allusions to the 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe, written by the English author Daniel Defoe. Betteredge uses this text as a touchstone, a tool for navigating all the circumstances of his life and even for predicting future events, explaining, “I have found it my friend in need in all the necessities of this mortal life” (13). His habit of turning to a random quotation and using that quotation as a way of understanding any questions or pending decisions is a practice reminiscent of how some religious believers might turn to a holy scripture to guide their lives, which invokes The Tensions Between Empirical Evidence and Faith. Collins positions fiction as a source of truth and moral guidance, but Betteredge’s fixation on a fictional text also hints that he is not an entirely rational or objective narrator. Significantly, when Robinson Crusoe was published, many readers initially believed it to be a non-fiction account of events; thus, this choice of text allows Collins to allude to the challenges that surround discerning what is “true” and what events did or did not take place.

The plot of Robinson Crusoe also explores themes of imperialism, as the protagonist is shipwrecked while sailing to purchase enslaved persons and eventually makes an Indigenous Caribbean man into his companion, converting him to Christianity and teaching him English. Likewise, from its first introduction into Betteredge’s narrative, the Moonstone diamond is presented as a foreign, exotic, and thus somewhat dangerous object that threatens to disrupt the otherwise tranquil, domestic, and quintessentially English setting of a country manor-house: “[H]ere was our quiet English house suddenly invaded by a devilish Indian Diamond” (38).

The presence of the three Indian men makes it even more explicit that there are consequences associated with white, Christian, British individuals passing around an object to which they don’t have a legitimate claim. Collins thus uses the lead-up to the disappearance of the diamond to build a foreboding atmosphere, in which the gemstone is almost personified as a malevolent presence in the Verinder house, speaking to deeper anxieties about the practices of imperialist endeavors.