{"id":596,"date":"2020-10-22T02:45:30","date_gmt":"2020-10-22T02:45:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/?p=596"},"modified":"2020-11-17T15:02:19","modified_gmt":"2020-11-17T15:02:19","slug":"596","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/2020\/10\/22\/596\/","title":{"rendered":"English Anxiety and the Moonstone"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf he was right, here was our quiet English house suddenly invaded by a devilish India Diamond<\/span>\u2014bringing after it a conspiracy of living rogues, set loose on us by the\u00a0<\/span>vengeance<\/span>\u00a0of a dead man. There was our situation, as revealed to me in\u00a0<\/span>Mr.<\/span>\u00a0Franklin\u2019s last words! Who ever heard the like of it\u2014in the nineteenth century, mind; in an age of\u00a0<\/span>progress<\/span>, and in a\u00a0<\/span>country<\/span>\u00a0which rejoices in the blessings of the British constitution? Nobody ever heard the like of it, and<\/span>, consequently, nobody can be expected to believe it. I shall go on with my story, however,\u00a0in spite of\u00a0that\u201d<\/span>\u00a0(Collins 46).\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is the reaction of Mr.\u00a0<\/span>Betteredge<\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>after<\/span>\u00a0hearing the tale of the Moonstone from Mr. Franklin\u00a0<\/span>upon his arrival. The two men sit along the coast, separated by a rough walking path from the comforts of the English home and garden<\/span>, watching the waters create a deadly pit in the form of the Shivering Sand<\/span>. The instability of their environmental situation extends to their narrative ones: Mr. Franklin\u2019s story of the \u201cdevilish Indian Diamon<\/span>d<\/span>\u201d is impossible to believe, and\u00a0<\/span>despite this\u00a0<\/span>Betteredge<\/span>\u00a0must continue it\u00a0<\/span>against the assumed incredulity of the reasonable reader\u00a0<\/span>(46).\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Franklin and\u00a0<\/span>Betteredge<\/span>\u00a0are seated at the edge of nation, reason, and the simultaneous pride and confinement of their time. This passage is full of binaries:\u00a0<\/span>the English versus the Indian, the living against the dead, the 19<\/span>th<\/span>\u00a0century self-sense of \u201cprogress\u201d\u00a0<\/span>versus<\/span>\u00a0the unbelievable,\u00a0<\/span>and reader versus narrator.\u00a0<\/span>These overlap<\/span>, of course, as the sea overlaps the shore, making lethal quicksand of solid ground. The\u00a0<\/span>\u201cdevilish India Diamond\u201d has \u201cinvaded\u201d the \u201cquiet English house,\u201d blessed in the nineteenth century with \u201cthe British constitution\u201d which must push back against such gothic nonsense as curses and\u00a0<\/span>religions-that-aren’t-Christianity<\/span>\u00a0(46)<\/span>. The Moonstone is<\/span>, effectively, a stand-in for all kinds of English anxieties, ranging from the potential for rebellion by colonized nations to<\/span>\u00a0sexual and capitalistic competition. The \u201cdevilish India Diamond\u201d could be\u2014and is\u2014immediately f<\/span>ollowed by \u201cliving rogues, set loose on us\u201d to wreak havoc in the psychological as well as the physical world of secure English countryside life.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

T<\/span>he anxiety of foreign influence, interference, and invasion are not the only ones present in the passage\u2014there is also the skepticism of the English reader.\u00a0<\/span>Betteredge<\/span>\u00a0assumes the likeness of his reader with himself: \u201cWho ever heard the like of it?\u201d he asks, only to answer his own question: \u201cNobody ever head the like of it…\u201d (46).\u00a0<\/span>Who ever heard of England fearing the influence of India<\/span>?<\/span>\u00a0he seems to ask. Nobody. It was supposed to be the other way around, and now everything has been turned upside down and the \u201cblessings of the British constitution,\u201d the very \u201cage of progress\u201d cannot\u00a0<\/span>coincide<\/span>\u00a0with such reversal<\/span>\u00a0(46).\u00a0<\/span>Betteredge<\/span>\u00a0sees the gothic element, the collision of the present (\u201cthe nineteenth century\u201d \u201cthe age of progress) and the nation (\u201c<\/span>our quiet English house<\/span>\u201d \u201c<\/span>a country which rejoices in the blessings of the British constitution\u201d) with the Other\u2014in this case the Indian, the past, and the dead. It is this separation of the living and the dead which makes possible the entire\u00a0<\/span>\u201c<\/span>situation<\/span>\u201d<\/span>— \u201cthe vengeance of a dead man\u201d is wreaking havoc on the life of living people, and that the dead man spent significant time in India and only existed<\/span>\u00a0before the span of the novel connects him also with the foreign and the past.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

By establishing, on the shores of England, that the threat is not only the diamond but the \u201cliving rogues\u201d who have enabled its influence\u00a0<\/span>and intensified its dangers,\u00a0<\/span>Betteredge<\/span>\u00a0and Franklin raise the stakes of the Moonstone question: it is not simply a\u00a0<\/span>battle\u00a0<\/span>o<\/span>ver<\/span>\u00a0money, of religion, or of property, thou<\/span>gh it is also\u00a0<\/span>all of<\/span>\u00a0these things\u2014it is (at the risk of being cheeky) a battle for the soul of England itself.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
He gave me the extract from the Colonel’s will.” \u2014 second illustration for the third “Harper’s Weekly” serial instalment of “The Moonstone” by Wilkie Collins (18 January 1868)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Franklin and Betteredge discussing the story at the Shivering Sands<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.victorianweb.org\/art\/illustration\/jewett\/8.html<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf he was right, here was our quiet English house suddenly invaded by a devilish India Diamond\u2014bringing after it a conspiracy of living rogues, set loose on us by the\u00a0vengeance\u00a0of a dead man. There was our situation, as revealed to me in\u00a0Mr.\u00a0Franklin\u2019s last words! Who ever heard the like of it\u2014in the nineteenth century, mind; … Continue reading English Anxiety and the Moonstone<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3323,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[138877],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall-2020"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3323"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}