{"id":614,"date":"2020-10-22T21:07:55","date_gmt":"2020-10-22T21:07:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/?p=614"},"modified":"2020-10-22T21:09:36","modified_gmt":"2020-10-22T21:09:36","slug":"the-moonstone-a-gothic-disruption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/2020\/10\/22\/the-moonstone-a-gothic-disruption\/","title":{"rendered":"The Moonstone: A Gothic Disruption"},"content":{"rendered":"

The arrival of the Moonstone at Lady Verinder\u2019s house is a sudden, unsettling disruption of everyday norms. The novel is structured in such a way that the reader first hears the legendary history of the gem and is then introduced to the normalcy of everyday life in England, 1848; immediately, a sharp juxtaposition is set up between past and present, India and England. Gothic fiction is frequently concerned with these kinds of juxtapositions of time and place (British Library \u201cGothic Motifs\u201d) and the Moonstone itself acts as an interruption of one time and place into another. The prologue sets up the Moonstone\u2019s role as an object of the past through the way its history is presented: upon its placement in a new temple, the god Vishnu \u201ccommanded that the Moonstone should be watched, from that time forth, by three priests in turn, night and day, to the end of the generations of men\u2026 the deity predicted certain disaster to the presumptuous mortal who laid hands on the sacred gem, and to all of his house and name who received it after him\u201d (Collins 12). The language used conveys an archaic, mythological feeling to this tale, and it reads in a similar manner as a ghost story told around a campfire, with no real bearing on the modern day. The British colonizers clearly hear the tale in this way, as to them, the Moonstone is nothing but a \u201cfanciful story\u201d (Collins 13). Only John is taken in by the tale, and even he has no respect for the diamond\u2019s cultural significance. He becomes the \u201cpresumptuous mortal\u201d who takes the Moonstone from its home country and brings it – and its curse – back home to England.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In gothic texts, beings, objects, and events of the past tend to disrupt everyday norms by \u201csuddenly erupt[ing] within the present and derang[ing] it\u201d (British Library \u201cGothic Motifs). However, before the gothic impact of the Moonstone can be felt in England, a sense of normalcy must first be established so the stone\u2019s presence has something to affect. This sense of normalcy is set up by Betteredge\u2019s narration of the first part of the text, in the way he describes his life and responsibilities. As house-steward and head of the servants, it falls to him to ensure day-to-day activities run smoothly. There is a disruption to his routine in the arrival of Franklin and the Moonstone, but Betteredge manages to maintain the peace by convincing Franklin to keep the Moonstone in the bank – away from the house – until Rachel\u2019s birthday (Collins56-57). The moment the Moonstone is revealed, however, its effects are felt by the household and it is fully functional as a gothic threat. Lady Verinder is upset at the reminder of her brother (Collins 73-73), the stone\u2019s presence negatively influences Rachel\u2019s birthday dinner (Collins 78-81), and its disappearance and the intrusion of the police disrupt the entire household the next day. The sense of normalcy is gone, and will not be fully recovered until the issue of the Moonstone is dealt with.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Collins, Wilkie.\u00a0The Moonstone<\/em>. Penguin Books, 1998.<\/p>\n

The British Library. \u201cGothic Motifs.\u201d\u00a0The British Library<\/i>, 2014, www.bl.uk\/romantics-and-victorians\/articles\/gothic-motifs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The arrival of the Moonstone at Lady Verinder\u2019s house is a sudden, unsettling disruption of everyday norms. The novel is structured in such a way that the reader first hears the legendary history of the gem and is then introduced to the normalcy of everyday life in England, 1848; immediately, a sharp juxtaposition is set … Continue reading The Moonstone: A Gothic Disruption<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4300,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[138877],"tags":[33175,138884],"class_list":["post-614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall-2020","tag-gothic","tag-the-moonstone"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614","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\/4300"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}