MAIN CHARACTERS:

 

Rachel Verinder:

Rachel Verinder is a very prominent character in the novel, being the center topic throughout The Moonstone, even though she never speaks her own narrative.  Her character is a mystery from the beginning, with a lot of her own story is excluded from the book, and the fact that she withholds her knowledge about the theft of the moonstone.  Her reserved nature is what makes her an alluring heroine, at the same time she is described by Collins as being slightly unconventional, physically, with small stature and dark features.  Rachel challenges Victorian propriety and gender roles by treating men and women alike with a straightforward manner tha can be startling in its lack of coyness.  Her most important trait is her unwillingness to tell on the misdeeds of another.  Collins is clear on the fact that this never amounts to dishonesty, instead of lying she just keeps to herself and says nothing.  Rachel's main problem throughout the novel is her internal struggle: the evidence of her senses, which tell her that Frankline Blake stole her diamond and lied about it, which go against her passionate feelings of love and trust in Franklin.  Her counterpart in the novel, is the outcast Rosanna Spearman, both women are brought together by their impassioned natures and love for Franklin Blake.

 

Franklin Blake:

Franklin Blake's character is not completely explained in The Moonstone and is, in fact, called into question on several occasions.  Franklin serves as the presence behind The Moonstone, he is the one who asks all the narrators for their contributions and who organizes them as editor.  Yet his character is unspecific.  When the narrators talk of Franklin, their opinions reveal more about themselves than Franklin, making him a continuous mystery.  From what we know, we can say he is cultured and educated, capable of imaginative belief, and generally good-natured.  Many of the characters consider him well and trusting, such as Betteredge, Mr. Bruff, and Lady Verinder.  He is known though, to be often in debt, a state only alleviated when he inherits his father's fortune toward the end of the novel.  His physcial appearance is un-idea, being short with dark facial hair.  Similar to Rachel, Franklin's main conflict throughout the novel is internal.  He must resolve the objective fact of the evidence, which points to him as the thief, with his subjective opinion and memory that he did not steal the diamond.  Franklin finds his counterpart in Ezra Jennings, like Rachel does with Rosanna.

 

Ezra Jennings:

Ezra Jennings is a tragic figure on the margins of the Victorian society depicted in The Moonstone.  His strange appearance seems to define him for others and encourage their social rejection of him.  He is tall and gaunt, with a wrinkled face that makes him seem older than he is and hair that is black on top and white on the sides.  His character seems to relate to the larger theme of English interaction with colonial peoples, in that Jennings is of mixed parentage and was raised in a colony.  Unlike Mr. Murthwaite, who poses as an Indian but is stolidly English inside, Jennings's truly possesses some of the more mystical and exotic characterics of the Indians, having his "dreamy eyes" mentioned more than once.  He has an opium addiction that relates to his status as part-colonial subject.  Like Frankin, his respectable Victorian counterpart, Jennings encompasses several contradictions.  Jennings is an aspiring doctor and researcher.  He relates to Franklin in the fact that earlier in his life, he had been accused of a crime he didn't commit but could not prove innocence.  

 

Godfrey Ablewhite:

At the beginning of the novel, Godfrey seems to be everything that Franklin isn't.  He is tall, conventionally good-looking, religious-minded, educated in England, and has a good financial standing.  We don't begin to see his hypocritial side until Miss Clack's narrative.  Miss Clack herself is hypocritical and her alignment with Godfrey reveals some of his dishonesty and duplicity.  By the end of the novel he is revealed as a sham.  He has been leading a double life and all the qualities that made him seem better for Rachel than Franklin, turn out to be lies.  Therefore his character is used as a metaphor for the movement of the novel as a whole,  in which appearances are not always what they seem, along with how English society suspects Indian intruders to be responsible for crimes on English soil when the crimes are actually commited by the Englishmen, themselves.

 

OTHERS:

Lady Verinder:

Lady Verinder is an honest and just mistress to her household in Yorkshire.  She suffers from heart disease and dies a third of the way through the novel.

 

Gabriel Betteredge:

Gariel Betteredge is the trusted house steward of Lady Verinder.  He has been in the service to the Lady and her family his entire life and feels a strong attachment to the household.  He has a provincial, earthy sense of humor.  He enjoys the novelty of both detective work and the writing of a narrative.

 

Sergeant Cuff:

Sergeant Cuff is a renowned detective from London. He is tall and gaunt, but doesn't look like a member of the police force, yet his perceptive intelligence is striking.  Cuff exhibits a quiet sympathy for some others.

 

Miss Drusilla Clack:

Niece of Lady Verinder, Miss Clack is an overly-pious and falsely humble Christian.  Her main interest is in the evilness of others, whom she attempts to save with the Christian pamphlets she carries with her.  Miss Clack is capable of real venom toward those she doesn't like, such as Rachel Verinder.  She hold strict traditional views on gender roles, yet swoons in the presence of her "hero", Godgrey Ablewhite.

 

Mr. Mathew Bruff:

Mr. Bruff has long been the family lawyer to the Verinders, he holds Rachel Verinder, Lady Verinder, and Franklin Blake all in high esteem.  Mr. Bruff has a lawyer's mind for thinking logically through the facts of the case.  He is resistant to any imaginative or mystical thinking.  He shows a lot of respect for the Indians for their effieciency and tenacity.  

 

Mr. Candy:

Mr. Candy is the local doctor to Lady Verinder.  He is a short lived character once he falls ill the night of Rachel's birthday and then seems forgotten.

 

Colonel John Herncastle:

He shows up in the preface of the novel, when he fought for the English army in India and stole the Moonstone diamond while he was there in 1799.  He was a reclusive and dishonorable man, once he passes he eventually leaves the diamond to his niece, Rachel, and the is where the beginning of the novel really starts.

 

Mr. Murthwaite:

Mr. Murthwaite is a famous traveler to India, he is fluent in languages spoken there and his thin, tanned appearance allows him to pass for a native.  He has a good understanding and a healthy respect for the Indians in pursuit of the diamond.  His position in the book is that of a metaphorical spy.

 

Penelope:

Penelope was raised with Rachel in Lady Verinder's household and now acts as Rachel's maid.  Her loyalty to the Verinders and to Rachel specically, is a great as that of her father, Gabriel Betteredge.  She is clever and does not hesitate to speak her mind.

 

Rosanna Spearmen:

Rosanna is a housemaid to Lady Verinder.  Rosanna was a thief before repenting and entering the Reformatory from which she was hired from.  Rosanna is ashamed of her past and keeps to herself in the household.  This being said, she is grateful for the kindnesses of Lady Verinder, Gabriel Betteredge, and Penelope.  She is a tragic figure, just like Ezra Jennings.

 

 

Writen by:

Melanie diMuro

 

Source:

1. "The Moonstone, Character List." SparkNotes. SparkNotes, n.d. Web. 05 May 2014.

2. Notes from English 260