Essay
The Moonstone Use Of Race
The Moonstone Use Of Race
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The Moonstone Use Of Race English Literature EssayInfo: 1799 words (7 pages) Essay
Published: 1st Jan 2015
H. Rider Haggards novel She is a Victorian novel in which the author explores the themes
of adventure and the unknown, or the “Other”. As the novel was published during the end
of the nineteenth century, it mirrored the notions of degeneration and racial decline that
the Victorians held during the time. To many Victorians, any types of racial hybridization
lead to the collapse or decline of the pure white British race. Haggard develops the plot
and themes of She using these racial notions that he, himself also supported. In contrast
to Haggard’s novel, Wilkie Collins approaches these racial notions in a completely
di erent way. Collins’ The Moonstone is a novel that challenges the Victorian outlook on
racial degeneration by presenting anti-imperialistic thoughts and approaching the Indian
culture in a positive way. Whereas Haggard draws on race to emphasize British
superiority in his novel, Collins in a way, portrays the Indian race in a positive manner and
criticizes the Victorian mindset on race.
Haggard idealizes the British Empire’s supposed cultural and intellectual superiority
during the nineteenth century. His personal beliefs and critical views on race issues are
evident through the black and white binary present in She. It is the white British men who
demonstrate the strength and courage needed for surviving the dangerous journeys in
Africa, and because of their aptitude to endure and succeed, they become a symbol of
the British Empire as a whole. Haggard’s only survivors of the journey end up being
Horace Holly, Leo Vincey, and Job. By combining all the black Africans together into one
group, he enables himself to freely draw on these racial comparisons to demonstrate and
prove the British superiority he and the Victorians believed in. Holly describes an ancient
statue, which shows what they believe all black Africans look like:
…shaped like a negro’s head and face, whereon was stamped a most endish and
terrifying expression. There was no doubt about it; there were the thick lips, the fat
cheeks, and the squat nose standing out with startling clearness against the aming
background….and, to complete the resemblance, there was a scrubby growth of weeds
or lichen upon it…like the wool on a colossal negro’s head.
Haggard uses these descriptions to describe and create a look for savage-like black
Africans. In the same way, prejudicial statements are made in the novel regarding black
Africans having an inclination to be thieves: “I don’t like the looks of these black gentry;
they have such a wonderful thievish way about them.”
However, She also contains a number of descriptions for what Haggard may have
considered as a good African native. Good natives seem to be portrayed in the novel as
black Africans who posses moral, white-British qualities. For example, Leo’s black
companion, Ustane, “who by the way stuck to the young man like his own shadow,” is
made known to be a courageous, loyal and faithful person. At one point she even risks
her own life to save Leo from harm:
The girl Ustane had thrown herself on Leo’s prostrate form, covering his body with her
body, and fastening her arms about his neck. They tried to drag her from him, but she
twisted her legs round his, and hung on like a bulldog, or rather like a creeper to a tree,
and they could not. Then they tried to stab him in the side without hurting her, but
somehow she shielded him, and he was only wounded.
This uncommon attachment of noble qualities onto African characters allows Haggard to
prove his belief of British cultural supremacy by demonstrating that the Africans are only
racially digni ed when they encompass “white” qualities. He does this so that he can get
the Victorian reader to identify that there’s nothing more ideal about other races other
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