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Use of Race in The Moonstone
Use of Race in The Moonstone
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The Moonstone Use Of Race English Literature EssayInfo: 1799 wordsEssay
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
than the attributes they gain from the British. Nevertheless, due to Haggard’s internal
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, judgement and racial beliefs, the relationship between Leo and Ustane never ourishes as
this would have gone against the idea of maintaining the purity of the white race. So,
Haggard conveniently has Ustane killed by Ayesha when he felt the time was right to
con rm her inevitable inferiority. Haggard continues to portray the supremacy of the
whites throughout the novel. Even Ayesha (or “She”) is presented as a white individual
who is superior to the Amahagger people who again, are “a curious mingling of races.”
Whereas Haggard idealizes the British Empire’s intellectual and cultural dominance,
Collin’s portrayal of other races in his work The Moonstone sheds a less positive light on
the British Empire and encourages readers to view things from a di erent perspective.
Similar to She, The Moonstone is also a literary work published during the Victorian
period. The novel illustrates the ruthless nature of the British Empire and shows sympathy
and open-mindedness towards the Indians and their culture. It demonstrates Collins’
personal anti-imperialist thoughts and challenges the Victorian belief that the whites are a
better race of people. Collins’ civil treatment of the Indians and their sacred inspiration
behind the pursuit of the Moonstone is set side by side to the contempt exhibited by
most English writers for other races during the century. By handling the Indians in this
manner, Haggard is able to centre his analysis on the core social-mental corruption and
pretence of the Victorian British Empire.
Collins’ anti-imperial attitude is re ected through the representation of his characters.
Herncastle and Godfrey can be seen as the symbol for the white British Empire and are
clearly portrayed as wicked people in the novel. To contrast these characters, there are
many other characters and characteristics that are completely foreign. Clearly the Indian
Brahmins and their mission after the moonstone are foreign to the average Victorian.
However, Franklin Blake is also a noteworthy mixture of di erent European qualities. “As
an Italian-Englishman, …German-Englishman, and…French-Englishman”, he is shown
to be someone with the potential to utilize and accept various mannerisms and realities:
“But then I am an imaginative man and the butcher, the baker, and the tax-gatherer, are
not the only credible realities in existence to my mind.” This openness to embrace
di erent things may explain his liking towards Ezra Jennings.
The reader’s sympathy is stirred up for those colonized people such as the Indian
Brahmins and the marginalized people in England such as Jennings and Rosanna
Spearman., Even though they are the characters who embrace the position of the
marginalized “Other” in the novel, they are also the one depicted as the good people by
Collins. Jennings is described as:
…the most remarkable-looking man…His complexion was of a gipsy darkness;…His
nose presented the ne shape and modelling so often found among the ancient people of
the East, so seldom visible among the newer races of the West…. From this strange
face, eyes, stranger still, of the softest brown… Add to this a quantity of thick closely-
curling hair, which, by some freak of Nature, had lost its colour in the most startlingly
partial and capricious manner. Over the top of his head it was still of the deep black which
was its natural colour…. I looked at the man with a curiosity which, I am ashamed to
say… His soft brown eyes looked back at me gently; and he met my involuntary
rudeness in staring at him, with an apology which I was conscious that I had not
deserved.
It is apparent that Jennings is connected to the East in di erent ways. He is of mixed
race, and he uses a well thought-out administration of opium, the typical medicine of the
East during that time, to help solve the mystery of the novel. Not one of the “superior”
British characters is able to explain the theft of the moonstone until nal solution is
accomplished by Jennings, an outsider in the English culture.
Spearman is shown to be very trustworthy, although she is a servant and also considered
an inferior “Other”. While there is so much evidence for her committing the theft of the
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