In the beginning of the novel we get an account of the history of the Moonstone up till John Herncastle becomes in possession of it. It is told by a reliable and trusted family member, the cousin of John Herncastle, who has no interest in relating this tale in a falsely negative light for it reflects badly upon everyone in his family. Although it is never explicitly written that John Herncastle murde

Mr. Murthwaite, our foremost expert in the novel of the Indian character, is one that leads a life of deception also. He must hide his ethnicity from his Indian friends through his dress, language and appearance. "To such of these as spoke to me, I gave myself out as a Hindoo-Boodhist [Indian]...my dress was of the sort to carry out this description...I know the language as well as I know my own, and that I am lean enough and brown enough to make it no easy matter to detect my European origin" (540). While Murthwaite is a respected personage in the novel he is also one who spends the majority of his life in a lie. He spends most of his time traveling through out India, and in the end of the novel he is there once more. Here is a character that utilizes deception for his purposes and remains trusted while the Indian characters are assumed to be deceptive in their European dress and good manners. Murthwaite's deception is openly disclosed and yet there is no blemish upon his character. Perhaps the underlying foundation of the British paranoia is the fear of how well the Indian took up the mannerism of a European gentleman. Not the actual deception but perhaps that there is nothing innately different between the two: an Indian and a British man. Throughout the novel characters are struck by the good manners of the chief Indian as if they were the unnatural as if mimicked by an animal.

Collins' introduction describes the storming of Seringapatam and in it he describes India in terms of treasure, something that could be taken, of superstition, of bloodshed, and of violence. In it the wealth and violence are emphasized because this is seen through eyes that only respects British culture. He speaks of the British name of the Moonstone, the Yellow Diamond, before he tells of the Indian name of it. He also likens the Indian religion of the Moonstone as a "superstition" (53). The only way he describes the holy shrines and temples of the Moonstone in purely physical terms. He never writes of the feelings one might get entering a sacred place because in his eyes it is not a holy place, but a silly superstition of the Indian people. It is a view held by an outsider: a British soldier. He cannot convey the sacredness of the Moonstone because it is only pagan nonsense to him. However in the ending scene observed by Mr. Murthwaite we receive a more Indian view of the Moonstone. We hear of the Moonstone's second meaning; not of secular worth (in terms of coin) or in terms of the violence it causes, but in its pious religious meaning to the Indian people. Murthwaite, although ostensibly British, is Indian enough to pass "as a stranger from a distant part of their own country" (540), and thus is more able to relay the piety of the last scene. When compared to the spiritual ending portrait of India the secular quality of the introduction of India is quite noticeable. In the last scene of the novel Murthwaite writes of not of gold decadence or violence, but of awe-inspiring peace. It is a peaceful meeting place for nature: "the place of the meeting of three rivers...the waveless ocean slept in the calm of the night" (541). It is also a spot for peaceable human crowd: "People this lovely scene with tens of thousands of human creatures, all dressed in white...light this halt of the pilgrims" (541). Here Collins uses the color white, the thousands of lights, and the term pilgrim to illustrate the extreme serenity and pious gravity of this mass congregation. It is a night that both nature and humankind is in agreement of the holiness of the three Brahmins' task.

Another facet of the British fear the Indians is fear of moral corruption. "He {Septimus Luker] had only the day before been compelled to dismiss a skilled workman in ivory carving before his employment (a native of India, as we understood), on suspicion of attempted theft" (253). Once again it is only a suspicion that convicts this Indian. Collins never w

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2715
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)