The Moonstone

Thomas Collins in The Moonstone begins his novel with the traditional portrayal of India; a place filled with adventure, booty, mysticism, savageness, and treachery. There seems to be a pervasive fear through out the British folk through out his novel; a fear of mixing of races, of moral corruption, of a savage’s disregard for human life, and a fear of them lurking in the shadows. However this not what Collins wishes this to be …

…through the eyes of a “semi-savage” (539) Murthwaite it is an image that we are meant to take to heart. A British gentleman dismissed Indian religion as a mere superstition and it would take an undeniable Indian expert who is also a British gentleman to refute this common opinion. Collins exposes the underlying hypocrisy feeding the British xenophobia through Ezra Jennings, Godfrey Ablewhite, the willingness to condemn only with “moral evidence” only foreigners, and even Murthwaite.