The Moonstone

The Moonstone

by

Wilkie Collins

Miss Rachel Verinder Character Analysis

The young woman at the center of the novel, the daughter and heiress of Julia Verinder and the cousin and love interest of both Godfrey Ablewhite and Franklin Blake (whom she eventually marries). Curious, freethinking, and far from conventionally attractive (too small and dark-skinned in Gabriel Betteredge’s eyes), Rachel is in no way a portrait of the conventional, submissive, “honorable” Victorian womanhood that people like Miss Clack believe in. And yet this unconventionality is ultimately Rachel’s strength: she speaks her mind, resolutely ending her engagement with Godfrey Ablewhite despite his father’s furious attempt to intervene, and enthusiastically collaborating with Ezra Jennings on the experiment that exonerates Franklin Blake, whom she saw steal her Diamond from her bedroom late at night. In fact, watching her beloved commit a crime against her devastates her, but she still guards Franklin’s secret in an attempt to save his reputation—although this inadvertently delays the investigation that eventually reveals he stole the Moonstone unwittingly, after being drugged by Mr. Candy. The theft of her Diamond—by both Franklin and Godfrey, her two love interests, on the night of her 18th birthday—stands symbolically for a loss of innocence, and Rachel matures throughout the book, coming of age in part by coping with this trauma (as well as the death of her mother). At the end of the novel, she marries Franklin and gets pregnant, even though the Moonstone is never recovered.

Miss Rachel Verinder Quotes in The Moonstone

The The Moonstone quotes below are all either spoken by Miss Rachel Verinder or refer to Miss Rachel Verinder. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Detective Methods and Genre Standards Theme Icon
).
The Loss of the Diamond: 9 Quotes

Lord bless us! it roar a Diamond! As large, or nearly, as a plover's egg! The light that streamed from it was like the light of the harvest moon. When you looked down into the stone, you looked into a yellow deep that drew your eyes into it so that they saw nothing else. It seemed unfathomable; this jewel, that you could hold between your finger and thumb, seemed unfathomable as the heavens themselves. We set it in the sun, and then shut the light out of the room, and it shone awfully out of the depths of its own brightness, with a moony gleam, in the dark. No wonder Miss Rachel was fascinated: no wonder her cousins screamed. The Diamond laid such a hold on me that I burst out with as large an 'O' as the Bouncers themselves.

Related Characters: Gabriel Betteredge (speaker), Franklin Blake , Miss Rachel Verinder
Related Symbols: The Moonstone
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 74
Explanation and Analysis:
The Loss of the Diamond: 16 Quotes

“Do you mean to tell me, in plain English,” I said, “that Miss Rachel has stolen her own Diamond?”

“Yes,” says the Sergeant; “that is what I mean to tell you, in so many words. Miss Verinder has been in secret possession of the Moonstone from first to last; and she has taken Rosanna Spearman into her confidence, because she has calculated on our suspecting Rosanna Spearman of the theft. There is the whole case in a nutshell. Collar me again, Mr. Betteredge. If it's any vent to your feelings, collar me again.”

Related Characters: Gabriel Betteredge (speaker), Sergeant Cuff (speaker), Miss Rachel Verinder, Rosanna Spearman
Related Symbols: The Moonstone
Page Number: 143
Explanation and Analysis:
The Loss of the Diamond: 20 Quotes

People in high life have all the luxuries to themselves—among others, the luxury of indulging their feelings. People in low life have no such privilege. Necessity, which spares our betters, has no pity on as. We learn to put our feelings back into ourselves, and to jog on with our duties as patiently as may be. I don't complain of this—I only notice it.

Related Characters: Gabriel Betteredge (speaker), Franklin Blake , Miss Rachel Verinder, Sergeant Cuff, Rosanna Spearman, Penelope Betteredge
Page Number: 167-8
Explanation and Analysis:
The Loss of the Diamond: 21 Quotes

I am (thank God!) constitutionally superior to reason. This enabled me to hold firm to my lady's view, which was my view also. This roused my spirit, and made me put a bold face on it before Sergeant Cuff. Profit, good friends, I beseech you, by my example. It will save you from many troubles of the vexing sort. Cultivate a superiority to reason, and see how you pare the claws of all the sensible people when they try to scratch you for your own good!

Related Characters: Gabriel Betteredge (speaker), Miss Rachel Verinder, Sergeant Cuff, Lady Julia Verinder
Page Number: 174
Explanation and Analysis:
The Loss of the Diamond: 22 Quotes

“Her ladyship has smoothed matters over for the present very cleverly,” said the Sergeant. “But this family scandal is of the sort that bursts up again when you least expect it. We shall have more detective-business on our hands, sir, before the Moonstone is many months older.”

Related Characters: Sergeant Cuff (speaker), Miss Rachel Verinder, Gabriel Betteredge, Lady Julia Verinder
Related Symbols: The Moonstone
Page Number: 184
Explanation and Analysis:
The Discovery of the Truth 1: 8 Quotes

“Oh, Rachel! Rachel!” I burst out. “Haven't you seen yet, that my heart yearns to make a Christian of you? Has no inner voice told you that I am trying to do for you, what I was trying to do for your dear mother when death snatched her out of my hands?”

Related Characters: Miss Drusilla Clack (speaker), Miss Rachel Verinder
Page Number: 269
Explanation and Analysis:
The Discovery of the Truth 3: 7 Quotes

“If you had spoken when you ought to have spoken,” I began: “if you had done me the common justice to explain yourself—”

She broke in on me with a cry of fury. The few words I had said seemed to have lashed her on the instant in to a frenzy of rage.

“Explain myself!” she repeated. “Oh! is there another man like this in the world? I spare him, when my heart is breaking; I screen him when my own character is at stake; and he—of all human beings, he—turns on me now, and tells me that I ought to have explained myself ! After believing in him as I did, after loving him as I did, after thinking of him by day, and dreaming of him by night—he wonders I didn't charge him with his disgrace the first time we met: ‘My heart's darling, you are a Thief! My hero whom I love and honour, you have crept into my room under cover of the night, and stolen my Diamond!’ That is what I ought to have said. You villain, you mean, mean, mean villain, I would have lost fifty Diamonds, rather than see your face lying to me, as I see it lying now!”

Related Characters: Franklin Blake (speaker), Miss Rachel Verinder (speaker)
Related Symbols: The Moonstone
Page Number: 352
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Moonstone LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Moonstone PDF

Miss Rachel Verinder Quotes in The Moonstone

The The Moonstone quotes below are all either spoken by Miss Rachel Verinder or refer to Miss Rachel Verinder. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Detective Methods and Genre Standards Theme Icon
).
The Loss of the Diamond: 9 Quotes

Lord bless us! it roar a Diamond! As large, or nearly, as a plover's egg! The light that streamed from it was like the light of the harvest moon. When you looked down into the stone, you looked into a yellow deep that drew your eyes into it so that they saw nothing else. It seemed unfathomable; this jewel, that you could hold between your finger and thumb, seemed unfathomable as the heavens themselves. We set it in the sun, and then shut the light out of the room, and it shone awfully out of the depths of its own brightness, with a moony gleam, in the dark. No wonder Miss Rachel was fascinated: no wonder her cousins screamed. The Diamond laid such a hold on me that I burst out with as large an 'O' as the Bouncers themselves.

Related Characters: Gabriel Betteredge (speaker), Franklin Blake , Miss Rachel Verinder
Related Symbols: The Moonstone
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 74
Explanation and Analysis:
The Loss of the Diamond: 16 Quotes

“Do you mean to tell me, in plain English,” I said, “that Miss Rachel has stolen her own Diamond?”

“Yes,” says the Sergeant; “that is what I mean to tell you, in so many words. Miss Verinder has been in secret possession of the Moonstone from first to last; and she has taken Rosanna Spearman into her confidence, because she has calculated on our suspecting Rosanna Spearman of the theft. There is the whole case in a nutshell. Collar me again, Mr. Betteredge. If it's any vent to your feelings, collar me again.”

Related Characters: Gabriel Betteredge (speaker), Sergeant Cuff (speaker), Miss Rachel Verinder, Rosanna Spearman
Related Symbols: The Moonstone
Page Number: 143
Explanation and Analysis:
The Loss of the Diamond: 20 Quotes

People in high life have all the luxuries to themselves—among others, the luxury of indulging their feelings. People in low life have no such privilege. Necessity, which spares our betters, has no pity on as. We learn to put our feelings back into ourselves, and to jog on with our duties as patiently as may be. I don't complain of this—I only notice it.

Related Characters: Gabriel Betteredge (speaker), Franklin Blake , Miss Rachel Verinder, Sergeant Cuff, Rosanna Spearman, Penelope Betteredge
Page Number: 167-8
Explanation and Analysis:
The Loss of the Diamond: 21 Quotes

I am (thank God!) constitutionally superior to reason. This enabled me to hold firm to my lady's view, which was my view also. This roused my spirit, and made me put a bold face on it before Sergeant Cuff. Profit, good friends, I beseech you, by my example. It will save you from many troubles of the vexing sort. Cultivate a superiority to reason, and see how you pare the claws of all the sensible people when they try to scratch you for your own good!

Related Characters: Gabriel Betteredge (speaker), Miss Rachel Verinder, Sergeant Cuff, Lady Julia Verinder
Page Number: 174
Explanation and Analysis:
The Loss of the Diamond: 22 Quotes

“Her ladyship has smoothed matters over for the present very cleverly,” said the Sergeant. “But this family scandal is of the sort that bursts up again when you least expect it. We shall have more detective-business on our hands, sir, before the Moonstone is many months older.”

Related Characters: Sergeant Cuff (speaker), Miss Rachel Verinder, Gabriel Betteredge, Lady Julia Verinder
Related Symbols: The Moonstone
Page Number: 184
Explanation and Analysis:
The Discovery of the Truth 1: 8 Quotes

“Oh, Rachel! Rachel!” I burst out. “Haven't you seen yet, that my heart yearns to make a Christian of you? Has no inner voice told you that I am trying to do for you, what I was trying to do for your dear mother when death snatched her out of my hands?”

Related Characters: Miss Drusilla Clack (speaker), Miss Rachel Verinder
Page Number: 269
Explanation and Analysis:
The Discovery of the Truth 3: 7 Quotes

“If you had spoken when you ought to have spoken,” I began: “if you had done me the common justice to explain yourself—”

She broke in on me with a cry of fury. The few words I had said seemed to have lashed her on the instant in to a frenzy of rage.

“Explain myself!” she repeated. “Oh! is there another man like this in the world? I spare him, when my heart is breaking; I screen him when my own character is at stake; and he—of all human beings, he—turns on me now, and tells me that I ought to have explained myself ! After believing in him as I did, after loving him as I did, after thinking of him by day, and dreaming of him by night—he wonders I didn't charge him with his disgrace the first time we met: ‘My heart's darling, you are a Thief! My hero whom I love and honour, you have crept into my room under cover of the night, and stolen my Diamond!’ That is what I ought to have said. You villain, you mean, mean, mean villain, I would have lost fifty Diamonds, rather than see your face lying to me, as I see it lying now!”

Related Characters: Franklin Blake (speaker), Miss Rachel Verinder (speaker)
Related Symbols: The Moonstone
Page Number: 352
Explanation and Analysis: