The Moonstone: The Loss of the Diamond: 23 Summary & Analysis

The reader does, after all, get insight into Julia’s letter to Franklin, which confirms Julia’s paramount concern for her daughter. In contrast to Cuff and Betteredge’s endless, driving curiosity about the case, Julia simply wants what is best for her family, and has no interest in the Diamond. Indeed, throughout the rest of the novel, these two concerns come into and out of alignment, and it is worth asking whether the novel is truly about the search for the Diamond or the quest to repair the Verinder family—most of all Franklin and Rachel—torn apart by the Diamond’s curse.

Despite their rough start, both in Franklin’s childhood and upon his return to England, Betteredge and Franklin are clearly the best of friends after enduring the crucible of Cuff’s investigation together. With his departure, the normal order of things takes back over the house—represented most of all by the return of Robinson Crusoe (although a 21st century reader might wonder why a country house needs scores of servants to continue running normally when its owners are not even living in it).

The end of the investigation also marks a change in scenery for the next section of the novel, as the mystery of the Diamond escapes Betteredge’s domain (the Verinders’ property) and moves on to London. Cuff’s predictions prove accurate, after all, which in turn calls into question whether he might have been right to accuse Rachel of some involvement in the theft. While in some ways similar to Rosanna (visibly deformed and from the lower classes Betteredge disdains), Limping Lucy actually speaks her mind, perhaps since she is not morally indebted to the Verinders. Her threat of a revolution points to the deep class tensions in Victorian Britain and certainly looks vile to the traditionalist Betteredge, although it does also recall Rosanna’s more richly-painted struggle to overcome the social and emotional constraints put on her by Britain’s idea of what constituted a good working-class life. And by accusing Franklin Blake, one of the book’s most sympathetic characters, of wrongdoing (he not only kickstarted the investigation out of concern for Rachel but also suffered immensely when that investigation tore him from her), Lucy again suggests to the reader that appearances may deceive, and that the truth of the Moonstone’s disappearance may turn out to be completely unexpected.

Lucy’s refusal to let Betteredge deliver the letter and Betteredge’s inability to get through to the Yollands without Cuff’s mediation again suggests that the story is beginning to fall out of his hands, and that it is time for a new narrator. It also means that the mystery of the Moonstone and Rosanna’s connection to it will inevitably resurface when, or if, Franklin returns to Yorkshire.

As Betteredge continues to mull things over, he begins to form new opinions on the unresolved case. Franklin’s return to romantically wandering around Europe suggests that it may be some time before Limping Lucy’s letter ever gets delivered, and adds to the lingering mystery and sense of irresolution that indicates the Moonstone’s tale is far from over.

Just as Betteredge always sent for the doctor to resolve Rosanna’s distress, Rachel’s misery becomes translated into a medical disorder, which is to be (perhaps absurdly) treated by distracting and lighthearted social events. This reflects both the state of Victorian medicine, which was far from the scientific profession it is today, and the condescending eye with which women’s problems were viewed. Betteredge’s warning about Miss Clack points to the unreliability of all the book’s narrators and the reader’s task: to form their own interpretation of sometimes competing information.

Just like his prediction about the Yollands, Cuff’s other two predictions come true and prove the case remains very much alive. Specifically, he seems to have found the Moonstone in (the ominously-named) Septimus Luker’s possession, and has also confirmed that the Indians have not relented in their own investigation into the stone. While it remains inexplicable to the reader how Sergeant Cuff might have made all these accurate, seemingly disjointed predictions out of the blue, this sustains his contradictory aura as a character somehow so hyperrational as to exceed the apparent capacities of reason.

As when he began, at the end of his narrative Betteredge deliberately weakens his authorial voice, inviting the reader to doubt him and form their own opinions, as well as reminding them that he has been prevented from including in his tale his own analysis and any knowledge he gained after the fact (a directive his successor Miss Clack completely and colorfully ignores). The structure of “witnesses,” with the reader interpreting the truth and falsehoods told by each, points to the system of legal evidence and investigation that forms the backbone of the book’s plot and theory of evidence.