The way these two meet is very similar to the two in "The Boarding House", which highlights that the problems that plague all these characters are broader national issues rather than just personal concerns.

It's better than death, but this doesn't feel like a happy fate for Maria since it's clearly the absence of marriage that she feels in her life. Everywhere in the story are constant unhappy reminders of her unmarried status, from the joking servants at the charity she works for to the lady at the cake shop to the young men at the tram who ignore her. Only one man pays attention to Maria in the story and she responds to him with "favour" and "demure nods", but she later realizes her attention to him made her cake get stolen and she blushes and cries furiously. Life as a nun seems like the most eternal reminder that you could never wed.

By singing the first section a second time instead of singing the second section about marriage she deliberately or accidentally avoids creating an uncomfortable situation where everyone is reminded of her unmarried status; however, her omission feels meaningful in this sense regardless, judging by the reaction of the audience.

Acting extra nice because they foreshadowed her death, maybe.

Ironic considering what she later gets in the Halloween game.

"The All Hallows' Eve game is playful fortune-telling. If the player touches the ring, they will be soon married. If the water, they will soon emigrate. If the prayer-book, they will soon work for the church (as Mrs Donnelley jokes). If the clay, the player will soon die. This is why Mrs. Donnelley scolds the girls for including the clay in the game, and why the family has Maria take another turn."

Maria has a habit of saying what other people need to hear rather than saying the truth; for instance, she never corrects people when they think she's married or has kids. She laughs when people say she is unmarried even though she is clearly bothered by it judging by the "disappointed shyness".

The third-person omnipotent mixed with free indirect discourse in this story could be one of the things that a computer program tries to parse, when the supposedly distant narrator starts being clearly influenced by the thoughts and personality of a different character.

Very brutal decision to make considering how she views the relationship and how her own marriage turned out, but it is in line with her character as a knife.

Sharp writing! Also interesting that Mrs. Mooney is described as a cleaver of a person (efficient, useful, severe in her rationale) even though she was threatened with a cleaver by her past husband; implies maybe what she's about to do could be very unpleasant for her daughter despite the bright freshness of the Sunday morning.

Is this commentary on the police, saying that being a "sheriff's man" is the equivalent of being a resourceless, loveless man?

Arguably the third time the narrator claims to be governed by something beyond himself–first his blood, then his heart, and now vanity, which has "driven and derided" him to a foolish end. He calls himself a "creature", a thoughtless and instinctual being compared to a person, which makes sense considering how little agency he feels he has in the narrative. His feelings of love and then embarrassment push him around the whole story.

Ironic that the bazaar represented a sort of Oriental escape in the narrator's mind (an "Eastern adventure"), a contrast to his religious background judging by his aunt's invocation of "Our Lord", and yet when he arrives it resembles the silence of an empty church. The fantasy has evaporated and he is in his own world again, a dull one.

This is the second time in the story that the narrator's body seems to have a mind of its own, the first being her name "summoning" all his blood. There is a sense of detachment between the narrator's feverish love and his current subdued tone, and the detachment between the narrator's body and mind furthers the sense that the narrator feels a degree of distance from these feelings.

The bluntness of the narrator highlights his unemotional state, as does his concerns for minor details like the fear of making too much sound while eating cream crackers. The fact that his mind can travel elsewhere is a sign that he is not giving the mourning the sort of elevated dignity one may expect from a person. The novel is more realistic than romantic.

Ironic that the street is sunny despite the mournful events taking place; the narrator chooses to walk along the "sunny side of the street" even though his mind is preoccupied with the fact that he is not brave enough to confront the thought of a man's death.

I wonder if there's an analytical way to distinguish between narrators who have crushes on their main subjects of discussion (like Miss Clack and Godrey) and narrators who just dwell a lot on their subject's compelling physical appearance. So far there has been a lot of attention to Harold's appearance in a macro sense (being overall handsome) and a micro sense (attention to his smile, his "fine fingers") and if the narrator was another one of this novel's young ingenues (and ofc like. not his dad) this would come off a lot more like personal attraction rather than recognition of general attractiveness.

The author tends to express Leila's excitement by listing many brief details, giving the reader the same impression of the ball as Leila–everything indistinct but impressive and overwhelmingly pretty when all combined with each other. One feels like they are quickly looking from one thing to another just as Leila must be.

This onomatopoeia could make textual analysis a bit difficult since these words are not being used as they are meant to be definitionally, but just for the sound they produce sounding like an owl's coo.

Continuation of Dennis's habit of taking reality and turning it into artistic representation, first with the painting and now here with the book. It produces a distance between himself and reality that gives him a cold and uncaring disposition towards others. His cynical literary gaze makes trivializes William's sentimentality.

The "only" here encapsulates their whole marriage; Isabel wants something interesting in the mail and doesn't see anything like that in her husband anymore.

The way Isabel here describes herself resembles the way William earlier spoke about the lowerclass people he crossed, noting their "filthy" life. By using similar words here Isabel is connecting her current opulence back to that state and making it seem like even her lifestyle is not much better than that of a blue collar worker. It also makes her sound like William, making her seem more like her husband as she sympathizes with him in this moment and hinting at their still present connection.

The story has a strong focus on using color as a descriptor, with the blue and green dresses being highlighted earlier and now here the "pink-and-white" of the marble and the "orange-trees" and the "gold-and-black" tubs.

omori

Ending the novel on these questions is in keeping with the mystery novel tone of the book, which encourages the readers to stay in a state of wonderment and questioning, even now when the mystery has been fully wrapped. I doubt the author intended to make a series of Moonstone novels, so this is not a question that will ever be answered; it is just to keep the readers' imaginations open and keep the feeling of intrigue going to the very end.

Fanatic in some ways functions as a similar word to "fanciful" or "fantastic"–ironic, after everything that has transpired to challenge the ordered worldview of all the characters, that India is still portrayed as such a wild and irrational place.

Their omission makes them even more powerful, as the reader can only imagine what kind things they must have said to produce so strong an impression on Jennings.

In contrast to how Betteredge views himself, as a reasonable man intellectually devoted to a book about another reasonable man, Mr. Blake calls him out on being as fanciful as anyone else in his fanaticism.

The feeling of an "indistinct" memory is created with snatches of visual imagery, in contrast to the way a distinct recollection is created, with the listing of dates and a strict chronological progression.

come on

Interesting that Mr. Blake seems to consistently refer to the Moonstone as the Moonstone, whereas others usually call it the Diamond, the Yellow Diamond, the Indian Diamond, so on.

Mr. Blake's pursuit of a reason is a good detective instinct for a good detective novel.

This is, of course, meant to inform the reader why she behaved as she did during the investigation–she had knowledge of something "mean" going on, then panicked and ruined her reputation due to her "horror" at the "contact" with it.

Admirable use of deductive reasoning for a mystery novel, the kind of logic these sorts of stories are founded on

Funnily enough, Betteredge marries his wife for equally "mercenary" reasons (to temporarily pay less rent if I remember right?), but not much is made of the event other than as an establishing character moment for Betteredge. The most judgement he receives from other characters for this is Miss Verinder laughing him off.

Following the pattern of the narrators' organized dispositions, Bruff has a sense for the "fitness of things", just like Betteredge appreciates "economy" and Miss Clack "order".

These statements will eventually be revealed to be ironic, since Godfrey is revealed to be the thief and the Indians attacked him with the aim of recovering it. However, even without this knowledge, the exaggerated way Miss Clack moralizes about sin implies the audience ought not to take her statement at face value.

Once again, the narrative presents itself as true in the reader's world by noting specific places and times.

Miss Clack's reference to Patmos as well as her habit of singing the "Evening Hymn" mark her as a much more religious person than Betteredge before her. The Bible may turn out to be her version of Robinson Crusoe.

Miss Clack's habits of "order and regularity" is very similar to Betteredge's talk of "economy"–I wonder whether this is to establish the English characters' general love of rationality compared to the unpredictability of the Indians or because their beliefs in order appeal to the readers' sense of ethos and make them more trustworthy narrators.

Despite Betteredge's faith in her, her past is still meant to be a red herring. Her character largely serves to distract readers from less obvious suspects.

Betteredge asks several questions over the course of the mystery in order to encourage the reader to entertain similar questions, engaging them in the solving process. Betteredge's narration flips between in the moment of the narrative and in the moment of writing, the first in order to heighten the tension and the second to heighten the verisimilitude.

"they are a set of murdering thieves" - guy in a conversation about a diamond that was stolen from murdered Indians by the English

Betteredge here critiques scientific dissection, characterizing it as cruel and embracing natural beauty. This aligns with the story's critique of rationality in the overarching plot about the English and the Indians. The English, convinced of their superior reason, mock the story of the Moonstone and steal at will. However, their lack of appreciation for natural forces brings them closer to vengeance from those same forces.

Interesting to consider how foreignness enables a return to fable for the English speakers–while the soldiers all scoff at the story of the Moonstone, the dying man here makes grave and dramatic pronouncements without any of their irony. As the characters move closer to the exotic, the potential for fantasy increases.

The day-by-day progression of the main story contrasted with the generation-by-generation progression of the "fable" further emphasizes the way the main story presents itself as realistic and the backstory presents itself as marvelous.

While this section about the legend of the Yellow Diamond does reference specific points in history (beginning in "the eleventh century of the Christian era" and ending in the eighteenth) the story is marked as "fanciful", closer to fairytale, by the more abstract nature of time employed in this section compared to the first. Time "rolled on" from "generation to generation" as the Brahmins guarded the Moonstone "night and day". These broad descriptions of the passage of time, in contrast to the exact date given in the first section, are more ambiguous and dramatize the length of the diamond's existence. This moves the story away from a reasonable sense of the progression of time and towards "fancy".

In order to give this work of fiction a feeling of verisimilitude, to make it seem as if it exists as "truth" in the real world, the author uses specific details to make the story feel as if it is taking place in a concrete setting. Referencing proper nouns (Seringapatam, General Baird) and including a date makes the story feel more historical and therefore more believable. Contrast this with the setting of fairytales, which tend to be more vague about country and era.