Comparison of "Everyman," Othello and Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe
Guarded respect and fear of the exotic-the characterization of Indian culture and religion in Willkie Collins' The Moonstone Willkie Collins 19th century detective novel The Moonstone depicts the cultural clash between English and Indian societies during the height of England's imperial dominion over the Indian subcontinent. On one hand, the novel seems to depend upon English stereotypes of Indians to function. The story revolves around a mysterious unlucky stone that is given to Rachel Vendier when she comes of age. When the stone is stolen from her bedroom, some Indian 'jugglers' or conjurers in the area are blamed for the theft. They have a mesmeric power to divine what they want to know, as is illustrated in their first encounter with a small boy, which reveals the location of the moonstone: "the Indian took a bottle from his bosom, and poured out of it some black stuff, like ink, into the palm of the boy's hand. The Indian-first touching the boy's head, and making signs over it in the air-then said, `Look.' The boy became quite stiff, and stood like a statue, looking into the ink in the hollow of his hand.....then, after making more signs on the boy's head, blew on his forehead, and so woke him up with a start" (Part I, C
They are people driven only by religion, with an almost monomaniacal zeal, and lack human, three-dimensional characters. Although the novel seems on its surface to validate stereotypes of Indians, the characterization of the Brahmins in search of the stone as 'conjurers' or 'jugglers' by the English is hardly fair. Furthermore, adherents of Western religions, like the devout Miss Clack with her handing out of Christian tracts and her membership in the "Select Committee of the Mothers'-Small-Clothes-Conversion- Society," seem far less admirable, and are treated with merciless humor on the part of the author, rather than with the respect, awe and fear accorded to the Indians (Part II, Chapter 1, p. The Indians, for all of the strangeness and ferocity they display would never have come to English soil, had it not been for the fact that their culture and ancient faith had been impinged upon. However, there is one important footnote to this interpretation of the portrayal of Indians in The Moonstone. Never more were they to rest on their wanderings, from the day which witnessed their separation, to the day which witnessed their death" (Epilogue, p. Never more were they to look on each other's faces. India functions on terms incomprehensible to Englishmen, from which the English cannot protect themselves. In three separate directions, they were to set forth as pilgrims to the shrines of India. The god had commanded that their purification should be the purification by pilgrimage. Because of its use of multiple subjective and unreliable narrators, the reader is constantly aware that the characterizations of the Indians are seen through the biased view of the English. Ultimately, the stone belongs in its rightful place, and the Indians devoted to its recovery are meant to be admired by the reader: "They were Brahmins (he said) who had forfeited their caste in the service of the god. On that night, the three men were to part.
Common topics in this essay:
Rachel Vendier,
Miss Verinder,
Englishmen English,
Cuff Ultimately,
II Chapter,
Indians Moonstone,
English Indian,
Mothers'-Small-Clothes-Conversion- Society,
Willkie Collins,
,
stereotypes indians,
day witnessed,
rachel's corrupt,
indian culture,
rachel's corrupt uncle,
boy's head,
corrupt uncle,
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Acceptance Essays
