Relieving the Poor

Preceding The Moonstone instalment, Harper’s Weekly offers an image of the effort in New York to provide some relief to the poor. The corresponding article discusses their plan to open establishments around the city for their relief as people can go and seek work and perhaps receive a dollar. This was only a temporary relief though as most people received nothing and those who did eventually returned to the establishments. The sketch showcases the ill conditions in which the poor were kept in as they are seen all standing in a large crowd, with no visible accommodation around. They are seen clutching their tattered clothing to their bodies to ward off the cold.

Anderman claims that non-fiction serves to “complement the emotional intensity of fiction while fiction expands the effect of the factual” (52). This stands true in this case as viewing this image can spark pity in the hearts of readers as they are reading, leading them to regard Rosanna Spearman and the other servants with more compassion. They may view Seegrave’s suspicion of the servants as prejudice, which they may have otherwise agreed with. This would elicit a new hope with Sergeant Cuff’s arrival in this instalment as he dismisses Seegrave’s suspicion and begins to postulate his theory through actual investigation. This increases the emotional intensity in the text as readers are able to sympathize with the servants and root for them in a way through support of Cuff. This then makes readers think about what is going on in their own streets with the poor and how they are treated, their reading of the text leaving an impact on the way they view the non-fiction.

However, readers may be inclined to dismiss the injustice the servants face in the text considering they could be in much worse conditions, based off of what was published regarding the poor in New York. The depiction of the lower working class in The Moonstone through the servants would draw the readers’ thoughts back to the poor people in their article and how much worse off they were in comparison. They may become more concerned with the non-fiction aspect of the periodical and what role their society plays in their lives, rather than building a connection with the text.

Works Cited

Anderman, Elizabeth. “Serialization, Illustration, and the Art of Sensation.” Victorian Periodicals Review, vol. 52, no. 1, 2019, pp. 27-56. ProjectMUSE, doi:10.1353/vpr.2019.0001. Accessed 3 December 2019.