Ryleigh DuPont's Exhibit
In the 19th century, English society relied heavily on class, race and gender distinctions that both defined and separated the people in them. In Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone these social distinctions are used significantly as well. Chapters 13 and 14 of the novel heavily revolve around these distinctions of class, in the suspicion of the staff, and distinctions of gender, with suspicions of Rosanna and Rachel. It also opens an interesting dynamic with the characters we have been introduced to at this point in the novel and shows which characters truly believe in the importance and truth to these distinctions, and who disregards them. A large focus of this portion of the novel is Rosanna, and her misfortune at being both disfigured and a servant, which lowers her status two-fold in the eyes of everyone around her. The original publishing of the novel in Dicken’s All the Year Round and Harper’s Weekly speak to this issue of social distinction as well. From the advertisements and illustrations of Harper’s, to the articles alongside the Moonstone in All the Year Round, the perspectives from the U.K. version and the U.S. version change the reading of the original text.
In the article “The Transatlantic Moonstone: A Study of the Illustrated Serial in Harper's Weekly” discussing the use of images in the Harper’s publication of The Moonstone in contrast to All the Year Round which did not include illustrations, Mary Elizabeth Leighton and Lisa Surridge claim, “The Harpers illustrations formed an intrinsic part of the American Moonstone, heightening the text's sensationalism, complicating its already intricate narrative structure, and shifting its treatment of gender, disability, class, and race” (207). I agree with this but argue further that while Harper’s uses images to heighten The Moonstone’s depiction of gender, race and class, the articles alongside The Moonstone in All the Year Round serve to push a stereotypical and derogatory ideology of gender, race and the lower class onto its readers, which amplifies those themes in the novel.
Leighton, Mary Elizabeth and Surridge, Lisa. "The Transatlantic Moonstone: A Study of the Illustrated Serial in Harper's Weekly." Victorian Periodicals Review, Vol. 42 (2009): pp. 207.
Collins, Wilkie. The Moonstone. Edited by John Sutherland, Oxford University Press, 2008.