The Moonstone
...e most elegant manners, presently informed me that my judgment was right.” Betteredge, clearly surprised that the Indians have superior manners uses an interesting hyperbole. Surely some prejudice rests in his mind. He would be unlikely to point out that any of the other British characters in the book have “the most elegant manners” or that he must own up to this fact. The steward also makes it clear that he is conscious that prejudice exists against Indians, but that he has chosen not to become involved in it. “[…] the last person in the world to distrust another person because he happens to be a few shades darker than myself.” Betteredge is conscious that there are some people who distrust Indians but he is quick to note that he is not one of those people. Nonetheless, Betteredge does express some prejudice thoughts in his writings. He sees the Indians as scoundrels or heathens. At the end of his first encounter with the Indians, Betteredge says Collins’ mystical, magical portrayal of the Indians first shows through in the encounter with the English boy, after the Indians left Lady Verinder’s yard. The Indians coax the urchin boy to open his hand where they pour a viscous ink-like liquid. The Indians are portrayed as soothsayers in this manner because they attempt to foretell the eventual location of Franklin Blake and the Moonstone. They also exhibit meanness toward the little boy when they tell him that he will be returned to the streets if he does not compliantly read the future. Blake also shows little respect for the fortune-telling that the Indians attempt with the English boy when he speaks with Betteredge about being followed by the Indians. He has just heard about the Indians trying to predict his whereabouts when he says, “‘The thing (which I have often seen done in the East) is ‘hocus-pocus’ in my opinion, as it is in yours’” (Collins, 31). Blake speaks of the Indians’ magic as if it was pure hogwash, displaying cultural insensitivity. Blake also shows his belief in the Indians’ mysticism as a negative. “‘A plot organized among the Indians who originally owned the jewel,’ says Mr. Franklin—‘a plot with some old Hindoo superstition at the bottom of it.’” Concerning the Indians’ quest for the Moonstone, Blake is undermining their religion at this point and affirming his conviction in the Indians’ superstitious ways to the reader. Betteredge constantly refers to the Indians as “rogues”, a word which holds enough negative connotations to prove Betteredge’s distrust of the Indians. Merriam-Webster Dictionary says that a rogue is “a dishonest or worthless person: scoundrel or a mischievous person: scamp. After speaking to Blake about the diamond and the Indians, Betteredge says that the house has been invaded by “a devilish Indian Diamond—bringing after it a conspiracy of living rogues (Collins, 36)” This passage in Betteredge’s narrative not only describes the menacing, magic qualities of the Indian Diamond but also the implied shadiness of the Indians, present throughout the text. The Indians are made to be criminals, at least in the early part of the text, where Betteredge uses loaded language to describe the Indians’ movement. When l...