Outside Looking In: "The Other" in Victorian Society
Outside Looking In - “The Other” in Victorian Society
Wilkie Collins' novel “The Moonstone” sheds interesting light on the Victorian mentality towards those people who did not conform to societal norms or were seen as being “outside” the normal British class structure. The attitude of the main cast of characters towards the Indian jugglers and towards Ezra Jennings reveals the fascination and yet thinly-veiled distaste Victorians had for anything that transgressed their British sensibilities and tightly regulated social order.
Ezra Jennings is an especially fascinating case since he straddles the racial boundary, neither completely English nor completely colonial: “I was born, and partly brought up, in one of our colonies. My father was an Englishman, but my mother.....” This puts Jennings in a special position of “otherness”: the Victorian mindset would have seen him as inferior for not being totally British, while colonials would not be able to completely accept him because he carried the blood of the ruling race. He is also set outside of society because of some uncertain accusation and slander that follows him about England and prevents him from keeping any one position for long. Even without knowledge of this supposed perfidy on the part of Jennings (which has not as of yet reached Yorkshire) it is interesting to note the overwhelming negative response to Jennings. He is described as having a “gipsy-complexion” and “pie-bald hair” - in short, he deviates dramatically from the standard Englishman. As a result he is shunned everywhere, not because of any deficiency in skill or character but simply because his appearance marks him as being outside of societal norms.
Within the novel, Ezra Jennings seems to function as a sort of tragic double of Franklin Blake. When Franklin Blake first encounters Jennings, he is still estranged from Rachel and trying to find a way to be reconciled with her. Jennings too has been disappointed in love, making reference to the “one beloved face I shall never see again.” Unlike Franklin and Rachel, however, Jennings and his anonymous love are never reunited, forming a tragic foil to the happy couple. They are also similar because they have both been educated outside of England and so do not have the same “British” mentality as many of the other main characters. Gabriel Betteredge in particular seems to view anything foreign as naturally inferior to the British. In contrast, both Blake and Jennings view these typical stolid English character traits with a sort of detached amusement. Jennings seems to view the English as extremely skeptical and unimaginative, remarking on the extreme resistance “against anything that is new” and makes note of Mr. Bruff's “unimaginative mind.” Franklin Blake also seems much more imaginative and prone to flights of fancy than the average Englishman portrayed in this novel, which is attributed by Betteredge to the battle of his Italian, German, and French sides – again, the parts of him that are removed from the British stoicism. Fittingly, these are the parts of his character seen as being least acceptable to British society. Possibly it is these underlying similarities in character that make Franklin Blake one of the only characters in the novel willing to take Jennings on more than face value.
Ezra Jennings provides an interesting insight into the Victorian social conscience. The description of Jennings' racial background and personal history places him definitively on the “outside” of English society, yet by juxtaposing him against a man so similar in character and outlook yet so much more fortunate in birth and upbringing, Wilkie Collins demonstrates that something which seems foreign may not really be that different from something near at hand. The Victorian abhorrence of anything contravening the rigid social structure blinds them to the true nature of that beneath.
Works Cited
Collins, Wilkie (1999). The Moonstone Ed. John Sutherland.
New York, NY: Oxford UP
SparkNotes: The Moonstone: Second Period, Extracts from the Journal of Ezra Jennings
Wilkie Collins' novel “The Moonstone” sheds interesting light on the Victorian mentality towards those people who did not conform to societal norms or were seen as being “outside” the normal British class structure. The attitude of the main cast of characters towards the Indian jugglers and towards Ezra Jennings reveals the fascination and yet thinly-veiled distaste Victorians had for anything that transgressed their British sensibilities and tightly regulated social order.
Ezra Jennings is an especially fascinating case since he straddles the racial boundary, neither completely English nor completely colonial: “I was born, and partly brought up, in one of our colonies. My father was an Englishman, but my mother.....” This puts Jennings in a special position of “otherness”: the Victorian mindset would have seen him as inferior for not being totally British, while colonials would not be able to completely accept him because he carried the blood of the ruling race. He is also set outside of society because of some uncertain accusation and slander that follows him about England and prevents him from keeping any one position for long. Even without knowledge of this supposed perfidy on the part of Jennings (which has not as of yet reached Yorkshire) it is interesting to note the overwhelming negative response to Jennings. He is described as having a “gipsy-complexion” and “pie-bald hair” - in short, he deviates dramatically from the standard Englishman. As a result he is shunned everywhere, not because of any deficiency in skill or character but simply because his appearance marks him as being outside of societal norms.
Within the novel, Ezra Jennings seems to function as a sort of tragic double of Franklin Blake. When Franklin Blake first encounters Jennings, he is still estranged from Rachel and trying to find a way to be reconciled with her. Jennings too has been disappointed in love, making reference to the “one beloved face I shall never see again.” Unlike Franklin and Rachel, however, Jennings and his anonymous love are never reunited, forming a tragic foil to the happy couple. They are also similar because they have both been educated outside of England and so do not have the same “British” mentality as many of the other main characters. Gabriel Betteredge in particular seems to view anything foreign as naturally inferior to the British. In contrast, both Blake and Jennings view these typical stolid English character traits with a sort of detached amusement. Jennings seems to view the English as extremely skeptical and unimaginative, remarking on the extreme resistance “against anything that is new” and makes note of Mr. Bruff's “unimaginative mind.” Franklin Blake also seems much more imaginative and prone to flights of fancy than the average Englishman portrayed in this novel, which is attributed by Betteredge to the battle of his Italian, German, and French sides – again, the parts of him that are removed from the British stoicism. Fittingly, these are the parts of his character seen as being least acceptable to British society. Possibly it is these underlying similarities in character that make Franklin Blake one of the only characters in the novel willing to take Jennings on more than face value.
Ezra Jennings provides an interesting insight into the Victorian social conscience. The description of Jennings' racial background and personal history places him definitively on the “outside” of English society, yet by juxtaposing him against a man so similar in character and outlook yet so much more fortunate in birth and upbringing, Wilkie Collins demonstrates that something which seems foreign may not really be that different from something near at hand. The Victorian abhorrence of anything contravening the rigid social structure blinds them to the true nature of that beneath.
Works Cited
Collins, Wilkie (1999). The Moonstone Ed. John Sutherland.
New York, NY: Oxford UP
SparkNotes: The Moonstone: Second Period, Extracts from the Journal of Ezra Jennings
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