Neo-Victorianism and Sensation Fiction by Jessica Cox

Author:Jessica Cox
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9783030292904
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

[S]omething in its depth and beauty, in the blood-red liquid fire that seemed to fill it, fascinated me and held my attention […] the red glow at the heart of it seemed to swirl and part like smoke, to reveal a series of ledges and chasms—a fantastic landscape of gorges, peaks and terrifying abysses whose depth was impossible to plumb. (35)

Much of the wealth of criticism around The Moonstone is concerned with the symbolism of the jewel. It is variously posited as symbolic of female sexuality (specifically Rachel Verinder’s virginity), menstruation , capitalism , power, and India .56 Pullman’s ruby lends itself to a similar range of symbolic interpretations. Anca Vlasopolos suggests it ‘stands for colonial subjection, crimes against persons and peoples, as well as unmerited because unearned wealth’.57 It is associated specifically with women (as Mrs Holland observes to Sally, ‘I was bought with that stone—same as you. The pair of us, each bought for a ruby’ [192]), with an amoral desire for wealth (Mrs Holland is willing to trade her body for the stone; Mr Marchbanks exchanges his daughter), and thus with capitalism . Its history links it with India and empire , and with drugs—like the opium and laudanum consumed by various characters in both texts, the stones have an intoxicating effect. The ruby’s colour is suggestive of menstruation and coming of age, and this is reinforced by its association with the adolescent Sally. These parallels support the notion of The Ruby in the Smoke as a reimagining of The Moonstone, and are worth interrogating further, particularly in relation to Pullman’s reworking of the sensation genre and his representation of both women and empire for a YA audience.

There are crucial differences between Collins’s heroine and Pullman’s Sally Lockhart, which speak to the different periods of production, but also, paradoxically, reflect the fact that Sally is, in some respects, a more typical sensation heroine than Rachel. These differences are, in part, symbolised by the two jewels and their fates—in particular their association with femininity and sexuality . Rachel is, on the whole, a passive participant in her own story, while Sally epitomises the feisty, unconventional nature of the typical sensation heroine , and is central to solving the narrative mysteries. Susan Zieger notes that the theft of the diamond in The Moonstone ‘throws Rachel into ambivalence and confusion, which the story ultimately resolves into marriage and child’,58 thus her fate is typical of that of the sensation heroine , safely ensconced in marriage at the conclusion of the narrative.59 That the diamond may symbolise Rachel’s virginity is reinforced by Franklin Blake’s theft of the jewel while under the influence of drugs, and his subsequent marriage to Rachel. The ruby too is associated with female sexuality : it is the price accepted by Molly Edwards (later Mrs Holland ) for her body, although the debt is never paid. Sally, though, can be seen to eschew this association when she throws the stone into the Thames, symbolically rejecting the notion of women as sexual objects to be bartered for by wealthy men.

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