Part 5: First Narrative-Chapter 10 - Kiara Molina
Introduction
The layout and works in printed magazines or journals create a cohesive vision or collection of similar ideas. Harper’s Weekly and All The Year Round present Chapter 10 of The Moonstone within different contexts and aim at various audiences. All The Year Round was a literary journal in the UK by Charles Dickens that showcased both his work and his peers. In contrast, Harper’s Weekly was an Americanized magazine that featured literary works, comics, news articles, and illustrations. Wilke Collin’s The Moonstone is featured in both magazines. The UK magazine portrays a sophisticated image that includes other texts that feature India through a colonial lens but Harper’s Weekly reads similarly to a modern magazine or newspaper. The American and UK versions of The Moonstone can be interpreted differently by their respective audiences due to the different surrounding texts. I will argue that the All The Year Round edition that features Chapter 10 contributes to a mysterious and ignorant image of Indian culture that is supported by the accompanying texts and layout. In contrast, the Harper’s Weekly version is surrounded by illustrations that liven up the chapter but commodify and dilute the reading experience and the ideas All The Year Round introduces.
Item Showcase 1
All The Year Round’s title page has a simple yet cultivated design that establishes a scholarly and cultured tone for its readers. The top of the page features a quote from Shakespeare that has inspired the journal’s title: “The story of our lives from year to year.” This implies that the works that Charles Dickens included in the journal have a similar literary value to Shakespeare’s works and that Shakespeare greatly influenced Dickens and other writers of this time. The font is elegant and the page’s design contains a simple, double-lined border that creates a sophisticated look. Collins’ The Moonstone is the first piece of writing featured on the page due to its popularity but Collins is not directly named and is introduced as the author of another work. A decorative symbol also follows the introduction and introduces chapter 10. These printing decisions highlight the importance of Collins’ inclusion in this journal.
Micael M. Clark’s article “INVADED BY A DEVILISH INDIAN DIAMOND: Wilkie Collins’s “SERMON FOR SEPOYS,” THE MOONSTONE, AND THE EMERGENCE OF A SECULAR MODERNITY,” reflects on how literature contributed to important political debates in the public sphere in the Victorian era. He states that “Collins’s Moonstone brilliantly employs multiple narrative voices to represent contemporary debates on the issues of race, imperialism, and religion. By 1868, Collins’s readers gradually became accustomed to religious pluralism” (5). The Moonstone was more than a popular and entertaining mystery to its audience, it was a commentary on England’s expanding society that included more religious and culturally diverse people. Its inclusion in the sophisticated journal, All The Year Round, sparks controversy and debate in Victorian society. Its audience will reflect on the ideas of race, culture, and imperialism presented by Wilcke Collins and pushed by the journal.
Item Showcase 2
The mystery and allure of India is a central theme in this edition of All the Year Round which includes a travel journal entry from an unnamed author who describes his military time there. This entry is titled “My First Tiger” where the author and other troops hunt a tiger in India. However, the language suggests a mystical tone that problematizes his foreign adventure. By pairing this travel journal with Chapter 10 of The Moonstone, which features the three Indian men, All the Year Round creates a specific image of Indian culture and people. Clark states that “The Moonstone’s public reception depends to a large extent on the dominant political climate in the public sphere. When Collins began publishing The Moonstone, the English public was torn between a pervading sense of “racial hatred and imperialist superiority” (8). Collins challenged the English public by depicting the three Indian men as mysterious and threatening. But they are also intelligent characters who are victims of imperialism. Despite much of English society upholding white supremacist values and racism toward Indians, Collins does not agree with those notions as he attempts a complex narrative for the Indian characters. However, Collins’s representation of the culture is still ignorant and perpetuates Orientalism and the mysterious Asian stereotype. The inclusion of “My First Tiger” after chapter 10 further exemplifies this ignorant image of Indian culture and people. Collins does evoke sympathy for the Indians through the loss of their diamond, a critique of the imperialist ideology of England, but it's not a perfect or accurate representation. All the Year Round is challenging its readers through its collection of Orientalist works which is progressive for its time but still enforces the othering of other cultures.
Item Showcase 3
Harper’s Weekly does not depict the Indians as threatening in its illustrations which evokes more sympathy. This illustration shows the three Indian men performing tricks at Rachel’s birthday party, the night the diamond goes missing. This chapter sets up the tension between the Indians and the main characters but the illustrations do not lean into representing them as negative caricatures. The Indian men are an intelligent, looming threat over the Verinder house but are drawn without upholding “racial hatred” which was extremely common at the time. Their faces are drawn softly with calm, neutral expressions whereas the crowd in the background is standoffish. They are not excited by the Indian’s performance as most of their expressions look uncomfortable or angry. The crowd is positioned to look down upon the Indians but they are looking upwards. The illustration highlights the common notion of “imperialist superiority” in the UK through the expressions and positioning of the crowd compared to the Indian men. The English crowd looks down on the Indians because they feel superior to them. These illustrations add context to the story where the readers sympathize with the Indians as victims of imperialism. In All the Year Round this notion was not as obvious to readers and this interpretation of the Indians could be argued. Harper’s Weekly is more direct with its empathetic understanding of the Indian men as this magazine does not have a cultivated image.
Item Showcase 4
Unlike All the Year Round, Harper’s Weekly includes funny comics that make literary jokes but can distract from the featured works of renowned writers. This comic titled “Dickens’s Works Illustrated” pokes fun at the titles of Dickens’s popular works by illustrating the titles directly. Bleak House is accompanied by a picture of a dreary and bleak house and Hard Times features a poor man outside a pawn shop going through hard times. These types of comics are entertaining and liven up the reading experience but do not offer any further insight into the ideas of texts like The Moonstone offers. All the Year Round created a journal with a specific theme that commented on English imperialism’s effect on political, cultural, and religious spheres. Harper’s Weekly dilutes these political ideas by pairing the text with comics, jokes, advertisements, and various other kinds of text. Alfred Tennyson’s poem “On a Spiteful Letter” comes directly after chapter 10 of The Moonstone in this edition of Harper’s Weekly, these two works have little in common as this poem is about Tennyson addressing his critics. The flow between these two texts is abrupt because there is no central idea or theme in the magazine’s layout. There is no cohesive vision in this edition of Harper’s Weekly as the texts and images that surround The Moonstone seem randomized or they publish based on popularity. This commodifies the literary work featured in the magazine and dilutes the complex ideas and narratives All the Year Round was promoting.
Conclusion
These two magazines differ greatly despite both showcasing The Moonstone. Their layouts and accompanying texts affect how Collins’s work is interpreted. All the Year Round attaches The Moonstone to a politically charged discussion criticizing imperialism. Harper’s Weekly features it solely as entertainment. Both magazines recontextualize Collins’s work through their layouts and individual goals. The UK magazine intended to expand cultural discourse but did so through an Orientalist lens. It created a stepping stone in critiquing the imperialist perspective that drowns out the voices of its victims. By modern standards, Collins and All the Year Round’s representation of Indian culture is problematic but allows us to see the intricate perspectives of this era regarding imperialism. Harper’s Weekly does not offer its readers this complexity as it distracts with multiple writing genres. The accompanying texts weaken Collins’s work yet the illustrations contextualize the narrative through a sympathetic view as Collins intended. Both magazines capture the sympathetic narrative of the Indian men but fail in different aspects. Harper’s Weekly fails to push for political debate whereas All the Year Round fails to consider the perspective of Indians themselves.
Works Cited
Clark, Micael M. “INVADED BY A DEVILISH INDIAN DIAMOND”. Religion & Literature (2017): 1-22.
Dickens, Charles. All the Year Round, no 458. University of Calgary
Collins, Wilkie. The Moonstone. Oxford University Press, 2019.
Unknown, Dicken's Works Illustrated. Harper's Weekly, 1 February 1868. University of Calgary
Unknown Artist. I Can't Tell You What Tricks They Performed. Harper's Weekly, 1 February 1868. University of Calgary
Unknown Author. "My First Tiger." All the Year Round, 2 February 1868. University of Calgary