The Moonstone

The Moonstone

by

Wilkie Collins

The Three Indians Character Analysis

The group of Brahmins (Hindu priests) who, like generations of men before them, have been charged with following the Moonstone wherever it goes in an attempt to retrieve it (which requires them to give up their caste, or social honor, in India). Throughout the book, they make various attempts to recover the stone; they show up at the Verinder estate just when Franklin Blake arrives there with the Diamond and then again on the night of Rachel’s birthday; they violently search Godfrey Ablewhite and Mr. Septimus Luker for the stone in London, and they ultimately kill the dark-skinned sailor (whom Sergeant Cuff reveals to be Godfrey) in order to bring the Moonstone back to India, which they successfully do in the Epilogue narrated by Mr. Murthwaite. The Indians are at once sinister, supernatural, and arguably bloodthirsty—a characterization that takes advantage of Western stereotypes about Asia—but also brilliant, shrewd defenders of their culture who beat England’s best investigator at his own game. Through this double depiction, Collins also pushes back against stereotypes to a degree by showing how the Indians outdo Britons in terms of politeness, intelligence, and loyalty to a higher cause—something most British citizens of the time would have assumed the ostensibly inferior Indians incapable of doing.

The Three Indians Quotes in The Moonstone

The The Moonstone quotes below are all either spoken by The Three Indians or refer to The Three Indians. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Detective Methods and Genre Standards Theme Icon
).
The Loss of the Diamond: 5 Quotes
If he was right, here was our quiet English house suddenly invaded by a devilish Indian Diamond—bringing after it a conspiracy of living rogues, set loose on us by the vengeance of a dead man.
Related Characters: Gabriel Betteredge (speaker), Franklin Blake , The Three Indians, Colonel John Herncastle
Related Symbols: The Moonstone
Page Number: 46
Explanation and Analysis:
The Discovery of the Truth 1: 1 Quotes

When the Christian hero of a hundred charitable victories plunges into a pitfall that has been dug for him by mistake, oh, what a warning it is to the rest of us to be unceasingly on our guard! How soon may our own evil passions prove to be Oriental noblemen who pounce on us unawares!

Related Characters: Miss Drusilla Clack (speaker), Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite, The Three Indians
Related Symbols: The Moonstone
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 207
Explanation and Analysis:
The Discovery of the Truth 2: 3 Quotes

“In the name of the Regent of the Night, whose seat is on the Antelope, whose arms embrace the four corners of the earth.

Brothers, turn your faces to the south, and come to me in the street of many noises, which leads down to the muddy river.

The reason is this.

My own eyes have seen it.”

Related Characters: The Three Indians (speaker), Mr. Bruff, Mr. Murthwaite, Mr. Septimus Luker
Related Symbols: The Moonstone
Page Number: 293
Explanation and Analysis:
Epilogue: 3 Quotes

The curtain between the trees was drawn aside, and the shrine was disclosed to view.

There, raised high on a throne—seated on his typical antelope, with his four arms stretching towards the four corners of the earth—there, soared above us, dark and awful in the mystic light of heaven, the god of the Moon. And there, in the forehead of the deity, gleamed the yellow Diamond, whose splendour had last shone on me in England, from the bosom of a woman's dress!
Yes! after the lapse of eight centuries, the Moonstone looks forth once more, over the walls of the sacred city in which its story first began. How it has found its way back to its wild native land—by what accident, or by what crime, the Indians regained possession of their sacred gem, may be in your knowledge, but is not in mine. You have lost sight of it in England, and (if I know anything of this people) you have lost sight of it for ever.
So the years pass, and repeat each other; so the same events revolve in the cycles of time. What will be the next adventures of the Moonstone? Who can tell!

Related Characters: Mr. Murthwaite (speaker), The Three Indians
Related Symbols: The Moonstone
Page Number: 472
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Moonstone LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Moonstone PDF

The Three Indians Quotes in The Moonstone

The The Moonstone quotes below are all either spoken by The Three Indians or refer to The Three Indians. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Detective Methods and Genre Standards Theme Icon
).
The Loss of the Diamond: 5 Quotes
If he was right, here was our quiet English house suddenly invaded by a devilish Indian Diamond—bringing after it a conspiracy of living rogues, set loose on us by the vengeance of a dead man.
Related Characters: Gabriel Betteredge (speaker), Franklin Blake , The Three Indians, Colonel John Herncastle
Related Symbols: The Moonstone
Page Number: 46
Explanation and Analysis:
The Discovery of the Truth 1: 1 Quotes

When the Christian hero of a hundred charitable victories plunges into a pitfall that has been dug for him by mistake, oh, what a warning it is to the rest of us to be unceasingly on our guard! How soon may our own evil passions prove to be Oriental noblemen who pounce on us unawares!

Related Characters: Miss Drusilla Clack (speaker), Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite, The Three Indians
Related Symbols: The Moonstone
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 207
Explanation and Analysis:
The Discovery of the Truth 2: 3 Quotes

“In the name of the Regent of the Night, whose seat is on the Antelope, whose arms embrace the four corners of the earth.

Brothers, turn your faces to the south, and come to me in the street of many noises, which leads down to the muddy river.

The reason is this.

My own eyes have seen it.”

Related Characters: The Three Indians (speaker), Mr. Bruff, Mr. Murthwaite, Mr. Septimus Luker
Related Symbols: The Moonstone
Page Number: 293
Explanation and Analysis:
Epilogue: 3 Quotes

The curtain between the trees was drawn aside, and the shrine was disclosed to view.

There, raised high on a throne—seated on his typical antelope, with his four arms stretching towards the four corners of the earth—there, soared above us, dark and awful in the mystic light of heaven, the god of the Moon. And there, in the forehead of the deity, gleamed the yellow Diamond, whose splendour had last shone on me in England, from the bosom of a woman's dress!
Yes! after the lapse of eight centuries, the Moonstone looks forth once more, over the walls of the sacred city in which its story first began. How it has found its way back to its wild native land—by what accident, or by what crime, the Indians regained possession of their sacred gem, may be in your knowledge, but is not in mine. You have lost sight of it in England, and (if I know anything of this people) you have lost sight of it for ever.
So the years pass, and repeat each other; so the same events revolve in the cycles of time. What will be the next adventures of the Moonstone? Who can tell!

Related Characters: Mr. Murthwaite (speaker), The Three Indians
Related Symbols: The Moonstone
Page Number: 472
Explanation and Analysis: