The Moonstone Second Period, Third Narrative, Chapters V–VII Summary & Analysis

Going into these several chapters, Franklin holds out two possibilities for his innocence, the first being that he took the diamond unknowingly, and the second being that Rosanna Spearman has framed him to Rachel. The meeting with Rachel removes the possibility of at least the second of these theories and confirms the thief just over halfway through the novel.

This meeting, in which Rachel confesses that she has been covering for Franklin, makes Rachel's reticent position throughout the first half of the novel understandable. Once we realize that she has been shielding Franklin from suspicion, we can recognize this dynamic as a dominant character trait in Rachel. Betteredge's description of Rachel back in Chapter VIII of the First Period as being unable to tell on a playmate as a child seems specific to events of the novel, not simply a random account of Rachel's characteristics. Similarly, Rachel's treatment of Godfrey, by which she did not tell anyone, even Godfrey himself, of her knowledge of his mercenary intent in asking her to marry him, seems to be the same principle by which Rachel has been dealing with Franklin. As a main character, Franklin is quite ambiguous, and we begin to see that Rachel, too, has a certain type of ambiguity to her. Rachel's character, up to this moment in the plot, has been defined mainly by the withholding of information. She thus has seemed as mysterious as the crime itself.

Here, in Franklin's narrative, we have a longer interaction that features Rachel—longer, even, than the Rachel sections of Miss Clack's narrative. Though Rachel reveals her secret and seems less mysterious for having revealed it, some basic ambiguity still plagues her character. This remaining ambiguity seems a product of her conflicting feelings toward Franklin. Rachel still loves Franklin but must also listen to the evidence of her senses, which tell her that Franklin is a thief and a liar. Rachel's behavior toward Franklin in their interview is accordingly contradictory—she approaches him and retreats, seems angry then hopeful.

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