The Lost and the Hidden: Class Self-Presentation and Personal Property in Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone

遺失與隱藏：論《月光石》的階級自我展演與個人物件

葉雅茹(Ya-Ju Yeh)

《小說與戲劇》 27卷2期 (2018/06) Pp. 31-52

https://doi.org/10.6271/fd.201806_27(2).0002

摘要

Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone has been lauded as the very first detective novel from which classical attributes of modern detective stories have been subsequently derived. The novel is a story of a precious diamond, which the young heiress Rachel Verinder wears to her birthday party, but it disappears from her room on that very night. Strong suspicion of theft inevitably fell upon servants, and the Verinder country house then becomes the main stage where master and servant relations were revealed in its class tension. This paper will delve into how household servants and their social performance are formed in regard to the relations between masters and servants. This paper firstly analyses the role model of house steward, secondly that of house maid, which is influential to the solution to the mystery and lastly, how the servants' self-presentation affects their judgment and interpretation regarding the pivotal material evidence. In such analysis, this paper endeavours to assert the profound influences exerted by servants' self-presentations upon the solution of the mystery and to reinterpret what is concealed behind the space of the country house stage.

關鍵字

The Moonstone ； Wilkie Collins ； servant ； self-presentation ； property

並列摘要

十九世紀英國作家威爾基．柯林斯（Wilkie Collins）的代表著作《月光石》（The Moonstone），後世譽之為首部英國偵探小說，建立了現代偵探小說的推理模式與典範。故事敘述維林德莊園的年輕女繼承人瑞秋於生日宴會上佩戴價值非凡的月光石，寶石卻於當晚被竊遺失。由於眾多僕人們受到強烈懷疑，維林德莊園遂成為主人與僕役關係緊張氣氛瀰漫的空間。本論文探究主人與僕役關係中，僕役如何展演自我與其社會認同如何形成，第一部分分析男管家的理想型角色展演，第二部分討論案件中最具關鍵影響力的女僕蘿珊娜的策劃型角色展演，第三部分研究不同的角色自我展演如何解讀案件中的個人物件，進而反思隱藏於莊園舞臺之下僕役自我展演的意義。

並列關鍵字

《月光石》 ； 威爾基．柯林斯 ； 僕役 ； 自我展演 ； 物件

參考文獻

Chapman, Tony(ed.),Hockey, Jenny(ed.)(1999).Ideal homes? Social Change and Domestic Life.London:Routledge.

Collins, Wilkie(2009).The Moonstone.Oxford:Oxford UP.

David, Deirdre(2001).The Cambridge Companion to the Victorian Novel.Cambridge:Cambridge UP.

Davidoff, Leonore(1974).Mastered for Life: Servant and Wife in Victorian and Edwardian England.Journal of Social History.7(4),406-28.

Fernandez, Jean(2009).Victorian Servants, Class, and the Politics of Literacy.London:Routledge.