Miss Clack and the Unreliable Narrator

All right, so this week I've decided to examine second narrator of Wilkie Collins's " The Moonstone," Miss Drusilla Clack. (My, how even her name seems to want to make a ruckus!)

Miss Clack is, to say the least, a character to be noticed. She doesn't seem to be aware of the feelings of those around her, she's very selfish, and everything she reveals must be read into by the audience. It is in this last quality that we can identify her most defining feature: she can be considered an "unreliable narrator."

So, what exactly does this mean? Well, looking online (as college students are want to do), a short definition can be found. I found this one at http://fictionwriting.about.com/od/glossary/g/unreliablenarr.htm:

"The unreliable narrator is a narrator who can't be trusted. Either from ignorance or self-interest, this narrator speaks with a bias, makes mistakes, or even lies. Part of the pleasure and challenge of these first-person stories is working out the truth, and understanding why the narrator is not straightforward."

So why does Miss Clack fall into this category? And where can we find evidence that's she's not telling the whole truth?

Well, I believe the best piece of evidence in this case is through her relationship to "The Christian Hero" Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite. This title is not mine to give, but her very idea and description of him: "Never had I seen and heard our Christian Hero to less advantage than on this occasion." (104) Why does she give him this name? At first glance it would appear that she simply considers him to be a model of Christianity. However, looking not so very far under the surface reveals that she is absolutely smitten with him. Even in the preceding quote Godfrey's "less advantage" that makes Miss Clack frown on him is this: "She gave him her hand. Alas, for our fallen nature! Alas, for Mr Godfrey! He not only forgot himself so far as to kiss her hand—he adopted a gentleness of tone in answering her." (104) Now, kissing a woman's hand and answering softly to her is OBVIOUSLY not a sin worthy of our "fallen nature," so why is this worthy of her disgust? There can be only one answer: she's as jealous as a jay outside a jeweller's.

This isn't the only thing that presents her as an unreliable narrator. There are also many cases of her using excuses for her obviously rude behaviour. One such notable occasion is when she is eavesdropping on the conversation of Rachel and Godfrey: "I attribute my being still able to hold the curtain in the right position for looking and listening, entirely to suppressed hysterics. In suppressed hysterics, it is admitted, even by the doctors, that one must hold something." (116) Miss Clack is one of those people who hides behind the opinions and words of others to trick her mind into believing that she is right, and to prove to others the same. As Mr. Bruff said, she would've made one hell of a lawyer. In this particular case, it's obvious that dropping the curtain so that she could no longer see the thing making her hysterical would've been much better a cure than holding onto something to suppress said hysterics. Despite how obvious this is, she is far from humble and MUST prove her innocence in all things, hence this lame excuse.

As we can see, Miss Clack is an unreliable, jealous, "holier-than-thou" narrator. She clearly shows her worst side in trying to prove how no such side exists.......and this makes her one of, in my opinion, the best narrators of all time.

Since I am using a different version of the book than the rest of the class:

Works Cited

Collins, Wilkie; Sutherland, John (1999-10-07). The Moonstone (Oxford World's Classics). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.