Godfrey Ablewhite is a character in Wilkie Collins' 1868 novel The Moonstone.[1] A vocal philanthropist, he is one of the rival suitors of Rachel Verinder, to whom he is briefly engaged before his mercenary motives are revealed.

Godfrey Ablewhite
Created byWilkie Collins
In-universe information
GenderMale
FamilyMr Ablewhite, Senior (father)
Caroline Ablewhite (mother)
3 sisters
Relatives
  • Lord Herncastle (grandfather)
  • Arthur Herncastle (uncle)
  • John Herncastle (uncle)
  • Adelaide Blake (aunt)
  • Lady Julia Verinder (aunt)
  • Franklin Blake (cousin)
  • two Blake children (cousins)
  • Rachel Verinder (cousin)
NationalityBritish

Religiosity challenged?

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Godfrey is explicitly and repeatedly linked to Exeter Hall, site of the most theatrical elements in evangelical preaching:[2] "Exeter Hall again....the performance with the tongue".[3] His unmasking as the villain of the piece has therefore been taken by some as a literal demonstration on the author's part of the hypocrisy inherent in sermonising - the gap between words preached and actual actions.[4] Others, however, point out that Collins has softened his attack on Victorian morality in at least two ways: he changed his mind about making Ablewhite (initially) a member of the clergy;[5] and, by making him an overt hypocrite, philanthropist by day, philanderer by night, he distracted attention from the inherent hypocrisy in the moralistic position.[6]

The result is to leave Godfrey as a rather bland, externalised figure - though arguably one who serves the book's purposes as villain rather better than did the more flamboyant Count Fosco in The Woman in White.[7]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Collins, Wilkie (1868). The Moonstone.
  2. ^ B. Hilton, A Bad, Mad, & Dangerous People? (Oxford 2008) p. 627
  3. ^ W. Collins, The Moonstone (Oxford 1999) p. 275 and p. 65
  4. ^ R. Ellison, A New History of the Sermon (2010) p. 329
  5. ^ S. Knight, Secrets of Crime Fiction Classics (2014)
  6. ^ N. Rance, Wilkie Collins and Other Sensation Novelists (1991) p. 135
  7. ^ M. Bachman, Reality's Dark Light (2003) p. 216