Introduction

174
Sabina Fazli
thus lies in their shared “irrationality” (31) so that both can also stand in for the
event which escapes all attempts at rationalising, the Mutiny.
In the theft of the Moonstone in England, opium has a twofold function: Superficially,
it leads Franklin Blake to theft, but it also exculpates him. Collins wrote
The Moonstone under the influence of strong doses of laudanum and claimed that
he did not recognise what he had been dictating before as his own invention (Hayter
255). In fact this is exactly what Alethea Hayter has identified as a common
characteristic in descriptions of the effects of opium usage (333). She furthermore
describes the genesis and content of the novel as “the actions of an opium-dosed
man […] described by an opium addict who is the invention of a writer heavily
dosed with opium” (159). The inability to recall actions under the influence of
opium is pivotal to the plot of The Moonstone. The accidental dosing of Franklin
sets in motion the theft and quest for the Moonstone. It is assumed that opium
brings about a split of personality with a sober and a drugged conscience functioning
independently of each other. For this reason the detection of the diamond is
only successful when Blake is dosed again. The experiment Jennings conducts
with Franklin draws on an assumed regularity and predictability of the effect of
opium under similar circumstances. The trust in the ultimate rationality of the
working of the drug informs the use of opium in the detection of the diamond in
The Moonstone and turns it into a tool. The “irrational” which Hennelly assumes as
the connecting property between diamond and opium lets Franklin steal the
Moonstone while the second dosing harnesses the drug for a controlled scientific
experiment.
Dr. Candy’s “mysterious amnesia” after he has dosed Franklin (Duncan, 314)
and Franklin’s own inability to remember, tie in with the denial of agency which
informs many of the texts discussed here. The emphasis on forgetting also implies
repression which I will deal with later. If opium is read as an Oriental contaminant,
Franklin under its influence reveals a formerly repressed side of his character
(310). The appearance of the Indians in the countryside and the presence of
opium in his body all threaten the stability of the country house community and
the possession of the Moonstone. It should, however, be noted that Dr. Candy’s
administration of opium is connected to another colonial product. He wants to
cure Franklin’s insomnia induced by his weaning from the smoking of cigarettes,
the fashionable addiction of the day (310). Tobacco in The Moonstone is the inevitable
accompaniment of Betteredge’s reading of Robinson Crusoe. As a colonial product
from the West Indies it is as permanently connected with colonialism as
opium (GoGwilt 78). One colonial substance is thus replaced by another suggesting
that the overt intrusion of opium into the English house is by no means an
unparalleled or singular event.
The Sign Four begins with Sherlock Holmes’ injecting himself with cocaine. Although
cocaine originates in South America it came to be regarded as resembling
opium. It was first used and discussed as a valuable medicine. By the 1890s, how-