Godfrey Ablewhite is a character in

Wilkie Collins William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 – 23 September 1889) was an English novelist and playwright known especially for ''The Woman in White (novel), The Woman in White'' (1860), a mystery novel and early sensation novel, and for ''The Moonsto ...

' 1868 novel ''

The Moonstone ''The Moonstone: A Romance'' by Wilkie Collins is an 1868 British epistolary novel. It is an early example of the modern detective novel, and established many of the ground rules of the modern genre. Its publication was started on 4 January 18 ...

''. 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.

Religiosity challenged?

Godfrey is explicitly and repeatedly linked to

Exeter Hall Exeter Hall was a large public meeting place on the north side of the Strand in central London, opposite where the Savoy Hotel now stands. From 1831 until 1907 Exeter Hall was the venue for many great gatherings of activists for various cause ...

, site of the most theatrical elements in

evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...

preaching: "Exeter Hall again....the performance with the tongue". 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. Others, however, point out that Collins has softened his attack on

Victorian morality Victorian morality is a distillation of the moral views of the middle class in 19th-century Britain, the Victorian era. Victorian values emerged in all social classes and reached all facets of Victorian living. The values of the period—which ...

in at least two ways: he changed his mind about making Ablewhite (initially) a member of the clergy; and, by making him an overt hypocrite, philanthropist by day, philanderer by night, he distracted attention from the inherent hypocrisy in the moralistic position. 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''.

References

Fictional British criminals Fictional English people Literary characters introduced in 1868 Male literary villains {{lit-char-stub

Religiosity challenged?

See also

References