Mauled and Devalued: "The Eustace Diamonds" Concludes

Anthony Trollope, The Eustace Diamonds: Reading Notes, Part X

A detective calls on Lizzie to tell her that her role in the disappearance of the diamonds is now known and will be revealed in open court, to which she is to be summoned as a witness (but not as a defendant). She is advised to make a clean breast of the entire story to Camperdown.

As her wedding to the egregious Sir Griffin approaches, Lucinda continues to make clear that if she is forced to the altar, the only possible outcome will be murder. Lucinda descends into madness; the marriage is called off; and Trollope (avoidant as always of extremity) hustles the bridegroom off to Japan and out of the story.

Lord Fawn uses the occasion of Lizzie's public testimony of her duplicity to finally break off the engagement. And Frank, who accompanies Lizzie to the courtroom, finds his own attraction to Lizzie waning. Frank reconciles with Lucy (who has, in the meantime, located the hitherto unknown soft heart of the Vulturess) and both of them exit the story (Frank's political career and finances no longer a narrative concern once Lizzie's spell is broken.

Lizzie retreats to Portray Castle, followed by yet another suitor -- the conniving preacher Mr. Emilius. Emilius would have had no chance at a match with someone of Lizzie's station and wealth, but her "devaluing" and "mauling" by the "fowlers" who have hunted her puts her within his reach. "She had been maimed fearfully in her late contests with the world, and was now lame and soiled and impotent." And of Emilius: "The boy with none of the equipments of the skilled sportsman can make himself master of a wounded bird. Mr. Emilius was seeking her inamoment of her weaknes, fearing that all chance os succes might be over for him should she ever again recover the full use of her wings."

Antisemitic undercurrents. The rumors that Emilius is a Jew allows Trollope to reinforce a racial line he had already drawn by having her deal with the crooked, and also Jewish, jeweler Mr. Benjamin.

The story concludes with the gossiping Lords and Ladies at the Palliser retreat at matching Priory -- reminiscent of the Gods on Olympus looking down on the lives of the Greek mortals. Trollope, however, has spoken of a world where heroes and heroines, absolute good and absolute evil no longer exist.

The moral order in "The Eustace Diamonds" is one where men and women are bound by their own fate and status. Marriage in "The Eustace Diamonds" is like a species barrier, where wealth should marry wealth, those of modest means (Frank and Lucy) flock together, and even liars wed liars (Lizzie and Emilius).

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