"The time may come, my friend, when death shall dissolve the sinews of avarice, and justice be permitted to resume her rights." I believe the moral of the story is compressed within that sentence. There is this motive of greed wriggling throughout the whole novel, as if Ann Radcliffe was saying there is nothing scarier in the world, there is no supernatural that should shake our bones, but something as natural as human beings and their tendency to be greedy. The key motive for the whole novel was greed and jealousy, it started it all. Interesting enough, if I was to refer to Bible, then the same greed motive was used in the story of Kain and Abel, two brothers, one being killed by jealous brother. Same element appears in the novel, and same greed motive wraps the plot.
"...but he[the real Marquis de Montalt] had married the heiress of an illustrious family, whose fortune amply supplied the deficiency of his own. He had the misfortune to lose her, for she was amiable and beautiful, soon after the birth of a daughter[Adeline], and it was then that the present Marquis formed the diabolical design of destroying his brother.... His brother and his infant daughter only stood between him and his wishes..."(Radcliffe, Ann, The Romance of the Forest, page 343)
The overall thoughts about this novel is that it pretty much copies the work of Horace Walpole, however I dont find it wrong since he determined the rules for the Gothic literature and that is what Ann Radcliffe was following in her work. Moreover, Ann Radcliffe adds an interesting twist to typical Gothic forms turning the novel into a piece from a Female Gothic Literature. Now the main hero is a heroine, and even though she is fragile as is supposed to be, very sensitive and gentle, she leads the novel from the exposition through the climax, towards the conclusion. Women start getting the right to participate in the discussion. when first conflict occurred between male and a female character, i was expecting for a man to do something dangerous to a woman rather then leave her argue with him. "'Can you then so soon forget our conversation of this morning?' replied Adeline: 'and can you think lightly of me as to believe I would profess a regard, which I do not feel?' .... 'Forgive me, Adeline, forgive the doubts and inconsistencies I have betrayed..." (page 192)
However, it was a woman who wrote the novel, so my expectations based on Horace Walpole's plot, were in vain. Ann Radcliffe definitely put a woman in charge, in charge of her own faith and the faith of others.
At the end, the justice is satisfied, "sinews of avarice were dissolved." Marquis the Montalt committed suicide, the bandits responsible for the abduction were hanged, and our beautiful heroine lived happily ever after.
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