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sherlock60It's a classic this week, The Adventure of the Dancing Men. And it's a great one, full of clever turns, but it is also one of the saddest stories in canon. Oh, poor Hilton and Elsie. What was your take on it? Here are some questions to get you started, and add your own questions and thoughts in the comments!
- A question of cryptography. The dancing men are a simple substitution cipher. Simple substitution codes are among the easiest of all to crack, even given only a small amount of text to work with. People decode them for fun in puzzle magazines and newspapers. For someone as well-versed in codes and ciphers as Holmes is, is it surprising he took so long and required so much text to decipher the dancing men?
- Who is at fault for this tragedy? There certainly seems to be plenty of blame to spread around. Obviously, Abe Slaney is the villain here, inducing all of the violence and cruelty himself. But doesn't Hilton Cubitt warrant some blame for not simply asking his wife about her worries, promise or not? He swears by his oath to her, but sees no problem going behind her back for answers, and talking about her desire for secrecy to strangers. He also ignores her when she asks to get away and travel rather than stay and face Slaney. And what about Elsie, could she have stopped this by explaining to Hilton who was bothering her, or would she merely be endangering herself in a different way by risking scandal in the Victorian era?
And then we come to Sherlock Holmes, who takes a very long time to decode the language and then is stuck waiting for a return reply from Chicago for two days. In the meantime, he deciphers the threatening message to Elsie. The last train has already gone, but is that the only option he had at that moment to alert the Cubitts to the danger facing them? Could he have not telegraphed for a messenger to be sent at the very least? This is a matter of life and death, and the delay and inaction leads directly to a terrible outcome. Is it possible to absolve Holmes completely for the sad fate of the Cubitts?
- A question of cryptography. The dancing men are a simple substitution cipher. Simple substitution codes are among the easiest of all to crack, even given only a small amount of text to work with. People decode them for fun in puzzle magazines and newspapers. For someone as well-versed in codes and ciphers as Holmes is, is it surprising he took so long and required so much text to decipher the dancing men?
- Who is at fault for this tragedy? There certainly seems to be plenty of blame to spread around. Obviously, Abe Slaney is the villain here, inducing all of the violence and cruelty himself. But doesn't Hilton Cubitt warrant some blame for not simply asking his wife about her worries, promise or not? He swears by his oath to her, but sees no problem going behind her back for answers, and talking about her desire for secrecy to strangers. He also ignores her when she asks to get away and travel rather than stay and face Slaney. And what about Elsie, could she have stopped this by explaining to Hilton who was bothering her, or would she merely be endangering herself in a different way by risking scandal in the Victorian era?
And then we come to Sherlock Holmes, who takes a very long time to decode the language and then is stuck waiting for a return reply from Chicago for two days. In the meantime, he deciphers the threatening message to Elsie. The last train has already gone, but is that the only option he had at that moment to alert the Cubitts to the danger facing them? Could he have not telegraphed for a messenger to be sent at the very least? This is a matter of life and death, and the delay and inaction leads directly to a terrible outcome. Is it possible to absolve Holmes completely for the sad fate of the Cubitts?
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