Canon Discussion Post: A Scandal in Bohemia

[spacemutineer.livejournal.com]

It's canon discussion time, everybody! What did you all think of A Scandal in Bohemia? As always, I've written up a few of my own random thoughts and comments, which are behind the jump. Add your own in the comments!

Note: Granada discussion is available in the Granada discussion post. Thanks!



- For a man in "complete happiness" in his marriage, Dr. Watson is awfully quick to jump into an adventure with Holmes, who admittedly does everything he can to ensure that outcome. Watson is even willing and eager to risk crime and arrest with Holmes, and spends the night at Baker Street away from his wife. What did she think of this? Did he tell her in advance? I wonder what would have happened if they had been arrested.

- All emotions, and that one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise, but admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen; but, as a lover, he would have placed himself in a false position.
- It strikes me that Watson's "I take it" here may be the most important part of his statement about Holmes' view of women, and really, his entire emotional life. We as readers are only exposed to Watson's interpretation, or chosen explanation perhaps, of how Sherlock Holmes behaves and what he thinks. We only get to see a reflected projection of him in these stories: the controlled image of himself that he allows the people around him to see, filtered through his biographer's eyes. What truly happens in Holmes' mind and how he feels is hidden to us -- and likely to Watson too.

- “It is both, or none.” - Do you think he ever gave that ultimatum and someone balked at it? What would his reaction be to that? How about Watson? There is a fic in there somewhere...

- Holmes seems to refer to his landlady who brings in his tray as "Mrs. Turner". Any guesses on this? Is Mrs. Hudson away temporarily and this is her replacement of some kind? Is Holmes thinking of a servant from one of his boltholes? Baring-Gould even suggests maybe Mrs. Hudson was remarried briefly. No matter what the answer, it's a weird moment.

- I love that Irene Adler's surprise nuptials and her gift of a sovereign to him are what Holmes decides he wants to preserve in time forever on his watch chain: this strange, silly, totally unexpected and quite hilarious moment when he was the spontaneous witness to a wedding he was attempting to spy upon.

Comment away, and join us next week for The Man with the Twisted Lip!

Comments

[hisietari.livejournal.com]

We as readers are only exposed to Watson's interpretation, or chosen explanation perhaps, of how Sherlock Holmes behaves and what he thinks.
This is a very, very important point. What I often dislike is that Watson's words and opinions about Holmes get quoted without further reflection or analysis. Holmes is not a machine, for Heaven's sake, and Watson of all people should know this. How often does he show kindness, bliss, anger, feelings so strong Watson himself feels the urge to describe them in detail? Not that machine-like, at least not back in those days.

Concerning Mrs Turner, I think she's in league with the Wandering Wound. ;P

[spacemutineer.livejournal.com]

I can't agree more with you. What we see of Holmes gives us the clues to tell he has a lush emotional life inside himself, even if he chooses not to wear those feelings on his sleeve as most people do. My favorite interpretations of the character incorporate that concept, rather than making him the cold, calculating machine that so many see him as.

[hisietari.livejournal.com]

Same here, though even those adaptations often get interpreted by the audience in completely different ways. Of course diversity of opinion is great, but not if that diversity in fact is a majority of "you have to see it this way and in no way else". Ah, paradox.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this already, so here we go agian. There's been an awesome series of essays about the theoretical depiction of autism in the BBC version, written by street-howitzer on tumblr, that comes up with very sound explanations as to why Holmes's emotions, words, and reactions get (mis-) interpreted more than often. I know that a lot of people do not agree with the autism theory and Holmes, but in those essays, I must apply the good old rule of relevant if proven correctly.

To me all those accusations thrown at Holmes - someone who tries to help people, improve society, make himself useful to the point of self-abandonment - are mere and simple bullying. Bullying done by people frustrated that they can't understand him, or maybe secretly jealous that he's always right when they aren't, able to live his life as he wishes, speaking his mind and pointing out what they'd like to keep covered. That's where bullying usually comes from, and it's not rocket science to understand the path it takes, nor the damage it does. He has his weaknesses like everybody else, but accusing him of them is cheap. Those who sit in the glass house...

[azriona.livejournal.com]

You know, I kind of read Watson's opening as being somewhat bitter in tone, a bit like he's still smarting over some kind of argument he's had with Holmes. He says he hasn't seen Holmes in a while, and that his marriage had caused them to drift away from each other. He also talks about how Holmes can not only be emotionless, but would find the emotion of love to be absolutely a foreign concept.

Compare that to Watson, who then goes on to describe his marriage as "complete happiness", his joy of being "master of his own establishment", which absorbs all his attention.

I might have my slash goggles on, but for some reason it seems to me that Watson doth protest too much here. "LOOK AT ME, I am HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY, nothing like that poor loveless sod who can't get a girl. Lalalalalala." A bit like the entire reason that Holmes and Watson haven't been talking has been because Watson made an advance, was spurned, and went tearing off to marry someone he could actually have a relationship with, and he's now trying to pretend that he's just fine with it, but really is now bitter (and possibly regretting that choice).

Or I could be reading into it. But I spent most of the early story in giggles, anyway.

*

On another note, I have to wonder about Irene Adler and the King. She says she was cruelly wronged by him - but surely she realized that a King wasn't going to marry a stage actress from America? I mean, she's supposed to be clever, isn't she? And if she's not upset that he's marrying a princess, what did he do to wrong her? Maybe she really did love him - or maybe he promised her that he would marry her - but I'm not convinced.

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

I think we do have to assume that there was more to the photograph (and therefore the relationship) than the King admits to. The illegal effort that he makes to retrieve it implies the seriousness of the picture. We also learn that Irene holds the picture as protection for herself - I believe that the King is not as honest as he makes out.

[azriona.livejournal.com]

Well, that's just it - what's the real scandal here? Because I doubt it's simply that the King had an affair with an American stage actress. Was Irene involved in something political? Does she have information on the King or his activities (other than in the bedroom) that he wouldn't want out there?

[smoothe1.livejournal.com]

My perspective on the story is that the photo served to authenticate the letters within which the full extent of a torrid affair with Adler would be told to an apparently prudish Scandinavian royal family . The photo, in itself, didn't need to be of a scandalous, explicit nature but merely one that would deniably place the two together.

But then I could be wrong. Victorian times did have their "secrets" didn't they? ;)

[snycock.livejournal.com]

Can I just say I love your reading of the opening here? I've never really noticed it before, but now that you've described how it sounds, I totally can't get it out of my head. That's going to be my headcanon from here on in... :-)

[spacemutineer.livejournal.com]

I am absolutely in with your interpretation of Watson's opening bit here -- me thinks he doth protest too much. I favor the UST angle rather than being directly spurned, but his "I am super happy with my super wife and everything is AWESOME" seems like overcompensation for sure.

[debriswoman]

I agree that Irene would have to be more foolish than she appears to think that she might have a future with the king, so perhaps some other aspect ; her career or her relationship with Mr Norton may have been threatened by the king or a promise made which was broken. The king comes across in a poor light somehow.

Also, is she referred to as the late Irene Adler because she is now Irene Norton, or because she has died?

Re Mrs Turner, I quite like the idea of a completely different landlady appearing at random, and Holmes just taking it in his stride...

[chiapetzukamori.livejournal.com]

I like the Bert Coules take on this story in his radio series and how he explains Mrs. Turner - Mrs. Hudson's cousin who comes to help out while Mrs. Hudson is ill. And when she leaves no one is too upset about it lol

[spacemutineer.livejournal.com]

Baring-Gould mentions that theory of Coules as well. Let's go with it -- makes as much sense as anything else. :)

[chiapetzukamori.livejournal.com]

You know what's really sad? I never got the joke of Mrs. Hudson commenting on John's blog (http://www.johnwatsonblog.co.uk/) using (her neighbor) Marie Turner's screen name until this post.
I need to brush up on canon trivia, apparently!

[smoothe1.livejournal.com]

The King, to me, comes off not only as a bit of a buffoon (clearly Holmes thinks so) but also quite paranoid. Adler falling in love with another was incomprehensible to him. I'm not so sure that she was out to destroy his impending marriage as he claimed. Perhaps that also shows he is delusional.

Much Sherlockian speculation has revolved around Watson's use of the word "late" in describing Irene. If we take that as meaning she has died, I would not be surprised if this possibly mentally ill monarch had something to do with her demise, as others have suggested.