Canon Discussion: The Dying Detective

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

This week we’re looking at The Adventure of the Dying Detective. As usual, I’ve typed up a few thoughts to get the discussion underway.

I’ve been looking back at the previous 60s for DYIN and a theme that keeps coming up is anger at Holmes’ behaviour, on Watson’s behalf. I can understand this—Watson must go through a nightmarish few hours. (And poor Mrs. Hudson has to endure three days of believing Holmes is going to die.) But I do also feel there is a sort of nobility about Holmes’ behaviour. He sees what has to be done in order to catch a murderer and he doesn’t flinch from carrying out his plan, even though it will cause distress to people he cares about. A necessary kind of ruthlessness perhaps.

Mrs. Hudson, the landlady of Sherlock Holmes, was a long-suffering woman… Are these opening paragraphs the most information that Watson ever gives us about Mrs. Hudson? We do know so very little about her. What do you think became of Mr. Hudson? (I don’t think we’ve ever definitely told she’s a widow… And it’s always possible she’s never been married at all—“Mrs.” Could just be a respectful title given to an older maiden lady.)

The landlady stood in the deepest awe of him… Watson does make Mrs. Hudson sound a bit of a pushover. I wonder if he’s exaggerating things for the story’s sake. Surely a woman who has no husband, and is a landlady with a household to run, must be quite tough— even if she is prepared to put up with Sherlock Holmes.

…he had a remarkable gentleness and courtesy in his dealings with women. He disliked and distrusted the sex, but he was always a chivalrous opponent. You know, I’m not convinced Holmes does dislike women. Watson talks about him disliking women, and in SIGN Holmes tells Watson that women are not to be trusted. But when it comes to specific women, as well as always demonstrating “gentleness and courtesy”, Holmes seems to demonstrate sympathy too. He worries about Violet Hunter like a brother, and about Violet de Merville like a father. In TWIS Holmes says to Watson: “I was wondering what I should say to this dear little woman to-night when she meets me at the door.” (He’s referring to Mrs. Neville St. Clair, whose husband is missing presumed dead.) I think Holmes is unsure about women more than disliking them. And though he has no romantic attachment to the fairer sex, I think he understands women more than Watson does.

…in the second year of my married life… Where is Mrs. Watson? Watson seems to leave without speaking to her or leaving a note. And who is she? Baring Gould says she is a wife before Mary Morstan; Sherlock Peoria says she is the wife after Mary Morstan. I resolutely refuse to believe that Watson was married before Mary but I must allow that a second marriage after her is possible. But Watson says “married life”, which does rather suggest this is the first time he’s been married—he’s never experienced marriage before.

"You won't take the key from me by force, Watson. I've got you, my friend. Here you are, and here you will stay until I will otherwise." Does Watson give in too easily to Holmes? Firstly concerning the matter of Watson examining Holmes and secondly about him leaving Holmes in order to get help.

…examining the pictures of celebrated criminals with which every wall was adorned. An intriguing choice of decoration to have in your bedroom. Are these people Holmes has helped to convict? Or simply people he finds interesting? Does he have their pictures on his wall because he admires them to some extent?

"There are the wheels, Watson. Quick, man, if you love me!” Admittedly Culverton Smith is now at the door, but surely there would still be time for Holmes to tell Watson that it was all a trick? In fact, it would have been a good idea to tell Watson what was going on. There was a sound as if he was shaking the dying man, and it was all that I could do to hold myself quiet in my hiding-place. At any moment Watson might reveal himself in order to “protect” Holmes and the whole plan would be for nothing.

“That pretence I have carried out with the thoroughness of the true artist.” This line strikes me as an odd thing to say about yourself. Is it Holmes standing back and trying to view his actions dispassionately and objectively? Justifying his actions?

Next Sunday, 1st June, we’ll be having a look at The Adventure of the Devil’s Foot. Hope you can join us then.

Comments

[darkest-alchemy.livejournal.com]

I don't think Holmes does dislike women. Although I think he's aware that society permits women to be more emotional and he dislikes displays of emotion so that may give him a tendency to dislike women more than men but I still think he can at least partly see that for what it is, society and its sexism and restrictive/oppressive gender roles, rather than just women being at fault, and he doesn't like overly emotional behaviour in men either.

I think when he does come out with sexist remarks it's not a true reflection of what he thinks, it seems to me more like he's saying these things to get Watson off his back (possibly because Watson thinks Holmes should find himself a nice wife and settle down). I think Watson is more the typical Victorian gentleman who is stuck in society's norms and rules and therefore he does tend to view women as more delicate and can be a bit more condescending towards them (like the way he refers to Mrs Hudson here seems a bit condescending. I reckon she's much tougher than Watson makes out she is).
I suspect Watson may get caught up in something Holmes did or said once (especially pre-Adler) and keep bringing that up when he's jotting things down and trying to fill out details about Holmes's character when he's writing up cases, but Holmes's attitude and behaviour does change/evolve. It seems to me that Watson tends to over-exaggerate or misconstrue Holmes's 'mistrust' of women because he just can't get his head around the fact that Holmes is primarily interested in his career and is just not interested in romance/marriage/a more conventional lifestyle so he sometimes forgets that just because Holmes did or said something awful years ago that doesn't mean he still thinks that or that just because Holmes is more interested in solving mysteries than getting married, that doesn't mean he hates women.

"examining the pictures of celebrated criminals with which every wall was adorned" It makes me laugh when people insist Holmes keeping Adler's picture is conclusive proof that he's romantically in love with her because this must mean he's romantically in love with countless criminals too. (Although I do think keeping Adler's picture was slightly different in that he didn't regard her as a criminal and there he was trying to better himself and make sure that he never again fell into the trap that society encouraged him to fall into of underestimating women.) I think he does deeply admire various criminals though. I would guess he has these pictures for various reasons, some because he admires them and he wants to be reminded of how clever some criminals can be (especially when as he says in The Valley of Fear, everything comes in circles, so learning about criminals of the past can help him catch future criminals) and some pictures he's perhaps keeping because they've not been caught and so he can identify them if they show up again, and some are a reminder of criminals he's helped to catch.

I assume the Mrs Watson is Mary, I think Baring Gould mostly talks a lot of rubbish and the Peoria date is way off from the other dating I've seen which puts this around 1890. I reckon Mary spends a lot of time off doing her own thing (I imagine her doing charity work like running soup kitchens or women's refuges) since she got bored of being at home while Watson went off to solve crimes with Holmes, so while her and Watson do love each other they probably don't always keep in contact or spend a huge amount of time at home together.

"But I do also feel there is a sort of nobility about Holmes’ behaviour." Yes, Holmes has a tendency to do some seemingly quite cruel things sometimes but he does them for the greater good and not because he is being deliberately cruel but because either it simply never occurs to him that people will be so hurt (I think Holmes really does struggle to understand emotions sometimes) or because he sees the end goal as the most important thing and believes that the good he will do will more than balance out any distress he causes.

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

Just saying thank you for this very interesting comment.

Among others - I'm tempted to quote your whole second paragraph just to applaud it - I think it's very worth agreeing that Mrs Watson did probably did alot on her own. Watson talks about people in trouble always coming to her, which makes it likelyy she had some sort of work to make her known - or a very unlucky circle of friends.

edited for typos. Sorry about them!

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

I think we are dangerously in agreement here ^_^

I suppose Watson does sometimes seem to turn Holmes into a "character" - putting emphasis on extremes of behaviour to make him seem more exotic. But on a whole Holmes just seems like a nice man - bit emotionally detached and not terribly sociable. "[Holmes] doesn't like overly emotional behaviour in men either." Holmes doesn't seem to particularly approve of people in general. He likes and dislikes individuals.

We have on record Watson's disappointment that Holmes lost interest in Violet Hunter when the case was over. "I think Watson is more the typical Victorian gentleman who is stuck in society's norms and rules and therefore he does tend to view women as more delicate and can be a bit more condescending towards them..." I think I would agree with you there. Watson immediately translates finding a woman interesting into romantic interest. Holmes simply found Miss Hunter to be an interesting individual, which perhaps shows a more respectful attitude to her.

I didn't connect keeping Irene Adler's picture with the rogues gallery in Holmes bedroom (though as you say, Holmes didn't consider Irene Adler a criminal). How intriguing ^^ I think Holmes pays Irene Adler the ultimate compliment, never mind whether she's male or female - he continues to find her interesting after the case has ended. And I would agree this doesn't mean that he's in love with her. Btw, I really like your various reasons for why Holmes has the pictures of criminals.

"I think Baring Gould mostly talks a lot of rubbish..." (Me too... ^^") Mary of course had spent 10 years working and taking care of herself before she met Watson. (Though presumably she was paid a pittance.) I agree with you - she would want to be active. She wouldn't be content just waiting at home for her husband to come back from his adventures.

"I think Holmes really does struggle to understand emotions sometimes..." I suppose the best example of that is when he returns in EMPT: "I had no idea you would be so affected," as he brings poor Watson round from his faint ^^ Holmes thinks about how pleased Watson is going to be to see him again, but doesn't quite grasp how shocked Watson is going to be to see his friend return from the dead.

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

Does Watson give in too easily to Holmes? I read the earlier discussion of this case on the comm, and I find it persuasive that Watson was exaggerating how long he was fooled.

It's quite likely that Holmes never made a serious try at it. At the end he says "Among your many talents dissimulation finds no place." But surely a physician needs to practice that sort of dissimulation?

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

That's a good point - at the time doctors may have chosen not to tell their patients when they were seriously ill because there was nothing they could do for them (only telling the truth to relatives because they felt it was kinder that way). Watson probably has had to use dissimulation a lot in his professional career.

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

I would be interested to know if Moriarty is one of the pictures on the wall. At this stage Watson wouldn't know about Moriarty so wouldn't recognise his picture, but Holmes might well have an idea about him.

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

I wonder. Watson does use the phrase "celebrated criminals", which suggests convicted or at least known criminals. But maybe Holmes does indeed include criminals known only to himself, in his gallery.