Canon Discussion: The Cardboard Box
May. 10th, 2015 08:00 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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sherlock60This week we’re having a look at The Cardboard Box. I’ve typed up a few thoughts to get the discussion going—please leave your own ideas in the comments!
When I first started doing the discussion posts for the comm, and began doing a bit of research into the stories, I was taken aback to find out how early CARD had been written and published in the Strand. Because in my edition it was included in “His Last Bow”, I’d assumed it’d been written around the same time as the rest of that collection. I gather no-one knows for certain why it wasn’t initially included in “Memoirs” but certainly it seems to embrace reality more closely than the other stories in the canon. Even calling it “The Adventure of the Cardboard Box” feels slightly jarring.
My first steps into research also explained to me why CARD had much the same beginning as RESI—the sequence had originally belonged to CARD but when that was dropped from “Memoirs”, the opening scene was inserted into RESI instead. (You can read RESI with the CARD opening here, and with its original opening here.)
A depleted bank account had caused me to postpone my holiday… Any thoughts? This story seems to be set before Watson has met Mary Morstan, and so he probably isn’t working yet. Is there something specific that has “depleted” his account? I know there’s the theory he’s an inveterate gambler but it’s not a theory I personally incline towards.
...as to my companion, neither the country nor the sea presented the slightest attraction to him. This statement does seem surprising when you consider where Holmes retired to. And there’s that line in BLAC: “Let us walk in these beautiful woods, Watson, and give a few hours to the birds and the flowers.” But Holmes is a relatively young man in CARD. It’s perhaps not so strange that he’s more attracted to nature as he gets older.
...she let apartments in her house to three young medical students, whom she was obliged to get rid of on account of their noisy and irregular habits. Any thoughts on what Watson was like as a medical student..?
“I am very sorry that you should have been troubled over a case with which, as you say, you have nothing whatever to do.” Bit of an odd thing for Holmes to say. This does sort of imply the case has absolutely nothing to do with Miss Cushing, when it’s her sister Mary who has been murdered, and the parcel should have gone to her sister Sarah. I suppose Holmes does state “as you say" but still… Perhaps he just doesn’t want to distress her before he knows for certain what has happened.
...something like Aldridge, who helped us in the bogus laundry affair. Any thoughts on this case?
“...yours very truly,—G. Lestrade.” Any ideas on what Lestrade’s Christian name might be? And why he seems to want to keep it to himself…
“Sarah was thirty-three, and Mary was twenty-nine when I married.” And Susan is fifty now. It isn’t entirely clear how much time has passed since the wedding, but it still must be a large age gap between Susan and her sisters. (Perhaps two different mothers? But not necessarily so, I think.) Might their mother have died, and she was left to bring up her little sisters? It might explain why she’s remained unmarried—any men interested didn’t want to have to take on the children too. Also, any thoughts on why Sarah has remained unmarried? From what Browner says, she’s an attractive woman. Though perhaps she never found any suitor good enough—maybe she only wanted Browner because her sister had him.
“Well, I don’t know now whether it was pure devilry on the part of this woman, or whether she thought that she could turn me against my wife by encouraging her to misbehave.” What do you think was going through Sarah’s mind when she encouraged Mary to have an affair?
“You can hang me, or do what you like with me, but you cannot punish me as I have been punished already.” (I’m going to quote some of my last CARD discussion post here, as I don’t think I can put it any better than before.) CARD is such a grown-up story—there is as much emphasis on the horrors of murder, as there is on solving the puzzle. And the psychological aspects feel truthful. The murderer has done a monstrous thing but he isn’t truly a monster. While never condoning or excusing his actions, it is possible to feel pity and sympathy for him.
We can’t comfortably separate ourselves from his actions. He isn’t a glamorous villain: he’s one of us. His story is a warning. We could so easily find ourselves in this situation—losing control and committing this appalling act. That’s what makes the story so powerful.
In fact, we sympathise with all the characters: Sarah behaves shamefully but she doesn’t deserve to have her sister murdered as the result of her actions. (And she isn’t to blame for the murder. Browner has to take full responsibility for what he does.) Mary betrays her husband but she was manipulated by her sister and her husband treated her very badly.
There’s no neat ending—“the murderer’s caught: the world’s been put back in order”. Everything is left an awful mess. Even Holmes himself says (though he seems entirely detached earlier): “What object is served by this circle of misery and violence and fear?”
Next Sunday, 17th May, we’ll be having a look at The Yellow Face. Hope you can join us then.
When I first started doing the discussion posts for the comm, and began doing a bit of research into the stories, I was taken aback to find out how early CARD had been written and published in the Strand. Because in my edition it was included in “His Last Bow”, I’d assumed it’d been written around the same time as the rest of that collection. I gather no-one knows for certain why it wasn’t initially included in “Memoirs” but certainly it seems to embrace reality more closely than the other stories in the canon. Even calling it “The Adventure of the Cardboard Box” feels slightly jarring.
My first steps into research also explained to me why CARD had much the same beginning as RESI—the sequence had originally belonged to CARD but when that was dropped from “Memoirs”, the opening scene was inserted into RESI instead. (You can read RESI with the CARD opening here, and with its original opening here.)
A depleted bank account had caused me to postpone my holiday… Any thoughts? This story seems to be set before Watson has met Mary Morstan, and so he probably isn’t working yet. Is there something specific that has “depleted” his account? I know there’s the theory he’s an inveterate gambler but it’s not a theory I personally incline towards.
...as to my companion, neither the country nor the sea presented the slightest attraction to him. This statement does seem surprising when you consider where Holmes retired to. And there’s that line in BLAC: “Let us walk in these beautiful woods, Watson, and give a few hours to the birds and the flowers.” But Holmes is a relatively young man in CARD. It’s perhaps not so strange that he’s more attracted to nature as he gets older.
...she let apartments in her house to three young medical students, whom she was obliged to get rid of on account of their noisy and irregular habits. Any thoughts on what Watson was like as a medical student..?
“I am very sorry that you should have been troubled over a case with which, as you say, you have nothing whatever to do.” Bit of an odd thing for Holmes to say. This does sort of imply the case has absolutely nothing to do with Miss Cushing, when it’s her sister Mary who has been murdered, and the parcel should have gone to her sister Sarah. I suppose Holmes does state “as you say" but still… Perhaps he just doesn’t want to distress her before he knows for certain what has happened.
...something like Aldridge, who helped us in the bogus laundry affair. Any thoughts on this case?
“...yours very truly,—G. Lestrade.” Any ideas on what Lestrade’s Christian name might be? And why he seems to want to keep it to himself…
“Sarah was thirty-three, and Mary was twenty-nine when I married.” And Susan is fifty now. It isn’t entirely clear how much time has passed since the wedding, but it still must be a large age gap between Susan and her sisters. (Perhaps two different mothers? But not necessarily so, I think.) Might their mother have died, and she was left to bring up her little sisters? It might explain why she’s remained unmarried—any men interested didn’t want to have to take on the children too. Also, any thoughts on why Sarah has remained unmarried? From what Browner says, she’s an attractive woman. Though perhaps she never found any suitor good enough—maybe she only wanted Browner because her sister had him.
“Well, I don’t know now whether it was pure devilry on the part of this woman, or whether she thought that she could turn me against my wife by encouraging her to misbehave.” What do you think was going through Sarah’s mind when she encouraged Mary to have an affair?
“You can hang me, or do what you like with me, but you cannot punish me as I have been punished already.” (I’m going to quote some of my last CARD discussion post here, as I don’t think I can put it any better than before.) CARD is such a grown-up story—there is as much emphasis on the horrors of murder, as there is on solving the puzzle. And the psychological aspects feel truthful. The murderer has done a monstrous thing but he isn’t truly a monster. While never condoning or excusing his actions, it is possible to feel pity and sympathy for him.
We can’t comfortably separate ourselves from his actions. He isn’t a glamorous villain: he’s one of us. His story is a warning. We could so easily find ourselves in this situation—losing control and committing this appalling act. That’s what makes the story so powerful.
In fact, we sympathise with all the characters: Sarah behaves shamefully but she doesn’t deserve to have her sister murdered as the result of her actions. (And she isn’t to blame for the murder. Browner has to take full responsibility for what he does.) Mary betrays her husband but she was manipulated by her sister and her husband treated her very badly.
There’s no neat ending—“the murderer’s caught: the world’s been put back in order”. Everything is left an awful mess. Even Holmes himself says (though he seems entirely detached earlier): “What object is served by this circle of misery and violence and fear?”
Next Sunday, 17th May, we’ll be having a look at The Yellow Face. Hope you can join us then.
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Date: 2015-05-10 05:43 pm (UTC)Perhaps it's because I'm prone to it myself; but I wonder if there isn't something rather patronising about Holmes' pity for Browner. If Browner had been a doctor or squire, would Holmes have so indulgent towards his long term mistreatment of his wife and mutilation of her body?
That's a good thought about Susan being the eldest. And thanks for pointing about the Case of the Transferred Beginnings.
no subject
Date: 2015-05-10 06:18 pm (UTC)And I'm not certain that Holmes does specifically pity Browner, or feel indulgent towards him. (He gives his name over to Lestrade without any qualms or hesitation at all.) He seems to be taking a more general philosophical viewpoint: “What object is served by this circle of misery and violence and fear? It must tend to some end, or else our universe is ruled by chance, which is unthinkable."
I like the "Case of Transferred Beginnings" ^_^ I have to say it did puzzle me when I first read the stories - I thought that ACD had liked it so much, he'd just decided to use it again ^^
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Date: 2015-05-10 07:54 pm (UTC)As for Aldridge: The Case of the Bogus Laundry (http://archiveofourown.org/works/754931)
no subject
Date: 2015-05-10 08:30 pm (UTC)And that's a great story - really enjoyed it ^_^