The Second Stain: Trivial, G

[tweedisgood.livejournal.com]

The Adventure of the Second Stain

Title Trivial

Author tweedisgood

Rating G



It is poorly disguised, that tale. Four friends have already asked me if I am Lady Hilda. My husband angrily demands “the truth”.

Trivial? Mr Holmes, if women's conduct still appears so to you, consider this. For what faults - that in men are excused as not worth serious attention - are we even now, summarily judged and condemned?

Comments

[tweedisgood.livejournal.com]

OTOH she didn't know that,she knew nothing of the significance of the letter beyond that some guy wanted it. Not until Holmes sort-of confirmed it.

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, if she had given it some thought, she could have realised that she was giving away something important. Although this could be taken as ACD's low opinion of women.

[tweedisgood.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure he had a low opinion of them (I'm reading his letters atm), but some fairly standard-for-the-time expectations of their understanding of public affairs and some stereotyped notions of their priorities. But then we come back to "how much is them and how much is the role society pressured them to play?"

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

As in "women should only talk about flowers and fluffy kittens".

It's true that society pressured women into a role, but there were women who would soon be ready to speak out, and in this case I get the impression that Lady Hilda is more concerned about her position in society than anything else.

I think my difficulty comes in discussing the views of a fictitional character at the same time as the opinions of their author.

[tweedisgood.livejournal.com]

No, Doyle was a bit better than that, he encouraged his sisters to become professional teachers and appreciated brains in a woman. At the same time, as you say, we can't always assume authorial voice is the same as character voice.