Sherlock Holmes

"The Adventure of Charles Augustus

Milverton”

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Starting Questions

How is the story structured? (Beginning, middle and end? Binaries?)

How are the three male characters presented?

How has the story been read? (chap 2: 196-97)

Are there other ways of reading it?

Structure – revelation vs. concealment Watson’s narrative frame: a)With difficult; b) the principal person beyond

the reach of human law b)Concealment (date and fact) Plot – revelation with justification; Watson a

companion but not involved in scheming. I. Beginning:

characterization of Milverton; encounter, where reasoning and violence are no

use. II. Action and building of suspense

scheme of Holmes carried out the day of action

Justification: Male Protagonists and Binary Opposition Milverton: cunning as the Evil one,

sly like a serpent, an insincerity of the fixed smile and by

the hard glitter of those restless and penetrating eyes (p. 374-

“twinkle” in his eyes

Holmes “how could one compare the

ruffian, who in hot blood bludgeons his mate, with this man, who methodically and at his leisure tortures the soul and wrings the nerves in order to add to his already swollen money-bags?”

Structure (2) – crime vs. justification Justification: the depiction of Plot (2)

Twists: the cat, the unlocked door, some sudden noise

Climax: Revelation and action Plot (3) resolution:

Holmes erasing all the evidence the visit of the policeman Mr. Lestrade Revelation in Concealment (1): like Watson Revelation in Concealment (2): visit of the

portrait.

The Absent Women – the Textual Unsaid

Other Readings??? (chap 2: 197) 1) Holmes as an English gentleman – “a figure whose

remodelling as the apotheosis of civilized humanity in the late nineteenth century was central to the cultural hegemony of Englishness. ”

2) Anxiety over London as a site of labor class crimes the enigmatic vs. a total closure

3) discursive formation of power (Thompson qtd chap 2: 198) “Sherlock Holmes’ knowledge, his ability to unravel the most intractable puzzles, gives him the power to penetrate the mysteries of London. The same form of knowledge that ultimately produced the Empire also produced the figure of the empirical detective hero, Sherlock Holmes” (1993: 76)

Homles and Empire e.g. Grimesby Roylott (“The Adventure of the

Speckled Band”) and Leon Sterndale (“The Adventure of the Devil’s Foot”) are characters who return home to Britain after venturing into India or West Africa as doctors. Both show dramatic changes (417-18).

The “passion for Indian animals” (Doyle 2003, 310) that Grimesby Roylott had developed in Calcutta facilitated his crimes; Julia’s death was linked to a snake that he had passed through a ventilator, knowing its poisonous venom would be lethal (418).

The Colonies vs. Empire: solution The Holmes stories seem to offer reassurance

to the Victorian society for which they were written that the British can, in fact, maintain control over their colonies in faraway places, and, despite the troubles that may confront them on their own shores, maintain law and order at home.. (426)

Other Readings??? Adventure together,

“I will take a cab straight to the police-station and give you away, unless you let me share this adventure with you.”

Experiencing “sporting interest of the adventure” He seized my hand in the darkness and led me

swiftly past banks of shrubs which brushed against our faces. Holmes had remarkable powers, carefully cultivated, of seeing in the dark. Still holding my hand in one of his, he opened a door, and I was vaguely conscious that we had entered a large room in which a cigar had been smoked not long before. He felt his way among the furniture, opened another door, and closed it behind us.

Raheja, Lauren. “Anxieties of Empire in Doyle’s Tales of

Sherlock Holmes.” Nature, Society, and Thought, vol. 19, no. 4 (2006).