[ SECRET POST #2220 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2220 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.


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05.
[Sherlock, The Hobbit, Doctor Who]


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06.
[Hotel Transylvania]


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07.
[Skyfall]


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08.
[Love Actually]


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09.
[The Walking Dead]


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10.
[Small Wonder]


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11.
[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]


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12.
[Downton Abbey]


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13.
[Magi]


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14.
[Homestuck]


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 042 secrets from Secret Submission Post #317.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 1 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Hrm. Warning - random lit crit and probably-uninformed rambling follows.

I think the passage is interesting because it comments on ideas about friendship and relationships that don't really exist in the modern world. In the Victorian world, Holmes and Watson are friends, colleagues, they share rooms, and perhaps depending on your reading or slash goggles they share a bed. But they are not equals. Holmes, with his family connections in the highest levels of government, is decidedly upper-class. Watson, an Army doctor, is likely middle class (the Army of the time was full of upper-class officers, but my understanding is that they generally weren't medics).

In that context, it would seem entirely appropriate to Holmes, to Watson, and to the readers of the day that Watson should refer to his "service" to Holmes.

I think you're right that to a modern eye, it does seem like a really odd and even creepy sentiment for Watson to express. But for a middle-class Victorian man, it was simply an expression of the idea that the middle classes served the upper classes all the time, usually expecting nothing in return. Today, we in the Western world rarely place ourselves in service of others expecting nothing in return, but to Watson, that expression of caring and fellow-feeling was an unexpected indication that his feelings of friendship were genuinely returned.

The Victorian era was pretty horrible in lots of ways, and I'm glad it's not around any more, and that we are getting better about class divisions. And I'm not sure myself that the passage feels romantic to me. But in the historical context, I can certainly see why it was read that way.

/ramble

[elephantinegrace]

This is actually perfect.

[tweedisgood]

Except the bit where it's probably wrong. Holmes says that his ancestors were "country squires". That's not the upper classes. And he has to work for his living, as does Watson. Mycroft is a civil servant (also a middle class occupation)and there is no indication any of the Holmeses were actually in government per se (ministers, MPs)
It's the intellectual difference that makes Watson feel he is Holmes' inferior.

[tree_and_leaf]

Yes, and in any case I doubt that the professional classes felt they were there to serve the aristocracy. They were much more likely to pride themselves on not being a bunch of idle drones who never did a day's work and had inherited everything they were given.

[tweedisgood]

They were much more likely to pride themselves on not being a bunch of idle drones who never did a day's work and had inherited everything they were given

It was a little more complicated than that. There was still huge deference to those with titles - though not to the point of servility, no. "New money" wealthy tradesmen still sought to marry their sons and daughters to titles (who in return often welcomed the cash injection - for a Doylian example, consider Percy Phelps and Miss Harrison in NAVA).

Yet the ideal of being a "gentleman" in more ways than mere manners - in other words, not having to sully your hands with earning a living, a hangover from earlier times, was still around. OTOH the professionals with that pride in making their own way were on the rise, especially towards the end of the 19th century.

[sabotabby]

This.

[ex_paola492]

Interesting.

[(Anonymous)]

That is a good point. I wasn't really remembering the class difference before.

[tweedisgood]

Except see above where I argue there isn't much of one.