fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2475 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2475 ⌋

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

01.

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02. [repeat]

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03.

[Supernatural, Watchmen]

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04.

[a case of exploding mangoes (2008 novel)]

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05.

[Brothers in Arms]

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06.

[Agents of SHIELD ]

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07.

[Transformers: IDW Generation One]

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08.

[Sarah Michelle Gellar]

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09.

[Young Guns 2]

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 057 secrets from Secret Submission Post #354.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - 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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Was Holmes jealous of Watson's wife in the books? (For that matter, how prominent was she in the books?)

Watson's wife is only prominent in Sign of The Four. After that, not at all prominent in the books (in fact, so unimportant people can't even agree on how many wives there were; it's one of the many points where ACD kind of just didn't care about keeping the details consistent, like with the details of Watson's injury). And I don't think there's anything jealous, but I think there is a sense that Holmes does miss spending time with Watson and they both kind of miss going on wacky adventures together.

She wasn't prominent at all. Barely there, in fact. She played an important role in The Sign of Four (where Watson meets her and falls in love), and the only other time her character was of any great importance was during the Empty House (when Holmes comes back and it is implied that he knows of Mary's death). If we do not count the fact that she was the reason Watson didn't live with Holmes for quite a while as an important one, that is.

Holmes wasn't what I would call "jealous", but he was certainly saddened by Watson's marriage:

"I feared as much," said he. "I really cannot congratulate you."

I was a little hurt.

"Have you any reason to be dissatisfied with my choice?" I asked.

"Not at all. I think she is one of the most charming young ladies I ever met and might have been most useful in such work as we have been doing. She had a decided genius that way witness the way in which she preserved that Agra plan from ali the other papers of her father. But love is an emotional thing, and whatever is emotional is opposed to that true cold reason which I place above all things. I should never marry myself, lest I bias my judgment."

Also, some fans argue that the ending of The Sign of Four (when Holmes says "for me, there still remains the cocaine-bottle") might have been due to his being depressed over Watson's future departure from 221b.

It's a grey area. There's a LOT of little hints, but that's of course somewhat subjective. As far as explicit expressions go, Holmes was openly upset and disapproving about Watson's decision to marry (at the end of The Sign of Four he groans at the announcement, said that marrying destroys the ability to reason impartially, explicitly tells Watson that he will not congratulate him, and then caps it off by saying that at least he still has his cocaine to console him, with his phrasing implying that cocaine is all that is left for him now that the case is finished and Watson is leaving). Also, he describes Watson's second marriage with the phrase "Watson had at that time abandoned me for a wife, the only selfish action of his I can recall" (paraphrased).

Mary Morstan was a central figure in The Sign of Four (and she was pretty awesome too, IMO), but only appeared with dialogue in a couple of other stories. No one knows anything about Watson's second wife except that he married her at around the turn of the century.

No, Holmes isn't jealous. He doesn't see marriage or love as something he wants to involve himself in, but he sees emotions as the enemy of reason. Still, he seems happy enough for Watson's sake.

Watson's wife doesn't play a prominent part in the stories except for "The Sign of Four". She pops up now and then, mostly as an aside (such as Holmes inquiring after her health and other polite civilities) and occasionally encouraging Watson to join Holmes on a case, but that's it.

Well, he isn't happy for Watson's sake in The Sign Of Four (in fact, he tells him to his face that he will not congratulate him and then right afterwards starts using cocaine in front of him while pointedly remarking that it's all he has to look forward to now, while knowing full well that his drug use is really upsetting to Watson). Not terribly gracious at all, IMO.

However, he must have shaped up after that, because in the rest of the stories set during Watson's marriage, Holmes is pretty polite and accommodating about it and doesn't make any more disparaging remarks, even though he mentions a couple times after going a while without seeing him that he gets lonely without Watson. On the whole, though, he seems less jealous than he is simply disappointed that Watson moved away.

He is however, pretty jealous about Watson's second wife, whoever she is, describing Watson as "having abandoned me for a wife", and calling Watson selfish for getting married.

As you can tell, there's a lot of different interpretations and speculation about the stuff that's read in between the lines. The Sherlock Holmes stories are full of subtext -- I don't mean subtext as in gay subtext, or romantic subtext (why oh why has that word been co-opted in fandom for such specific applications?) -- just subtext in the sense of having a lot of actions and dialogue whose meanings are never 100% spelled out or understood. It's a common feature of books written in first-person-narrative mode, and ACD was always good at it.

*shrug* Maybe it's a issue of tone, but I took those remarks to be Holmes' dry humor, not that he was seriously snubbing Watson about his marriage. Given that Holmes is complimentary about Watson's choice of spouse and is gracious about it later, that interpretation makes a lot more sense.

[ SECRET POST #2475 ]

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