SPECTRUM 2007-2008

The portrayal of masculinity in Arthur Conan Doyle’s “Scandal in Bohemia”? represents many of the attitudes of sexuality and gender gaining popularity in Victorian Britain, but the characters of Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson and Irene Adler all characterize a wide interpretation of masculinity. None of them conforms completely to the gender roles and expectations of 19^th Century Britain for men and women.

The idea of masculinity was changing in Britain in the late 19^th century. The combination of the height of British Imperialism, along with the fear of the fall of the British Empire, was reflective in the masculinity of the time. The ideal man was seen as patriotic and a pioneer. He was adventurous and brave (”Victorian Masculinity”?). In his article, “How Stiff Were their Upper Lips? Research on Late-Victorian and Edwardian Masculinity,”? Stephen Heathorn notes,

“¦while in the mid-Victorian bourgeois home fathers were encouraged and expected to participate actively in family life”¦by the end of the 19^th Century there was a “flight from domesticity.”? Men spent increasingly more of their time away from their families”¦or departed Britain and delayed (or avoided entirely) married life so that they might devote themselves to the public sphere or find adventure in the empire. (2)

Even though at one time Britain’s men were encouraged to be “family men,”? now it was seen as much more masculine for a man to absent himself from his family in order to pursue patriotic, political, cultural, or global endeavors.

Moreover, the idea of man in the late 19^th century was one of observation, ration, and logic. In his article, “‘Real’ Men: Construction of Masculinity in the Sherlock Holmes Narratives,”? Joseph A. Kestner finds that even Boy Scout manuals at the time were representative of these new ideas of masculinity and that the author of those manuals “emphasizes the importance to the youth of Britain of learning good habits of “˜observation,’ particularly how to read “˜signs’”? (76). These manuals even instructed Boy Scout leaders to encourage boys to be like Sherlock Holmes specifically, further proof that this character was wedging himself firmly into the minds of Britain’s culture as the ideal man.

Sherlock Holmes, in fact, represents several of these Victorian ideals of masculinity. In “Scandal in Bohemia,”? he is seen as rejecting the domestic ideas of the mid-Victorian period and embracing the “new”? masculinity of the late 19^th century. Holmes is described by Watson as “Bohemian”?–the ultimate adventurer and rebel against mainstream British society. He is a confirmed bachelor, and therefore spends no time bogged down by a wife, children, or a respectable, but mundane, job. Instead, Holmes is something of a wanderer, living on his own, using cocaine, and solving crimes with his brilliant, logical mind. Holmes wants nothing of the “domestic”? life that Heathorn tells us Victorian men were running from. Watson even says that “All emotions and that one (love) particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise, but admirably balanced mind”? (Doyle 834). Holmes lived for adventure and mystery. He thrived on solving puzzles with rationality, and as the ideal British man, had no use for such things as love or family responsibilities.

Holmes is also the epitome of all things rational and logical. He showcases his observational skills all throughout “Scandal in Bohemia,”? from the trifling mud on Watson’s shoes to discovering the photograph that the King of Bohemia covets so madly. Kestner claims that the Holmes’ tales could be endorsed as “constructing a masculine script, given that they endorsed qualities which were radically gendered as masculine in Victorian culture: observation, rationalism, facticity, logic, comradeship, pluck and daring”? (77). In fact, Holmes uses his powers of observation to solve the entire mystery surrounding the whereabouts of the incriminating photograph. He starts by visiting Irene Adler’s house to “watch her habits”? (Doyle 841), and from there concocts his plan. When he reveals the plan to Watson, he demonstrates that his plan is solely based on observations of the human race in general, such as the fact that he is sure Irene has kept the photograph herself since “women are naturally secretive and they like to do their own secreting”? (844). Later, after the plan has been executed, Holmes tells Watson that he simply forced Irene to show him where she kept the picture. He knows that if he rouses the alarm of fire she will betray its hiding place because “when a woman thinks that her house is on fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she values the most”? (846). Holmes has simply used his “masculine”? techniques of observation, rational, and logic to solve the mystery.

Dr. John H. Watson, the narrator and oft partner in crime-solving to Holmes, serves as a foil to the detective. Watson is oppositional to Holmes in all things “masculine.”? At the beginning of “Scandal in Bohemia,”? Watson tells readers that he is married, that because of his “own complete happiness and the home-centered interests which rise up around the man who first finds himself master of his own establishment”? (834), he and Holmes have as of late drifted apart. Instead of taking a “flight”? from domesticity, Watson embraces and tells us he immensely enjoys married life. He has also recently returned to a private practice as a doctor and is returning from a home visit when he gets the urge to visit Holmes. Upon the reading of a footnote, the reader discovers that Watson was an army medic in the past, which further emasculates him in the eyes of the risk-taking attitudes of late Victorian men. Watson has now completely surrendered to a life of calm, familial life. Furthermore, Watson does not have the abilities of observation that Holmes has. Watson deduces simple things from clues around him, but when things get too complicated, he requires Holmes to explain to him what is going on. While this may be on the level of the average person, next to Holmes, Watson is further enfeebled because he doesn’t have the powers of cold calculation.

Surprisingly, the character in “Scandal in Bohemia”? who possesses the most masculine traits is the only female character in the story, Irene Adler. Adler has several masculine traits. The King of Bohemia describes her as having “a soul of steel”? and “the face of the most beautiful of women and the mind of the most resolute of men”? (Doyle 839). Not only is she described as manly, but indeed the manliest even among men. When she follows Holmes home the night he executes his plan, she even dresses as a man and says in her letter to him, “Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage of the freedom which it gives”? (848). Adler is shown as portraying the outward physicality of a man because she has several of those traits which were revered as masculine in the late Victorian period. Although she gets married in the story to a man she loves, Adler can still be seen as the adventurer rejecting the domestic lifestyle; she even has spent a good portion of her life as “the well-known adventuress”? (838). Adler makes it clear in her letter to Holmes that she loves her new husband and does not love the future King of Bohemia, which insinuates that she was only involved with him to gain the power and reputation that being queen would bring her. When the King informs her that she will not be able to fill this station because of her social position, Adler leaves him immediately and is not content to remain in another capacity, such as mistress.

Adler also displays her masculinity in the simple fact that she defeats Holmes at his own profession. Holmes, whom, as we have seen, is the very essence of British masculinity, is beaten by a woman. As Kestner states, “”¦not only is Holmes defeated, but the manifestation of this defeat is the woman’s transgressive act of cross-dressing”? (86). Holmes himself–and therefore we can assume his masculinity–is injured by this woman beating him at his own game. As Watson states at the end of the story, “He used to make merry over the cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late”? (Doyle 849). Watson even mentions twice in the story that Holmes will only refer to her as “the woman”? because “in his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex”? (834). In Holmes’ eyes, Adler is better than any other women he has ever met, and therefore he puts her above anyone else in her sex, and in Victorian attitudes, that would make her closer to being a man than a woman. Holmes even thinks her better than the future King of Bohemia and tells him, “From what I have seen of the lady, she seems, indeed, to be on a very different level to your Majesty”? (849). Even though one might assume the superior intelligence of a male member of royalty, in this situation it is Adler, whom the King has implied is vengeful and spiteful, which one could argue are traits of a “spurned”? woman, who turns out to be the more intelligent and clever of the two. Holmes realizes this at the end, which seems to turn his ideas about masculinity and femininity upside down.

Even though “Scandal in Bohemia”? represents some very popular ideas of masculinity in late Victorian Britain, it also twists those ideas around to create new outlooks on masculinity. While Holmes represents the ideal man, even his representation of masculinity discards the traditional ideals that Britain held until the late 19^th Century. His closest friend, Dr. Watson, rejects these principles to represent a man of domesticity and constancy. Irene Adler, the only female character in the story, casts off the accepted views of femininity of the time and adopts a decidedly masculine persona to rival even Holmes’ perfect maleness. All three characters represent a diverse and varied twist in the normally traditional and established thoughts around Victorian British masculinity.

Works Cited

Doyle, Arthur Conan. “Scandal in Bohemia.”? Masters of British Literature. Ed. David Damrosch and Kevin J. H. Dettmar. Volume B. New York: Pearson Longman, 2008. 834-849.

Heathorn, Stephen. “How Stiff Were Their Upper Lips? Research on Late Victorian and Edwardian Masculinity.”? Blackwell Publishing 2004. Blackwell Synergy. 26 March 2008. <http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1478-0542.2004.00093.x@spco.2008.2.issue-v4> .

Kestner, Joseph A. “‘Real’ Men: Construction of Masculinity in the Sherlock Holmes Narratives.”? Studies in the Literary Imagination. 29. 1 (Spring 1996): 73-89. Academic Search Premier. Lake Superior College Library, Duluth, MN. 20 March 2008 <www.epnet.com> .

“Victorian Masculinity.”? Wikipedia.com. 10 November 2007. Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia. 26 March 2008. < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Victorian_masculinity#The_second_half_of_the_19th_century>.