Femininity in Sherlock Holmes Tales Term Paper

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Miss Irene Adler's mind does not conform to her body-yet she can become a positive protagonist precisely because of her body."(Cortiel 1999 p.110)

Therefore, it is plain that the Victorian society saw woman as the opposite of reason and intellect. The 'sample' that Holmes gives us of the way in which he thinks women always act is very suggestive:

When a woman thinks that her house is on fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have more than once taken advantage of it... A married woman grabs at her baby; an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. (Doyle 2002 p.78)

Irene's reaction to the false alarm of fire seems to uphold Holmes view, but eventually she tricks him when she realizes her own mistake and discovers his disguise. As she emphasizes in her note to Holmes, she is used to male disguise, as an actress: "Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage of the freedom which it gives." Irene's remark is very important: she has learned to play men roles, and is apt to beat them with their own weapons, just as Holmes tried to do with her. Also, the way in which she actually uses the photograph, as a protection for her own marriage proves her strength of character, and, most of all, her ability to dissimulate and to reach her goals, that is an almost detective ability, which pairs that of Holmes.

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In the other story, the Adventure of the Yellow Face, Holmes is again outwitted by a woman. This time Holmes fails deciphering the thinking of the woman who hides her little black girl from her old marriage from her husband. He wrongfully concludes after finding out the facts, that she actually hides her husband who is supposed to have been dead. Again, he is fails to read the woman's mind, who proves to have act much better than he supposes. Thus, both stories point to the way in which the nineteenth century men regarded cleverness in women as an absolute exception, and therefore, as Holmes terms it, any smart woman would be called "the woman": "He used to make merry over the cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her photograph, it is always under the honorable title of the woman."(Holmes 2002, p.87).....

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