ENTIRELY TO BE TRUSTED -- PAGE 4

 

And none of us can forget Watson’s description of Holmes’s reaction to Irene Adler:

To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman... In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex. (SCAN)


So if the Master’s avoidance of women is not caused by antipathy, why has he set himself apart from the world of women? If we listen to what Holmes says on the subject instead of flying off into rash accusations of misogyny, we will hear his explanation. As early as SIGN, Holmes tells Watson why he avoids the tender passions:

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. (SIGN)

And later in the same case, he says,

The emotional qualities are antagonistic to clear reasoning, (SIGN)


and later yet,

It is of the first importance not to allow your judgment to be biased by personal qualities. (SIGN)     


By his own words it seems clear that Sherlock Holmes made a conscious, carefully considered decision to distance himself from womankind in order to avoid the temptations of love and sex and emotional bias. He based his decision on two separate foundations.


First was his realization that one of the natural talents he brought to his profession was his ability to concentrate, to focus his brain and each of his senses in pulling every possible piece of information from the scene or story before him. I just called that a natural talent, but I have no doubt that the Master honed this ability as well, bringing the full force of his remarkable intellect to bear on opening his senses, his powers of observation, learning to concentrate keenly at will. This was as much a part of his studies as his investigations into the ash of various tobaccos or his observations about familial influence in the shape of the ear - these were the studies that permitted him to interpret the data, but first he had to train himself to focus his intellect and his senses and to observe everything.    


So Sherlock Holmes made a conscious decision to eliminate from his life anything that did not lead to improving himself as a perfect instrument of observation and deduction. What he needed to excise was personal emotion. Sentiment was forbidden and so he separated himself from the enticements represented by the gentler, more curvaceous gender. In effect, he removed himself from temptation.

I think he made the decision to shun womankind quite early in his life, before he really knew how he would use the abilities and systems he was teaching himself. Then, when his path turned to detection, he saw another strong reason to eschew contact with women. His profession put him in opposition to some of the most dangerous men in London, in the world. Any woman attached to him would live her life in constant jeopardy. She would become a tool for his enemies to use against him and she would be unlikely to survive for long. No gentleman would put a lady in such a situation, and Holmes renewed his decision to put aside the softer emotions and avoid the company of women.

The intriguing question here is exactly how difficult was it for him to cut the female of the species out of his life. His bent is clearly intellectual more than it is physical, but he is still a man after all. He did proclaim, “I am a brain, Watson, the rest of me is a mere appendix,” (MAZA) but nowhere did he say that the rest of him was not in full working order! It is tempting to pause here to contemplate how he controlled his appendage when it threatened to rise up against his brain. What was the Holmesian equivalent of a cold shower? Could his violin provide the necessary sublimation? Is this what turned him to cocaine? Did salt-peter figure into it? This is a tempting area of conjecture, but on reflection, I think I’ll leave it for another day to explore.

Kinky questions notwithstanding, Holmes managed to build an important and fulfilling life for himself, but I think he never forgot what he had sacrificed to fashion himself into the perfect reasoning machine. In some deep corner of his soul, he recognized what he had given up, and I believe we can see evidence of his silent longing in the Canon.  Listen to his words in BERY, VALL, ILLU, and DEVI. First, BERY:

You owe a very humble apology to that noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in that matter as I should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to have one. (BERY)

 

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