Hello and welcome to this conversation between
me and Teza who is an MA student at IIT Madras
and who is also a TA on this course on the
Victorian short story.
Today we are going to talk about the story
in a detailed manner through a conversation
which would cover the narrative structure,
themes, characterization and some of the motifs.
Teza here has a set of questions for me and
we will begin by looking at the questions
and discussing them and we will also talk
about other issues which are not covered in
the Q and A session.
Teza hello.
Hello maíam.
One of the questions that I had is does the
story seem like a mystery story because of
Dr. Watsonís narration?
Because of the way he selectively reveals
information to us and because of the way that
from the narration we are not able to piece
together the facts ourselves?
Yeah ok, good question.
There are two things here.
Is it a mystery story?
Yes it is a mystery story, but it is not a
murder mystery.
Ok.
Yes it is not a whodunit kind of murder mystery,
but there is a mystery in it and your question
is, is this mystery connected to the way Watson
is narrating it to us the readers ok.
In terms of the narration we cannot have Holmes
narrating the story ok.
Since it is a mystery story, if we allow Holmes
perhaps to talk about the story he would have
to reveal his thought process right.
The contemplative side to him in words right,
he cannot simply sit and smoke his clay pipe.
He calls this problem a three pipe problem.
Isnít it?
And this is beautifully captured in this illustration
by Sidney Paget, Isnít it?
For the very first edition of this detective
fiction in 1891 in The Strand magazine; so,
we need a narrator who is clueless.
Yeah.
Who does not know what is going on in terms
of the plot that is being woven around this
client Jabez Wilson, he has to be dim-witted.
Yes.
Right?
Watson has to be dim-witted.
He has to be dull, he has to be this commonplace
average guy who is not as clever as Holmes.
If we have a cleverer biographer then this
would not be a terrible mystery.
Yeah.
Right?
So, Watson is important as you are trying
to get at in your set of questions that you
have structured.
So, Watson is important in the sense that
he is saving the mystery in some sense for
the readers and at the same time Holmes is
not very communicative either right.
If you look at the story he just says do not
talk to me for a while for 15 minutes at least.
And that makes me wonder if their going to
the concert was just a way, he says I want
to introspect, German music is introspective.
I want to introspect.
Is that to way of he can sit there waving
his fingers into one another, a way of making
Watson quiet?
Possible, it is possible, but what I would
also think is that he is acting as a decoy
not only to a kind of a decoy figure not only
to Watson to put him off right and he is also
acting as a decoy to the readers.
Yes.
As well right, we would think that Holmes
has completely forgotten about the you know
redheaded client and he is simply enjoying
the music, but I would think that the music
is performing a similar function as the pipe
is performing for him.
Yes.
Right.
So, the music gives him some kind of brain
stimulation to kind of untangle the mystery
just as this tobacco as a stimulant in his
pipe is giving him the space and that energy
to kind of think about the problem in a very
very rational manner.
So, these activities though they are very
enjoyable in themselves for Holmes they also
serve a narrative function.
Narrative function to Holmes himself to uncover
the plot to kind of disentangle the confused
trajectory, right, which is being woven around
Jabez Wilson.
So, you are quite right in one sense that
listening to music and enjoying the clay pipe
is shutting down Watson and Watson becomes
clueless right.
Yes.
He does not know what is going on in his mind,
but at the same time it also has a specific
function to perform that is my reading of
these two elements in the narrator.
Yes maíam.
That also actually connects to my next question.
You mentioned that Holmes speaks not, Holmes
is not very communicative.
Yeah.
He speaks little.
Yeah.
It makes me wonder the few times Holmes speaks,
is Holmes an unreliable narrator?
Because the few times he speaks there are
things like he makes a statement that there
is nothing to see on Jabez Wilsonís person
than the obvious facts; knowing fully well
that the facts arenít and exactly obvious
to everyone including Watson.
There is this place where he chides Watson
for having embellished his little adventures
and still wants him along as his own Boswell.
Yeah.
And the ending quote as well it is not the
man who is important, but his work that is
important, all the while when we have been
given a very individualistic picture.
Yeah.
Does that render Holmes as an unreliable narrator?
Right ok, there are too many things here in
your question which needs to be taken one
by one and studied.
The first section is, is Holmes unreliable,
does he say one thing and do another or think
another point of view?
So, there seems to be some kind of contradiction
there.
Apparently yes, apparently yes, but if we
try to look at the motivations of the story,
this particular detective genre; he is once
again as I said he is kind of a figure who
is acting as some kind of decoy if it is obvious
to you then it is not the heart of the matter.
Right.
He has that kind of attitude right.
So, what he is going for is the is the real
kernel of information that is hidden beneath
the obvious.
So, if Watson can look at the obvious and
understand it and that is not going to be
the heart of the mystery and as I said earlier
too in my sessions Jabez Wilson himself is
not the point; he is just a victim, he is
also another decoy figure right.
Clay and Duncan Morris use Jabez Wilson as
an outward you know figure and they kind of
do something else in relation to him right.
They use his pawnbrokerís business because
it is ideally situated.
Yes.
Right?
So, if you pay a lot of attention to Jabez
Wilson and his personal histories then nothing
is going to come out of it which is what Holmes
says at one point of the story.
Yes.
Can you pick up those lines from the story?
ëYou see Watson he explained in the early
hours of the morning as we sat over a glass
of whiskey and soda in Baker Street.
It was perfectly obvious from the first that
the only possible object of this rather fantastic
business of the advertisement of the league
and the copying of the encyclopaedia must
be to get this not over bright pawnbroker
out of the way for a number of hours every
day.
It was a curious way of managing it, but really
it would be difficult to suggest a better.
The method was no doubt suggested to Clayís
ingenious mind by the color of his accompliceís
hair.
The pound four week was a lure which must
draw him and what was it to them who were
playing for thousands.
They put in the advertisement one rogue has
the temporary office, the other rogue incites
the man to apply for it and together they
manage to secure his absence every morning
in the week.
From the time I heard of the assistant having
come for half wages, it was obvious to me
that he had some strong motive for securing
the situation.í
Yes.
So, can you read further until ëthat however,
was out of the questioní?
ëBut how could you guess what the motive
was?
Had there been women in the house, I should
have suspected a mere vulgar intrigue that
however, was out of the question.í
Ok so and the next line is also interesting
which is the manís business was a small one,
there was nothing in his house which could
account for such elaborate preparations and
such an expenditure as they were at.
So, what is the point of this exercise at
reading this section is to address your question
in a different way which is that the figure
of Jabez Wilson and his you know physical
appearance and all the details about him are
not so important as his situation or as his
pawnbroker situation in relation to a particular
other building.
Yes.
Right, that bank which abuts on the other
side of the pawnbrokerís business.
So, as I said again so he is just a pawn and
it is a pun on the pawnbrokerís business
as well right.
So, they are trying to get him out of the
house to secure their ends, the villains of
the story.
So, that is one thing and he further says
Holmes further says that if there had been
women in the house; then maybe Jabez Wilson
would have been interesting right; his physical
appearance and his cultural context, social
context whatever.
So, and I want to connect this to another
point which we were talking about earlier
which is that Watson asks him you wanted to
look at Clayís face right, did you go to
the place and knock on the door to get a look
at the assistants face?
And, he says not the face because everybody
would think the same thing right.
Yes.
An ordinary reader would think that yes Holmes
wanted to see him and he says no no no I do
not want to do the obvious, I want to do something
else.
I wanted to look at his knees, the state of
his trousers right.
So, he does not want to go to the most obvious
thing, he has something else which is hiding
behind the commonplace, the bizarre, the everyday,
the humdrum right.
So, and again that ties in with this notion
of all these sensation fiction that came out
in the 1860s which is that there is extraordinarily
brutal things happening in mundane places
such as a middle class home right.
So, there is plenty of abuses, murder, there
is extortion, there is blackmail going on
beneath the really respectable exteriors of
a suburban home in London right.
So, it is kind of picking up on all those
cues that are left behind in these kinds of
fiction that came before, right, before Conan
Doyle started writing Sherlock Holmes narratives.
In fact, we have this genre called the Country
House Fiction in literature and in fact, Jane
Austenís works can be termed as country house
fiction as well in some sense, because of
the importance given to vicars, the gentleman
in the manner and other aspects right.
So, there is a distinct trajectory called
Country House Fiction, Country House Literature
which celebrates the pastoral aspect; the
really beautiful serene aspects of life.
And, at the same time this Country House Fiction
took a different hue, took a different color
as it moved down the century and because of
the impact of industrialization and other
kinds of fiction which were influencing British
domestic fiction, we we started getting something
very very interesting as the sensation fiction
which I said you know houses, murder, intrigue,
blackmail you know; you name it forgery and
other things behind this very very homely
setup of a house, a country house.
What I understand is that from this conversation
is that many of the elements in the narrative
are ideally situated so as to suit the genre.
Yeah.
Yeah.
If you if you I wanted to bring some excerpts
interview excerpts of you know between Conan
Doyle and the figures in which Doyle also
talks about the character of Holmes right.
Maybe I will put it up later as part of additional
material for the course, but to answer this
question we got to remember that Holmes is
not an original invention, he is not created
out of the blue by Doyle.
In fact, Edgar Allan Poeís Dupin Auguste
Dupin is the precursor to Holmes and in fact,
in one of the earlier stories of the adventures
of Sherlock Holmes, Watson asks you remind
me, he tells, Watson tells Holmes that you
remind me of Auguste Dupin right.
So, everybody knows that he is kind of walking
in the tradition of this earlier detective
very very famous detective of the 1840s created
by this figure Edgar Allan Poe, the American
creator Edgar Allan Poe.
So, he has borrowed the characteristics, but
he has embellished it in some sense to create
a really really you know awesome and sublime
figure in Holmes.
So, he does have his you know models, literary
models in literature.
Every character appears to be profiled in
someway or the another and we understand what
characteristics can be mocked.
For example Jabez Wilson character.
It has certain attributes to it which make
even Watson and Holmes break out into laughter.
Yeah.
Which sort of sanction the laughter this way.
And there is there are other characters as
well like the inspector, who are good for
certain things.
Yeah.
But who cannot be taken into confidence beyond
that and we know what things to disapprove
of, what things to take into confidence and
we have a very preoccupied Merryweather, the
bank director.
Director.
Yeah.
Who towards the end after watching Holmesís
spectacle turns very obsequious as well.
So, how do you understand this kind of profiling
in terms of character?
Yeah ok.
So, it is a it is a interesting question because,
I when you were asking me this question I
was thinking about the origins of literary
fiction itself because it all these stories
began as character sketches you know.
So, character sketches were interesting fictional
narratives, literary narratives which were
consumed by the market by the British market.
So, it is tied up to that originary narrative
of fiction itself that is one thing.
In terms of other perspectives we need a set
of characters for a fiction to work out especially
a detective fiction to work out.
And, we need a set of characters in a closed
atmosphere which means you will get the details
of every figure who is coming into that space
very well delineated in fiction and if you
look at the layout of 221 Baker Street, it
is a closed space; very claustrophobic, full
of things right, very odd and eccentric things.
And, the job of Holmes is to kind of list
out either in his mind or in his words, the
various details which kind of fascinate him
because, these details are a cue into the
mystery of the figure who is sitting in front
of him right.
So, as I was pointing out earlier in some
of my discussions this listing out becomes
very important for Holmes because, he synthesizes
or analyzes this list of details or facts
or information and tries to produce a coherent
narrative at the end of that synthesis or
analysis, it is like an experiment.
He puts stuff in it, chemical ingredients
in it and he gets a result, a particular kind
of colored gas or whatever.
The same kind of process is adopted by him
in reading humanity; so, which is perhaps
why Watson who is his biographer is forced
to kind of imitate Holmes in some way.
Yes.
And, capture the various you know profiles
of figures who are walking through this you
know stage that Dickens is kind, that Holmes
is orchestrating for us or Doyle is orchestrating
for us.
So, this character profiling is important,
but coming to the other part of your question
is are we being led by Holmes to judge a particular
character in a particular way?
Or are we being led by this duo, Watson and
Holmes to kind of read a particular character
in a particular way?
Yes, they are doing that, they are nudging
us in some to kind of laugh at people, to
appreciate people and to kind of warm towards
certain people right.
And, the perfect example would be Jabez Wilson
because, he is laughed at and he does not
take it approvingly, he is annoyed.
He says, if you are going to laugh at me I
am going to elsewhere, he is offended and
he is rightly offended because, he does not
belong to the same class position as Watson
and Holmes.
He is a small time trader right and he was
and he began life as a working class figure,
because he was a shipís carpenter right.
So, he is aware of his class position and
when he is being laughed at he takes it seriously.
But as to analyzing the motivations behind
Holmes and Watsonís laughter, we need to
think about their assessments of him.
They think that he has been terribly greedy
in some sense.
Yes.
Right, and since he has lost his really cushy
income, really kind of luxurious 4 pounds
a week income he has come to them immediately
to seek redressal and to get back that job.
So, they understand his greed, but hiding
behind that judgment is also an awareness
that he is a figure from the lower classes
who is doing some kind of social climbing.
He was a working class figure and now he becomes
the lower middle class character and he is
pretending to be shabby genteel, he is pretending
to be a genteel figure right.
And if you connect that with the setting to
which he belongs in terms of his business,
it all ties in neatly together.
So, they are frowning upon his aspirations
to class mobility that could be one assumption
that we can reasonably draw on right.
And, but you are right to answer your question
straightly, yes they are kind of guiding us,
but we need to read against the grain to understand
the complications.
In relation to that I actually have another
question which is when we were talking about
class Jabez Wilsonís class is, although not
very explicitly, seems to be laughed at, frowned
upon and then coming on to the latter part
of the story we see like John Clayís class
position talked about extensively.
Yeah yes.
In a way that is also mocked at.
Yes absolutely, you are quite right; you are
quite right.
Just to go back to the earlier point about
the class position of Jabez Wilson, actually
that is made quite clear in that description
of his shopís location.
Yes.
In terms of the descriptions of you know its
appearance, even the word shabby genteel that
is a you know that is a sign that this man
is aspiring towards the middle class you know
ethics or middle class ideologies which is
why he is trying to dress in a particular
way, but it all fails.
It all fails right, all that fake ornamentation
that he has and things like that right.
So, that is being kind of subtly critiqued
by Holmes and Watson.
What is also critiqued is his greed that is
also there and they seem to be implying that
these figures are very greedy.
Ha.
Right.
This aspirational lower middle class working
class characters are greedy and that is kind
of implied in this kind of character sketch
of Jabez Wilson.
So, that thing is established very diplomatically,
strategically by the narrator.
The other thing yeah that you have raised
is John Clayís position.
John Clay is a very very interesting character.
Even the word John Clay; the two words John
Clay right.
John is a very common place, name John Watson.
John Doe.
John the first name is very common.
John Doe as you said.
Clay as I said is symbolic of his character
motivation something that is very base, something
that is not aspiring to the sophisticated
you know narratives that elite, middleclass
professionals have.
So, he that kind of quality is indicated by
his name John Clay but, running contrary to
that narrative is this narrative of his which
is that he has royal you know ancestry, noble
blood, royal blood and things like that and
on top of that we get the information from
Jones that he has been to Eton, Oxford.
So, we have a very very contradictory set
of notions about John Clay if he is well read,
why is he performing all these base acts right.
So, we are also told that just because somebody
is well read, just because somebody who has
gone to Eton or Oxford, we cannot assume that
he would stick to this sophisticated civilized
attitudes that are natural to figures who
have been to all these places right.
So, at some point in the 19th century things
become very very complicated.
The upper class do not behave in a way that
is expected of them; the lower classes do
not behave in a way that is expected of them.
There is structural kind of shifts, class
class you know position seem to be kind of
moving up, above and below in terms of the
way the society is structured and perhaps
John Clay is a victim of that kind of shifts
right.
John Clay is very proud of the fact that he
has noble blood in him.
Yes.
Even that is laughed at.
Yes the mockery aspect yeah.
So, we need to remember that the upper classes
are consistently, in a particular set of fiction,
consistently mocked at.
They are figured as villains, if you look
at Wilkie Collinsís fictions, some of these
upper class figures are degenerate.
Some of them are very studious, but at the
same time they have these degenerate tendencies
ok.
So, that could symbolically, I am just giving
you a very very brief summation of what is
going on in terms of the fall of the gentry,
fall of the upper elite sections of society.
So, that kind of loss of power of the upper
classes in society is indicated is reflected
in the literature of the day.
And, and again I want to go back to Jane Austen
because you can see that the heroines in Jane
Austen do not go for all these elite you know
a gentlemen.
As you read the novels you know her last published
Persuasion, she rejects the baronet for a
middle class captain right.
So, that move away from the charms from the
you know aspects of upper class figures towards
the rising middle classes is also there.
But to come back to the mockery which you
are interested in Holmes and Watson are; Holmes
is a doctor, I mean sorry Watson is a doctor,
he is a GP, he is a professional class and
Holmes is also very well educated right.
So, they belong to this as they belong to
this rising professional classes which is
mocking both the ones who are above them and
those who are below.
They think that they hold the moral order
right.
So, that is also there when we see figures
like, the Jones character laughing at you
know a John Clay and he laughs at him in a
righteous way too and quite right.
In a way is this some kind of prioritizing
of reason, of the rationality of the professional
classes?
.
Yes absolutely.
In fact, that is there, Holmesís way of working
things out.
Yes, incisive.
Yeah, very you know in a very methodical way
as if he is conducting an experiment and you
know all this is held above the rest of the
kind of work that is kind of indicated in
some fiction which includes Doyleís as well.
So, he thinks he is superior to the bulky
Jones right, Holmes thinks that he is superior
to the bulky because he does mind work rather
than the physical job of kind of hauling criminals
you know which is also pointed out by Jones.
Yes.
Can you read that section?
ëWe are hunting in couples again Dr. you
see said Jones in his consequential way.
Our friend here is a wonderful man for starting
a chase.
All he wants is an old dog to help him to
do the running.í
So, Jones knows his position in relation to
Holmesís worldview right.
Holmesís cleverness lies in starting a chase
right.
So, he can sit in his armchair quite comfortably,
work things out and let others get the help
of others to get you know down to business
and capture the criminal in this fashion in
this particular, but there are also other
cases where he does fieldwork.
Yes.
We need to remember that too.
I think it is also reflected in the sheer
order of the story.
Yeah.
How it is all perfectly placed out such that
Holmes never loses his control.
Yeah quite right, quite right.
He knows what is going to happen.
Yes.
Right, he knows what is going to happen the
moment he has visited the city.
Yes.
Right when he had a good look at the different
streets surrounding the pawnbrokerís business,
he knows that what is going to happen and
he waits, he almost lays a trap.
Yes.
For the criminals, right, he catches them
red handed instead of having them arrested,
it is drama to this.
He wants the dramatic you know staging effect
in order to kind of make sure that everybody
understands what a genius he has been, right,
to lay such a elaborate trap.
Which is also what makes me wonder, if he
is very unreliable as a narrator.
.
He does not reveal.
Yes.
Right, he does not reveal what is on his mind,
he waits for the perfect moment.
If you look at Poirot even Marple they just
you know have that big finale where they get
everybody together in the room and then make
the big reveal.
And, in the end get the due credit that there
is owing to them because, of all the mind
work that they do.
You are quite right, but he does not want
to reveal anything because that is what he
claims that he does not want to give any kind
of you know hint or he does not want to alert
the criminals.
Go back to that section where he kind of chastises
Meriwether.
ëYou are not very vulnerable from above Holmes
remarked as he held up the lantern and gazed
about him.
Nor from yeah.
Nor from below said Mr. Meriwether striking
his stick upon the flags which lined the floor.
Why dear me, it sounds quite hollow he remarked
looking up in surprise.
I must really ask you to be a little more
quiet, said Holmes severely.
You have already imperilled the whole success
of an expedition, might I beg that you would
have the goodness to sit down upon one of
these boxes and not to interfere.í
Like a good child should be right.
Do not make any noise, we just should be seen
not heard that is one that kind of rhetoric
is there right.
So, he literally scolds him for behaving in
an improper manner and he says you have already
imperilled the whole success of her expedition.
This is an adventure which he wants to see
through successfully.
And, he feels that if you tell him that you
are a very unreliable character, he would
say that I am not letting things you know
out of the bag because I am worried that you
will spoil the entire expedition right, that
would be his you know explanation for being
very very cryptic right.
But he has to be cryptic for this kind of
genre to work for Holmesís narrative to work,
for the narrative that is kind of you know
stitched around Holmes to be very successful.
He has to come off as this particular morose,
almost inhuman figure in some respects.
I think Doyle himself calls him heartless
at one point.
So, he is not like the rest of humanity he
is above them.
So, you cannot expect him to behave like a
normal human being because, he has extraordinary
powers and those extraordinary powers are
about his capacity to think basically think
very very clearly, to assess things and kind
of even predict what is going to happen right.
In relation to how identities seem to multiply
in pairs, there is this name that John Clayís
accomplice uses, Duncan Ross who later turns
out to be have another name William Morris
and then Vincent Spaulding and John Clay.
Yeah.
There is also the fact that we hunt in pairs--
Jones says that we hunt in.
Yeah.
Pairs and there is Jones and Merryweather,
there is Holmes and Watson.
Watson yeah.
But then what interested me or like piqued
my interest more is that towards the end there
seems to be an almost anticipated encounter
between Holmes and John Clay.
And, there is also this confrontation where
John Clay is trying to draw a gun and then
Holmes prevents him, there is this confrontation
and we can see that Holmes has been looking
forward to this.
Yes yes.
It looks as if Holmes is also being multiplied
into John Clayís identity as if there is
some kind of... the same dynamic that operates
between Holmes and Watson multiplies in a
different way between Holmes and John Clay.
Yeah.
It is a good question and you are quite right
there is a kind of an anticipation and that
is evident in that you know a particular point
in the story.
Yes.
Where he says that I too have a.
Yes.
Score to settle, can you read that one?
Because, that will kind of give a lot of explanation
to what you are talking about.
ëReally Mr. Holmes said Mr. Merryweather
as we followed them from the cellar.
I do not know how the bank can thank you or
repay you.
There is no doubt that you have detected and
defeated in the most complete manner one of
the most determined attempts at bank robbery,
that have ever come within my experience.
I have had one or two little scores of my
own to settle with Mr. John Clay said Holmes.
I have been at some small expense over this
matter which I shall expect the bank to refund.
But beyond that I am amply repaid by having
had an experience which is in many ways unique
and by hearing the very remarkable narrative
of the red headed league.í
Ok he is already turning it into a story-
the narrative of the red headed league; so,
that is a different point.
But, to come back to what you have raised;
he says I have one or two little scores of
my own to settle with Mr. John Clay and that
would lead us to think that Mr. Clay had outwitted.
Him at some point.
Holmes in the past; so, that is the assumption
that we can reasonably draw from that comment
and yeah go on.
Also when he knocks on the pawnbrokerís door
and he comes in opens and he tells to Watson
at a later point that we have had our own
skirmishes.
.
Yes.
But we had not ever set eyes on each other.
On each other yeah exactly.
So, that is a great moment and we have no
indication from the text to suggest that Clay
has identified Holmes, he just opens the door,
he is very prompt with the answer; he just
shuts the door and vanishes into the cellar
right.
So, even if he thinks that this is Holmes,
he does not care maybe I do not know.
So, it is a point of speculation that we can
talk about at great length, but the other
point that I wanted to raise is the description
of Clay by Jones right and after that we have
a response from Holmes.
Can we read that too?
ëI hope Ií-- that that section, I hope that
I.
ëI hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing
you tonight.
I have had one or two little turns also with
Mr. John Clay and I agree with you that he
is at the head of his profession.í
ëHis brain is as cunning as his fingers and
though they meet signs of him at.
Every turn.
Every turn we never know where to find the
man himself.í He is almost like a very interesting
magician in some sense right.
Macavity..
He seems yeah yeah.
Macavity: The Mystery Cat.
.
Yes yes, yes yes.
That is actually modelled after the Holmes.
Yeah, this narrative serves as a model for
a whole array of texts which is why this is
continuously anthologized in terms of literary
courses ok.
So, his brain is as cunning as his fingers
and though we meet signs of him at every turn
we never know where to find the man himself.
So, he is a man who is posing a big challenge
to Holmes, right.
So, he is almost like Holmesís alter ego
before we have this figure of the Moriarty
right.
So, he is equally important and interesting.
He will crack a crib in Scotland one week,
he will be raising money to build an orphanage
in Cornwall the next.
So, he will rob a place and the next moment
he will set up an orphanage in order to serve
you know the less privileged people.
So, again we see that set of contradictions
there in John Clay and maybe he is doing it
to hide his criminal you know past or criminal
behaviour as well.
We have that in the strange case of Jekyll
and Mr. Hyde too right.
We have doctor the doctor doing the good deeds,
being very pious you know helping a lot of
charities and the same time as Hyde he commits
a lot of murders, right?
So.
A parallel to those contradictions are also
there in Holmes.
Yes; not literally, but we have similar.
Yes.
Contradictions rights, similar in the sense
that he is, he also abuses substance and he
can be very rude and heartless and not to
the extent, that we see in the.
Yes
Criminals, but we can see that kind of behaviour,
the contradictory behaviour, the jarring behaviour
in Holmes too, you know.
So, ëI have been on his track for years and
have never set eyes on him yetí.
So, for years Holmes has been tracking him
down so, which will answer your question about
the anticipation that Holmes has in meeting
Clay and in and kind of hitting him with that
riding crop and making him drop the pistol
right.
So, it is a very very interesting scene and
it is a very atmospheric moment as well.
Everywhere there is darkness in the cellar
and he is just coming from below.
Yes.
Right from below the earth as if and then
Holmes is waiting for him and it is as if
he is the devil who is coming out of the depths
of the earth and he is catching him.
So, it is a very symbolic moment too I would
think.
I also find and I am just... there was this
reference in Coriolanus about how Coriolanus
the dreams that Coriolanus.
Has.
Are about battling his opponent.
Yes yes, yes yes yes yes yes.
And finally, when they meet one another it
is like that they have a sort of brotherhood.
Yes.
Between themselves like I know you are my
only worthy opponent.
Yes yes.
I have dreamt of fighting you, I have dreamt
of choking you.
Yeah.
So, I want you to connect that with the conversation
that Holmes has with Watson as soon as he
has seen John Clay.
What does he say?
ëSmart fellow that, observed Holmes as we
walked away.
He is in my judgment the fourth smartest man
in London and for daring I am not sure that
he has not a claim to be the third.í
Yeah.
I have known something of him before.
So, look at the way he is classifying.
Yes.
John Clay, his mind, his courage and other
things right.
Its graded and ranked.
.
Yes, yeah and shelved perhaps in his mind
palace you know to be taken out and analyzed
and kind of executed in some kind of trap
right.
So, Holmes in this narrative we are told that
appreciates the superior mind right, more
than he would appreciate daring and courage
and bullheadedness you know things like that.
So, at the end of this what we can try to
understand is that you know mind work, the
processing of information, the gathering of
information, but you do not do anything physical
with that information; you just get other
people to help you out, but the point is that
you should have a solution to that problem
in your mind before you even step out of your
house.
So, that is what Holmes does and that is what
he is lauded for, the amazement that he produces,
the awe he produces amongst his companions,
right, that is what has made him into such
a celebrity, who continues to live to this
day alright.
So, I hope you have had a very interesting
conversation from us about this particular
story.
Thank you for watching, we will continue in
the next session.
