Sign of Four vs Sign of Three
Dec. 6th, 2011 10:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
The sign of four is even worse than the sign of three pining wise because Holmes hasn’t done anything to betray Watson’s trust yet, but Watson still leaves him. And all the while Watson is falling for Mary Morstan, Holmes is like pacing all night, can’t eat and Watson is concerned for him but just. Totally misunderstands what he’s seeing. And the end is positively dire with Holmes saying right in front of Watson that at least he has morphine left to him.
This is spot on. The sadness continues if you take the next story that was published, A Scandal in Bohemia, as though it occurs next in the timeline (which is obviously arguable; but it is the next story published after SIGN, so in Doyle’s mind, the wife from SIGN was probably who he had in mind while writing this). It opens with Watson saying he and Holmes have drifted apart since his marriage, while Holmes has just been spiralling:
I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature.
As you said, SIGN ends with Holmes reaching for the drugs and saying that’s what remains for him after Watson mentions that he’s getting married. Clearly he meant it. Anyway, Watson is passing by and decides to drop in on him; that’s how SCAN begins. When Watson enters 221b, Holmes is aloof:
His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I think, to see me.
“but he was glad, I think”…It’s bad. This description makes me feel like Watson knows what’s wrong, but doesn’t want to face it. They begin to chat, Holmes rattles off some deductions about where Watson’s been and such. Things are warming up a little.
He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands together.
Nervous…Holmes is laughing softly to himself, but he’s nervous. He’s afraid Watson’s going to leave again.
Holmes begins to tell Watson about a client he’s expecting. He tells Watson what he knows of the case so far, and adds at the end: “There’s money in this case, Watson, if there’s nothing else.” Holmes doesn’t care about money. He rarely talks about compensation. So why does he bring it up here? Well…He’s desparate. He doesn’t want Watson to go. He’s offering up anything he can to make his friend interested enough to stay. Right after this, the client shows up.
“I think that I had better go, Holmes.”
“Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity to miss it.”
“But your client—”
“Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best attention.”
“I am lost without my Boswell.” It’s a classic line, a fun one to quote. But not so fun when you realize that Holmes isn’t being cute–he is lost without Watson, and he’s telling him so. He’s been spun out on drugs ever since Watson got married, burying himself in work and old books and his “drug-created dreams”.
Watson stays for the moment, and after the client has entered and introduced himself, Watson again tries to leave:
I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me back into my chair.
And he stays. The client continues their story, and takes their leave. After the client is gone, Holmes tells watson good night and asks him to come back the next day.
And the next day? Watson arrives at 221b and Holmes isn’t there yet–he’s out working on the case. When he gets home and sees Watson there, he takes off the disguise he was using that day and sits down, clearly in a better mood than he’s been in for a long time.
Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes.
He’s so happy. He’s laughing because of his unexpected role in helping Irene Adler marry her husband…But I suspect he’s also happy to see that Watson really showed up. I don’t imagine he would have gone home to an empty 221b and laughed alone for minutes…He probably would have just got high.
Anyway, they work on the case together and the chapter ends. The next chapter opens with:
I slept at Baker Street that night,
👀👀👀
And the second to last paragraph of the story says:
He bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his chambers.
Holmes doesn’t care about the king, he just wants to go with Watson to his chambers and is oblivious to everything else :)
The last paragraph is just a bit of commentary on how Irene Adler schooled Holmes hard and that as a result he’s stopped making sexist jokes. The end.