{"id":2494,"date":"2023-09-29T12:53:24","date_gmt":"2023-09-29T16:53:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/?p=2494"},"modified":"2023-09-29T12:53:24","modified_gmt":"2023-09-29T16:53:24","slug":"holmes-and-watson-besties-for-the-resties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/2023\/09\/29\/holmes-and-watson-besties-for-the-resties\/","title":{"rendered":"Holmes and Watson: Besties for the Resties"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201c… It\u2019s an ugly business, Watson, an ugly, dangerous business, and the more I see of it the less I like it. Yes, my dear fellow, you may laugh but I give you my word that I shall be very glad to have you back safe and sound in Baker Street once more\u201d (Doyle, 53).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Here, at the end of chapter 5 of <\/span>The Hound of the Baskervilles, <\/span><\/i>we get a new glimpse into Sherlock Holmes\u2019 personality. Where he usually appears to be analytical and emotionally detached, Holmes is now genuinely frightened by what he has experienced. Not only that, but Holmes actually wants Watson\u2019s company because he is so disturbed by the developments in the Baskerville case that have come to pass. Before, Holmes had made it clear that he really mainly enjoys having Watson around because his \u201cstupidity\u201d encourages Holmes to more quickly deduce the truth in any of his cases. However, after uncovering the fact that someone is trailing Holmes and those involved in the Baskerville case, as well as impersonating Holmes himself, it becomes clear that Holmes is frightened, and he wants the company of Watson to make him feel safer. While initially appearing out of character for Holmes, this situation reveals something interesting about his relationship between himself and Watson.<\/span><\/p>\n

This interaction demonstrates that Watson serves as more than a mundane, average-joe sidekick for Sherlock Holmes. In his fright, Holmes somewhat indirectly reveals that he views Watson as a friend and true companion. Although he usually behaves condescendingly towards Watson, Holmes genuinely needs him around for the simple reason that Watson is a good friend to him. This, to me, seems adjacent to the idea of the homosocial relationship and the erotic triangle that we saw between Robert, George, and Clara in <\/span>Lady Audley\u2019s Secret. <\/span><\/i>While there is no woman in <\/span>The Hound of the Baskervilles <\/span><\/i>yet to complete the erotic triangle, Holmes and Watson\u2019s work relationship and dysfunctional friendship is best understood through the lens of Victorian male homosocial desire.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201c… It\u2019s an ugly business, Watson, an ugly, dangerous business, and the more I see of it the less I like it. Yes, my dear fellow, you may laugh but I give you my word that I shall be very glad to have you back safe and sound in Baker Street once more\u201d (Doyle, 53).\u00a0 … Continue reading Holmes and Watson: Besties for the Resties<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4820,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[169399],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2023-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4820"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2494\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}