Mary Herdman's Channel Firing Essay

Word Count 760'''
In the section “Victorian Ladies and Gentlemen” from our textbook, the author states that in Victorian times it was common for women and men to inhabit two different social spheres. Women were in charge of the home, being docile and providing a “haven” for her man, while it was a man's place to go out and do the more “aggressive” things, such as crime or the catching thereof. That belief was probably the reason why the audience was so shocked by Miss Irene Adler, of the Sherlock Holmes' story “A Scandal in Bohemia,” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Irene, the only girl Holmes is reported to have fallen for in life, is also the only woman to completely throw one over on the same. According to Watson, the narrator of “Bohemia,” Holmes refers to her as “the woman.” While showing no outward admiration of Irene, save for requesting her picture as payment from a king at the end of the story, it is obvious to Watson and to the audience that he certainly appreciates her.

When going to confront her, Holmes finds only a letter addressed to him. Irene was apparently a step ahead of him throughout the entire book. For a Victorian woman, this would have been scandalous; instead of staying home and being the victim, Irene dressed up as a man and followed Holmes and Watson in order to find out their next move. According to her letter, this is not even a one-time deal for her, as she plainly writes, “I have trained as an actress. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage of the freedom which it gives.”

Also according to the letter, she had even been warned about Holmes before this meeting. Having read the other books, I can say with some certainty that Irene was working for Holmes' arch-nemesis, Moriarty. This is yet another example of how she goes against the grain: being an accomplis of such a villain as Moriarty, much less being able to stay ahead of Holmes, was hardly the place for a woman back then.

Women back in the Victorian era had no rights, no liberties, and virtually no freedom. A lot of the poems that we have read this semester either embodies or complains about this fact. Irene Adler, on the other hand, begins her role in the book by eloping with Godfrey Norton, a lawyer. Nevertheless, she spends the remainder of the book still living on her own and doing as she pleases, from taking in the (apparently) invalid Holmes, to following him back to Baker Street disguised as a man.

She obviously has an ulterior motive for her engagement, otherwise why else would she know of a possibility of Holmes getting involved? She was blackmailing a king for his marriage, and yet she settles for a lawyer. Maybe she did marry him for love (in of itself a rare occasion for an upper-middle class woman of the time), but even as she says it in her letter at the end of the book, she still leaves the king (her old lover) her picture. She also states that she keeps the damning picture for future assurance against the king, which makes little sense given that she was the one threatening him with it and not the other way around. All of this points to ulterior motives.

Irene Adler was a woman above her time. She played the role of a man, from her marriage to her wardrobe, when it suited her, and was portrayed (by a male author, no less) as having a mind equal to and admired by the greatest mind of her time. She worked for one of the most notorious villains of her time, and was recognized by him (in later books) as being able to confound Holmes. This is a woman who blurs the otherwise black and white lines of gender differences in the Victorian era. I think that this story, A Scandal in Bohemia, should be added to the curriculum for this class to show that not all women were content in their roles and not all men (such as Conan Doyle) believed that they should be limited to the roles they usually played. This was a woman for the ages, and I believe that women a hundred years from now could still admire her adversity in the face of society. Bravo, Miss Adler, bravo.