How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Story.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"What a woman – oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?"
"From what I have seen of the lady, she seems, indeed, to be on a very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business to a more successful conclusion" (Scandal.3.31-32).
Here, Holmes is making a little play on "level": on the one hand, he could be referring to Irene Adler's social rank, which is, of course, much lower than the King of Bohemia's. But the coldness of his speech and the emphatic "indeed" in the middle of his sentence suggests that he's using "level" to mean her value as a person – which is much greater than the King of Bohemia's. So Holmes seems to be implying that social status will always take a back seat to other ways of evaluating people. But then, why is Irene Adler so much better than the King of Bohemia? Is it simply that she's smarter than he is? More daring than he is? What standards does Holmes use to judge people? What is most important to him of those different values?
Quote #2
Now for the sinister cripple who lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a professional beggar [...] I have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of making his professional acquaintance, and I have been surprised at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him without observing him (Twisted Lip.64).
The whole concept of a "professional beggar" is one that depends on the modern development of cities: Hugh Boone sets up his business in a busy street in the financial district of London. Without a certain number of people passing every day, he'd never make any money.
Quote #3
"When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," said [Holmes]. "I daresay that if I had put £100 down in front of him, that man would not have given me such complete information as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a wager" (Carbuncle.147).
Holmes may be willing to interact with you regardless of social class, but that doesn't mean he won't judge you according to your background. Here, he manages to dupe a poultry seller into giving him information by using assumptions about the man's habits based solely on his appearance. We have to admit, scenes like this shake us out of the stories a little bit because, in today's world, we're trained not to profile people based on physical signs of class, race, or gender. As a reader of Holmes, how do you deal with the cultural differences between his time and now? Do these moments stick out to you, or are they just a part of Holmes's overall, self-contained fictional world?
Quote #4
[Henry Baker] was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had ill-usage at the hands of fortune (Carbuncle.120).
Social class is definitely not fixed in Holmes's world: if you're upper class, you can fall into lower-class status. But we don't see many examples of the reverse, a lower-class person rising to upper-class status. Why not, we wonder? Is rising in social rank a bigger threat to the status quo than falling in social rank? How or how not?
Quote #5
I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his case (Bachelor.6-12).
Holmes is a man of the people! Well, insofar as he's pretty much outside of society as a whole, so he doesn't have to let things like social status get to him. When we say Holmes is outside of society, we mean that he doesn't fit wholly into any of the social categories that are so important to these stories. First, he's a man, but he doesn't want to get married. Second, he's a professional, though one who's working for pleasure rather than for money (it would appear). Also, he's totally made up his job. He's the world's first private detective, he claims. And thirdly, the guy's educated, but primarily in the things that matter to him most: soil types and rare poisons and the like. Holmes is unique, and so it makes sense that he doesn't much care about other people's placement in a social order he doesn't really belong to. At the same time, Holmes is a product of his time, and making judgments based on class, race, and gender seem pretty unproblematic to him.