Irene Adler/Norton: Granada Holmes and ACD canon
“To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They were admirable things for the observer—excellent for drawing the veil from men’s motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable memory.” Watson’s narration in “A Scandal in Bohemia” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
On a surface reading of the above quote Irene Adler/Norton falls into the trope of one woman being worthy of respect while other women continue to be treated as inferior. Watson’s later narration and Holmes’ actions shows this isn’t the case. Her affect on Holmes is not simply that he retains a positive memory of her, but since she outwitted him he has not dismissed women’s cleverness, a trait Holmes greatly values. The respect he has for her translates into a respect he shows for all women except the ones who have done something to lose it.
On a personal note I have never agreed with the idea that a strong woman must avoid caring, compassion, and kindness or any of the traditional stereotypes of woman nor I think think that a strong woman must avoid any characteristics that are traditionally considered masculine. Irene Adler/Norton is herself. She sings. She dances. She is a trained actress. She is intelligent. She reads people well. She shows compassion. She shows gratitude. She loves. She sometimes dresses as a man to be more free in society. She rides horses. She is an excellent shot. She is aware of her own beauty without relying on her beauty for her power.
The King describes her as “She has the face of the most beautiful woman, and the mind of the most resolute men.” Irene Adler’s extraordinariness comes in large part for her taking on characteristics and roles that society deemed masculine.
Part of Irene Alder/Norton’s attraction is her confidence in herself. You can see how upset she is with herself when she realizes that she has given away where she hid the photo. Like Holmes she prides herself in her ability to thwart those who challenge her.
Irene Norton dressing in her “walking clothes”, the phrase she uses to describe her “male attire”, and following the man she suspects to be Sherlock Holmes in order to confirm her suspicions is a nice touch. Earlier in the story Holmes warned Watson about making inferences before one has the available data and here we see Irene Norton testing her theory. Her imprudently good-night to Sherlock Holmes (not simply Holmes, but Sherlock Holmes) shows she is unable to resist reveling in the knowledge that she will ultimately outwit him.
Great read! Tangentially, I would like to point out the existence of Miss Irene Aldridge - opera singer, enthused over by Gounod, befriended by the Wagners despite their conspicuous racism, mixed race Swedish and African American. She was born in 1860, making her 31 at the time SCAN was published - the perfect age to be consistent with the story. Her father was Ira Aldridge, at one time the highest paid actor in Russia. He was world-famous for his Shakespeare, which included whiting up to play King Lear, in a reversal of the convention that regularly saw white actors blacking up to play Othello. Imagine the sort of personality she must have had - with a father who claimed to be descended from royalty, and a mother who claimed to be a baroness - to acheive the fame and position that she did, before her career sadly fizzled out due to ill health in 1896. Driven and resourceful almost begin to describe it. If I were reading SCAN when it was published in 1891, and I knew a little bit about the arts, I would have a very hard time not concluding that “Irene Adler” was a tissue-paper-thin disguise for Irene Aldridge. And that would suggest to me a far more likely reason why a royal figure on the brink of a politically advantageous marriage wouldn’t want the affair to be known about than his fiancee’s family being very strict and religious, and another contributory aspect to him being found wanting by Holmes.
Interesting. I did not know this. Thanks for the addition.
After some more sleuthing I found a rather lengthy write up in The New Yorker on Ira and Irene (Luranah).
Their photos: