THE EMPTY BOX
The Sign of the Four is an intricate house of mirrors, in which the reader is invited to enter and to which, in a very veiled manner, a way out has been indicated.
It’s not a coincidence that one of the first things we are told is that “Some facts should be suppressed”. This immediately after the opening that deals with the bad habit of Holmes, an opening that is a perfect counterpart of the closure. The story opens and closes with Holmes dedicated to drugs, and in the middle we are explained why, suppressing the real reasons, or rather hiding them behind others, reflecting them in a mirror, telling their exact opposite.
If you notice carefully, in the first part of the novel there is a continuous play between the OPPOSITES. A suggestion that what is happening could be the exact opposite. NEGATIVE vs POSITIVE. First of all we introduced Mary Morstan. I have often seen her description as proof that Watson was actually describing Holmes and I honestly never understood the point. Actually it would seem to describe its exact opposite: FEMALE, BLONDE, MINUTE, IMPERFECT INCARNATE, BEAUTIFUL BUT NOT REGULAR FEATURES, SWEET AND AMABILE EXPRESSION. Holmes we know well: MALE, DARK, TALL, PALE, only a few lines after his features are described as “his clear-cut, hawklike features” and without even a precise reason. Rarely if ever the expression of Holmes is called sweet and lovable. The only thing certain is that Watson is infatuated from the beginning of the woman, but he thinks he is not at her level, and this even before any treasure is named in history.
On the first evening of their adventure, the doctor admits, because of the great stress, that he has repeatedly been confused. It seems he had told how during the war he had shot a musket entered his tent with a tiger, and advised caution with castor oil and ease with strychnine (CONTRARY).
During the evening the three pass the bridge of Vauxall Bridge Road, crossing the river to reach a more neglected part of the city. Here they stop in front of a house, squalid like the neighborhood that houses it, and the door is opened by an exotic Indian servant (CONTRARY). The house itself is a surprise, squalid outside, inside it hides incredible treasures and is luxuriously furnished (CONTRARY).
After all these opposites, perhaps it would not be so crazy if we asked ourselves if, by chance, the unreliable narrator, is not trying to tell us that yes he fell in love with someone, yes he probably did it when he set his eyes on he, yes, the first time they were close to each other was in the moment of danger, but he is not Mary Morstan but her CONTRARY.
“Miss Morstan and I stood together. A wondrous subtle thing is love, for here were we two who had never seen each other before That Day, between-whom no word or even look of affection had ever passed, and yet now in an hour of trouble our hands instinctively sought for each other . I have come to you so far, but I have been able to do it for you” . So how many times have we seen Holmes and Watson doing exactly the same thing? holding hands in the dark, looking for comfort? is this therefore love ?.
At this point in history we come to know the two brothers Sholto and we enter another dimension, from the opposite to the mirror.
The two are brothers, to be precise twins. One of the things that tormented us in BBC Sherlock is the sentence ”they are never twins“, even if then the solution of the case “my husband is three people” actually turns out to be a case of twins, even three identical … are they twins or are they never? Does it refer to something else? With this I don’t want to imply that Thaddeus Sholto and Bartholomew Sholto aren’t twins. At the textual level there isn’t doubt that they are, but on a metaphorical level? On a metaphorical level they aren’t twins because they are the same person. They are identical twins, the same coin with two faces.
Thaddeus Sholto a refined esthete, an arts lover, a pipe smoker, a hypochondriac who believes he has a heart condition … he asks Watson to check his heart.
Bartholomew Sholto is a chemist, misanthrope, he is found killed in a closed room. He kept a treasure hidden, a treasure that he didn’t want to share with anyone, but his killer took his treasure away from him (I understand that the fandom has irremediably corrupted my mind, but I would dwell on the murder weapon: “It was long, sharp, and black, with a glazed look near the point”.)
I would say that it is quite evident that the SHOLTO dyad represents SHerlock Holmes or SH which is good at the same.
Both share the same treasure, the treasure of Agra, which represents homosexual love (it comes from the east). A brother wants to share it with Mary Morstan. Attention, as I said here the games change, we aren’t longer in the realm of the opposite, but in the house of mirrors.
To better understand the mirrors you have to take a step back in time and forward in history (this meta is a bloody mess, I believe that nobody will ever understand anything).
Before Mary, Thaddeus and Bartholomeus there were their parents.
The CAPTAIN ARTHUR (really not too thin) MORSTAN, father of Mary who will marry CAPTAIN WATSON and MAJOR SHOLTO father of the twins that as we said can be seen as the perfect sum of Holmes. The two were inseparable.
Thaddeus Sholto / SH, a Bohemian esthete wants to share the treasure with Mary Morstan / Watson while Bartholomew Sholto, a grumpy chemist wants to keep it hidden. But a man with a wooden leg arrives to take it away anyway. Now … a man with a wooden leg. I go back to the point where the fandom ruined me, once I was a good person, but considering the Victorian pruderie for the legs, which were even covered even those of the tables or called limbs because to say legs was indecente, here we have a man, Major Sholto, literally terrorized by another man with a wooden leg, and every bloody time I can’t help, but I think of an embarrassing and persistent erection.
Anyway, I said, Bartholomew was robbed by a man with a massive erection and was killed by the long, dark, shiny, wet spine (not my words, thank you) of whom? Of a wild of Antipodes. A native of the Andaman Islands at north of Sumatra (a case? Possible?). A cannibal. One who regulalry banquets with his similars. Now it’s obvious that put it in this way is repulsive, but Tonga represents the wild, unmentionable and inconceivable side of the events linked to the treasure of Agra. The erotic and unspeakable side in an era in which even the conjugal kisses were unspeakable. The wild and primordial side that dwells in any English gentleman (or not). In this case he prefers to feast with his fellows. (is that why in TFP Moriarty refers to cannibals in the TFP? in addition to the more obvious, too obvious, reference to SAW? And the fact of making him whistle is a mockery to Fleming, considered the tone definitely “bond” of the episode? Ian Fleming had made tell to someone of his Bond that you can recognize a homosexual, because he didn’t know how to whistle … but here I went off topic…).
The same Jonathan Small (the man with the massive erection) will turn out to be a fairly accurate mirror of Watson. MILITARY, INJURED to a leg, after having been involved with the theft of the treasure and sentenced to life imprisonment, he will start working in an infirmary and learning notions of MEDICINE. In the course of history it is suggested that during his stay in India he learned a certain familiarity with the men that it was not allowed at home: “Mr. Abelwhite was a kind man, and he would often drop into my little shanty and smoke with me, for white folk out there feel their hearts warm to each other.”
And so, it’s Small / Watson that forces SHolto to separate from his treasure after having him (his uncontrollable and wild part) stabbed (with his meat dagger) … ok, I’ll stop.
But things at the end of the 1800s were not very simple, they are not yet for someone now. We have Mary Morstan not particularly anxious for the treasure to be recovered, Watson who is terrified of it, Holmes quivering for a solution, but in the meantime also strives to be at his best like never before. He plays serenades to sleep Watson and lays dinners in which he plays the part of the friendly and jovial guest. A few other times, if we never, we see behavior more like a courtship.
And then there is the pursuit on the river. Holmes and Watson chase Small, Tonga and the treasure who are on board a small and fast boat, the Aurora
I would stop for a moment on the name because it’s worth it. Aurora was the name of the Latin goddess of dawn, she is who brings a new day every morning from the east. She is the mother of the four winds, one of whom has a curious name … Eurus …
This is a frenetic pursuit, narrated with a growing climax. Watson himself admits that he has never experienced such excitement, “I have coursed many creatures in my countries during my checkered career, but never did sport give me such a wild thrill as this mad, flying man-hunt down the Thames” , while the engines are “panting”, and in the end the guns of the two men simultaneously shoot “Our pistols rang out together”, while Tonga disappears in “ the white swirl”. After that the Aurora gets stuck, Small tries to escape, but his wooden leg gets entangled in the soft ground.
“See here,” said Holmes, pointing to the wooden hatchway. “We were hardly quick enough with our pistols.” There, sure enough, just behind where we had been standing, stuck one of those murderous darts which we knew so well. It must have been whizzed between us at the instant that we fired. Holmes smiled at it and shrugged His shoulders in his easy fashion, but I confess That it turned me sick to think of the horrible LITTLE death Which had passed so close to us That Night.”
Now if all this is not a climax and an exhausted post orgasm also cloaked by a certain sadness I don’t know … (certainly could also be a pursuit along the river).
After the capture of Small Watson is left again at the bridge of Vauxall Bridge Road, which had already crossed earlier to reach the house of Thaddeus Sholto. It seems that the river is a watershed for our two men, and interesting things happen in the middle. “SHERLOCK (voiceover): When does the path we walk on lock around our feet? When does the road become a river with only one destination? Death waits for us all in Samarra. But can Samarra be avoided?” (x)
The doctor brings the treasure to Mary / Watson who does not seem at all anxious or happy to receive a treasure (intended to be then shared with the eccentric Sholto).
To our romantic eyes the story Holme /Watson is the most beautiful that has ever been written but we must never forget that at that time it was a love that could not be told. We can therefore forgive the recalcitrance to Watson. We can understand the why of Mary. Keeping in mind that some things in history are told to us otherwise. That some facts have been suppressed. That the treasure was thrown into the river, was buried by layers of mud, and there is only one beautiful empty box left. But this doesn’t mean that the treasure is gone, it is only hidden. A full declaration of subtext. The jewels are there, they are scattered around all the stories of the Canon, the reader careful is able to find them but have been dragged around by words like the river water. For all the others the Canon remains a beautiful box of fine Indian manufacture. Wonderful to see, even if it is empty inside.
This novel is a labyrinth in which to get lost, and I found, perhaps, the exit only of some corridors. I don’t know if I managed to make me even vaguely understand, thanks for coming up here, you are heroes (or masochists).
@raggedyblue Seldom I’ve enjoyed reading a meta that much as this one. This is so interesting and fascinating and - as I think - ‘right up the street’ of Mofftiss.
Some thoughts that came immediately to mind while reading:
The leg - it reminded me at once of @sagestreet ‘s brilliant meta about ‘Cleopatras leg’ … the sexy tapestries in ASIB …. and the leg hidden/vanished behind Mark Antony’ s red coat. A leg dyed red to make it invisible. Something hidden in plain sight. Fake tan. Painted over. Like a facade. Looks like a massive case of ‘the lazy universe’ :)))
Well, in the 19th century, in the Victorian era, people thought that this Egyptian equivalent of a lap dance was too offensive to their prudish sensibilities. So, they dyed that part of the tapestry red to make her leg disappear.
This way the leg had the same colour as Mark Antony’s coat and looked as if it were just a piece of the red fabric said coat is made of. The leg visually disappeared into the fabric.
The poison - in a metaphorical reading, where poison is equal to the ‘chemistry of love’, the poisoned dart of Tonga hit Holmes …. almost … but got stuck in his coat …. in his protecting armour, his ‘security wall’. Metaphorically …. in his mask, his facade …. whatever you might all it. Mary, the facade, the guardian.
Oposites …. negative vs positive - Sherlock fighting against his worst enemy - his archenemy - himself. Holmes killing Homes. You know that for some time now I suspect Sherlock BBC tells the story of Sherlock being at war with himself. His emotions at war with his brain, with logic and reason.
One half of the human race at war with the other. The invisible army hovering at our elbow, attending to our homes, raising our children, ignored, patronised, disregarded, not allowed so much as a vote. TAB
The league of furies, the monstrous army …. emotions. ‘Not just a criminal organisation; it’s a cult’ (TBB). Seems like Sherlock is chased by emotions already since S1.
Did I say that your meta is a joy to read? It is! :))))
Thanks @ebaeschnbliah I’m just melted ☺️. I absolutely agree, BBC Sherlock is the the narration of what’s going on in the strange funny head of that incredible man, in his head and in his heart. How he’s trying to get them to get along. A journey that began more than a century ago.
Yes, @raggedyblue The Mind Palace. It’s like a whole world in his head. (TAB) :)))))
“He wants to rise above us like a snowcapped mountain, but he’s actually a volcano.“ Steven Moffat on Sherlock (IGN interview, February 2014)
‘It is what it is’ …. has the snowcapped mountain realized by now that he’s actually a volcano and ready to …. explode like a gigantic bomb? :)))))
Sherlock imagines the massive explosion under the parliament (brain). But he’s actually ‘on fire’ since TGG. Probably before that, because the ‘pink case’ is ablaze already in PILOT and ASIP. :))))
rb for discussion, yes!
