mary morstan Flashcards
‘white
gender
The adjective‘white’is used seven times in the novella to describe Mary or the clothing she is wearing. The adjective is used to highlight Mary’s innocence, vulnerability, and goodness, as well as her naivety and lack of understanding of the wider world. She is presented as a woman who needs to be loved and protected – the perfect candidate for a romantic sub-plot
“The treasure is lost,” said Miss Morstan, calmly’
wealth and greed, love and friend
Mary shows that she is unselfish and not materialistic here as she realizes that all of her potential fortunes have been lost She reacts‘calmly’, suggesting that she either does not really want the wealth or feels that it is not rightly hers anyway because it was stolen. This reaction could also be because Mary knows that the huge wealth would have made the relationship between her and Watson more difficult.
her lip trembled, her hand quivered and she showed every sign of intense inward agitation Chapter 2 - Watson’s narrative
victorian fear, gender, love and friendship
Doyle depicts marys fearful nature when she recieves the pearls in chapter two as the fear within her from the mystery is almost unbearable so she needs Watson and holmes to support her which accentuates her passive and gentle nature. doing this Watson evokes a sense of sympathy for mary as she is a damsel-in-distress who is in need of guidance. the metaphorical phrase emphasizes her composure and separates her from the rest of the women. this is from Watson’s narrative in chapter two when he observes her thoroughly which indicates that he is indulged in feelings of love and admiration.
this creates a semantic field of discomfort and disgust as the negative adjectives ‘trembled’ ‘quivered’ and ‘agitation’ indicates that mary is in pain trying to control her emotions as the murder of her father makes her feel sick. this evokes a sense of fear in mary that only Watson notices which depicts his care and emotion. without Watson noticing her fear and ‘agitation’ the story would feel cold and unbalanced as Sherlock is constantly focused on the case and disregards her emotions which would have disabled the reader of any connection.
the victorian reader is astonished by her ‘composure’ as we would expect a woman to cry and create a scene but mary bottles up her emotions and shows power. Doyle possibly does this to show that women can be bold and passive. her fear and trembling foreshadow negative events as she introduces the mystery and it brings her fear and disgust implying that throughout the story there will be dangerous and fearful events which Doyle does to create suspense keeping the reader engaged.
“sweet and amiable … singularly spiritual and sympathetic”Chapter 2 - Watson’s narrative
love and friendship, gender
Watson uses emotive language which romanticizes his descriptions. the sibilance provokes soft ‘s’ sounds which depict marys passive and ‘angelic’ nature. watsons stream of consciousness evokes a sense of adoration making the reader also view her as a majestic person. this alludes to the idea that Watson is a counterpoint to holmes as his proclivity for love towards mary contrasts with holmes’ cold and unemotional side. this is portrayed in chapter 2 when Watson observes mary closely and sherlock focuses on the case.
Watson’s attitude towards mary epitomizes the male victorian view of women as guardians of what is morally superior: women are virtuous and pure, passive and content, we see this in the limited cliched and repetitive adjectives he chooses to describe marys character and behavior. Watson’s linguistic presentation of mary betrays his tendency to prescribe and limit her as a character and as a person. she is his idea of the ideal victorian woman. contained and constrained by his victorian worldview
“with a firm step and an outward composure of manner.” Chapter 2 - Watson’s narrative
gender
Doyle portrays Mary as a composed, gentle and refined person as she comes in ‘with a firm step’ which connotes her significance and power. as this is from Watson’s narrative it portrays the extreme levels of admiration he has for her as throughout the story she is seen to have ‘composure’ depicting how idyllic she is for the Victorian women. however, this view can be seen as biased as Watson is in love and his judgment is clouded so he is unable to see her flaws so we are also blinded which only puts mary in a positive light. this accentuates marys intelligence as a woman and divulges that she is an angelic character. possibly Doyle employs marys character to teach women how they can be respected and become significant people within the concise patriarchal society.
this conveys how marys role is limited, though she has a presence throughout the novel, she moves from being an instigator of action to a receiver of news about events., and of Watson’s affections. this suggests that her character seems to dissolve rather than develop rightfully. this relates to the prevalent victorian belief of how women ran the domestic sphere. they were expected to wait at home while men investigate the case.
more strange, more utterly inexplicable - Watson when he sees marys face
this foreshadows the intense mystery latter on.
we see that watson uses methods of deduction, observation and knowledge only on mary not on the case.
‘more’ is repeated to act as an intensifier and set a sinister tone., making the case seem more dangerous. which adds tension.
‘she put her hand to her throat… chocking sob cut short the sentence Holmes replies ‘the date?’
holmes does not care for marys emotions yet watson does which conveys there contrast
watson is the narrator and his vivid distressing description of mary portrays his love towards her, but also his human connection to her
unlike Holmes who seems to be using her to stimulate his mind. as an observant character, who is much smarter than watson, if he wanted to observe marys distress he could have but all he wants is the case and the information so that he can use his ‘peculiar powers’ to rebel at ‘stagnation’
‘brisk business tones’ using her for stimulation, he is an addict to not only drugs but detection
short simple sentence sounds aloof and abrupt, contrasting to the long complex sentence watson uses to vividly describe her
‘seventeen… seven and twenty now’
when Watsons ‘mind ran upon our late visitor’ he is seen to use Holmes’ methods of deduction to work out her age and find out more about her rather than focusing on the case. he lets romance get the best of him which is why Holmes says the ‘emotional qualities are antagonistic to clear reasoning’
she was a unit, a factor- nothing more’
coming from Watson these words sound negative and powerful, he is trying to condemn his thoughts of Mary ever being with him
echoes the words of Holmes
parenthetical dash reflects Watson’s feeling towards Mary and how he is saddened by the fact that he could never be with her. Doyle does this to accentuate social class difficulties as Watson has had to turn to Holmes’ aloof unsympathetic methods of thinking to make him retreat from feelings of love.
this is the beginning of the romantic subplot
‘saddest and most pitiful of sounds-the shrill, broken wwhimpering of a frightened women’
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‘oh, Mr thaddeus, sir, i am so glad you have come! I am so glad you have come Mr Thaddeus,sir!’
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‘she first turned fain, and then burst into a passion of weeping’
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‘ust imagine what it must be to be so rich, and to have the world at your feet!’
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