The Shingle of Southsea Holmesian Society
Monthly Meeting Minutes
Date of Meeting: 8th April 2021
Location of Meeting:
The Sherloft, My House, Portsmouth, UK
Attendees:
"The Entire Canon" (Paul Thomas Miller)
Apologies:
"The Entire Canon" (Paul Thomas Miller) apologised for his strange thumb.
The Toasts:
"The Entire Canon" (Paul Thomas Miller) provided the following pathetic toast to Alec Fairbairn:
Alec Fairbairn
Has been done in
But nevertheless
Ears to him.
Motions:
What's "The Entire Canon" (Paul Thomas Miller) but a second hand e-motion..
Presentation:
"The Entire Canon" (Paul Thomas Miller) gave the following presentation on the topic of Mary Morstan and Kate Whitney:
Loveless Marriages in the Canon
By "The Entire Canon" (Paul Thomas Miller)
Over the years, much has been made of the opening scenes in The Boscombe Valley Mystery in which Mary seems keen to get Watson out of the way:
“What do you say, dear?” said my wife, looking across at me. “Will you go?”
“I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at present.”
“Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases.”
I have heard several different people on separate occasions remark that it seems Mary was so keen to see the back of Watson because she enjoyed “private consultations” with Anstruther.
This theory is understandable. By my reckoning (Watson Does Not Lie, Wildside Press), this story takes place in June 1889 - less than a year since Mary and John married in July 1888. (Other chronologies are available, but they all roughly confirm that Boscombe Valley took place soon after the wedding). For a newlywed, Mary has suspiciously little concern about being parted from her husband. Too, it seems unusual that (as far as we know) the marriage never bore children. These could be interpreted as signs indicative of a loveless marriage. Certainly, Mary seems very eager to get shot of John.
When coupled with the immediate references to the enigmatic Dr. Anstruther, the temptation has always been to leap to the conclusion that Mary was having an affair with him. But does this really make sense? After all, if Anstruther is performing his own duties and covering for Watson in the consulting room, that would leave him little time and energy to cover for Watson in the bedroom too.
It seems to me that commentators have, to date, overlooked the further clues in another of the adventures. This is another case in which Mary seems glad to see the back of Watson. It is also, by my reckoning, set in June 1889. This is the tale of The Man with the Twisted Lip.
The opening scene in itself seems to back up the Loveless Marriage Theory. Newlyweds, John and Mary are still up, late at night, displaying no great desire to go to bed together. A little later there is the infamous wrong-naming of John H. Watson by Mary: “…Or should you rather that I sent James off to bed?” I confess that I believe Dorothy L. Sayers has dealt with the truth of the James-Names Incident, but I mention it as Sayer’s may be wrong – it may be a display of Mary’s ambivalence toward her husband.
Further supporting evidence for the Loveless Marriage Theory can be found in the opening of The Crooked Man. John Watson states that it was just “a few months after [their] marriage”. Mary had retired to bed, but John chose to stay downstairs until the small hours reading. It’s not typical honeymoon period behaviour.
But let us remove our attention from the domestic arrangements of the Watsons momentarily. Instead, let us consider the marriage of Kate and Isa Whitney. This is an equally suspicious marriage. Twisted Lip opens with a brief biography of Isa:
Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives.
If Isa had been a drug addict since his college days, why on Earth did a respectable lady such as Kate ever marry him? I find it difficult to imagine Isa - “with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble man” – managing to woo anybody. Nor does he sound lucid enough to ever have considered marriage by his own volition.
There is only one explanation which makes sense to me – it is some sort of marriage of convenience. Kate would only choose such a husband if she wanted one who would not be around much. A husband who was generally too wasted to care what she got up to by herself. This in turn strongly suggests she married Isa with the intention of committing adultery. Isa provided Kate with a veneer of respectability while she carried on with someone else. The marriage was a disguise.
The next question, then, is what sort of extra-marital relationship requires such an elaborate disguise? Certainly not a relationship with an unmarried man. In this case, she’d simply marry the man she loved instead of Isa. A married man, then? Perhaps. But she could just as easily have been a kept mistress and remained single. In fact, this would probably have been easier. With both unmarried and married men ruled out, that leaves only women. And suddenly things seem to make sense.
While female homosexuality was not illegal in Victorian England it was still socially unacceptable. Open homosexuality for anyone at this time was unthinkable. To survive as a lesbian, Kate needed to hide her true self. By taking a husband, she could avert suspicion. By taking a drug-addled mess of a husband, she could avert unwanted physical attention too.
Which brings us back to Mary and John. Mary is “an old friend and school companion” of Kate. My theory is that Mary was also homosexual and that at some point during their long friendship Kate and Mary had fallen in love.
It will be remembered from The Sign of the Four that Mary was a young lady living happily single in the employ of the Forrester family. It was only when Watson came along that she showed any interest in marriage. Why? Did she spot the opportunity for her marriage of convenience?
There are three explanations I can provide for why Watson made an ideal sham-husband. All have some weight to back them up. All are tenable. I have no special preference for any of them. I invite you to take your pick:
1. Johnny “three-continents” Watson was a womaniser. He was only too happy to enter into the sham-marriage to provide himself with a veneer of respectability too. Mary recognised this and used it to her advantage. When they wed and John found Mary cold in the bedroom, he was not bothered as he had other fields to sow. Mary predicted this outcome.
2. John Watson and Sherlock Holmes were in a homosexual relationship. Mary recognised this and used it to her advantage. After their marriage, John would show no interest in Mary physically. Mary predicted this outcome.
3. John Watson was rubbish at seeing people’s motives. He was also easily fooled by a pretty face. Mary recognised this and used it to her advantage. John was too obtuse and gentlemanly to question her endless “headaches” or feigned gynaecological problems once they were married. He was, however, satisfied with his well-run home and superficial relationship with his wife. Mary predicted this outcome.
You will note that at no point do I consider it possible that Watson knew Mary was intending this to be a marriage of convenience. The reason is simple – if he had been in on it, Mary would not have to construct elaborate ruses such as the one in Twisted Lip to get her Alone Time with Kate. What is possible is that some time subsequent to 1889, he became aware of the truth of the matter. If this is the case, it may explain some of the later occurrences in Watson’s married life.
It is well known that during the Great Hiatus Watson appeared to lose his wife – in The Empty House Watson states that Holmes “…had learned of [Watson’s] own sad bereavement, and his sympathy was shown in his manner rather than in his words.” This bereavement can only mean his wife - it is made clear in A Study in Scarlet that Watson “…had neither kith nor kin in England” so he had no other available bereavements.
Perhaps, though, this bereavement was the death of the marriage rather than the wife. After all, it is never expressly stated that Mary died – just that Watson had suffered some significant loss. I would suggest that this was because in 1892 Watson became aware of Mary’s real reason for marrying him. This came as a dent to his pride and he immediately removed himself from the sham-family (shamily?) home. Unwisely, in my opinion, as it sounds like they had a perfect set up for both their needs.
Later, in 1903, at the outset of The Blanched Soldier Holmes states that “Watson had at that time deserted me for a wife…”
This might make sense if, in 1903, it became convenient for Mary and John to resume their charade. Maybe rumours had begun to circulate about one or both of them and this is why Watson chose to relocate to his sham-wife’s abode, leaving Holmes alone. (Additionally, if John and Sherlock had been in a romantic relationship, this abandonment might well explain Holmes’s strange early retirement. It may have been heartbreak which led to his solitude in Sussex. However, I don't insist upon it.)
For now, let us return to the opening scene of Twisted Lip. It suddenly takes on a different light. Kate arrives at the Watsons’ home apparently distraught that her husband is out on one of his benders. Why would she be distraught? He does this all the time. And she knew that when she married him. She is, of course, pretending. A short conversation later, Watson has been convinced to go across town to fetch Isa Whitney home. Better still, he has been convinced he came up with the idea himself by the clever manipulative language of his wife and her friend. Kate and Mary had planned this all along, of course. They expected to get a few hours alone out of it. Imagine how delighted they would have been when they discovered Watson would not be coming home that night at all. The only reason we are told about Watson’s retrieval of Isa here, is because it led on, by chance, to him encountering Holmes mid-case. It is perfectly conceivable that this was no isolated incident. I can fully imagine Kate turning up on their doorstep for this purpose many times over the next three years.
There we have the truth of it, then: the Watson marriage was a loveless marriage of convenience used by Kate Whitney and Mary Watson to deflect attention from their secret homosexual true-love relationship. It is also likely, that John Watson was independently using the marriage as a screen for his own extra-marital activities.
