Quickwrite 10/19

             In The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton the dialogue between Holmes and Watson could be seen as analogues for the relationship between author and reader because their characters operate within the text in much the same way narration serves to explain the story to the reader. In CAM Watson is the narrator, however he does not know many of the answers to the questions that readers have. Throughout the story Watson is asking Holmes to answer those questions for him

            “But surely,” said I, “the fellow must be within the grasp of the law?”

            “Technically, no doubt, but practically not.”

In this passage we see that Watson is moving to question CAM’s motives. Through the dialogue between them, we as readers, get the answers we need to put the story together. Again we see Watson posing a question, which is important for the reader to understand what the story is building on

            “And why is he here?”

            “Because an illustrious client has placed her piteous case in my hands.”

And so the story begins, the reader now knows the direction this tale will take. Much of the descriptive text comes from Watson, however the longer portions of dialogue come from Holmes as he is explaining the nature of things to Watson. So the story is centered mostly around Holmes and could be told in the first or third person, but the character of Watson acts as a middle man, or avatar, without whom we could not read the story.

            In Catherine Belsey’s Critical Practice she claims, “The project of the stories themselves, enigma followed by disclosure, echoes precisely the structure of the classic realist text”(112). In this sense it is Holmes whose responsibility it is to disclose the secrets to the reader and Watson is the conduit through which the reader experiences Holmes’ detective work. Belsey also identifies an underlying ethical questions, not openly discussed in the tale. This is the question regarding the nature of the letters, which are to be used to destroy Holmes’ clients marriage and which were used to destroy the marriage of CAM’s murderer.  It is Watson’s responsibility as narrator to be the force that, “draws attention to the parallel,” of these questions (112).