The Metropolis

Were Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson gay? Let's go back to the original text

Mike Pollitt | Thursday 3 May, 2012 16:32

Was Sherlock Holmes gay? is a question that has plagued mid-market newspapers and demented internet fansites for the best part of half a decade.

Both the Sherlock Holmes film franchise starring Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law, and the BBC1 series Sherlock starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, have been interpreted as hinting at bromance between the leads.

But what of Arthur Conan Doyle’s text itself? What can the original stories tell us about this vital litero-historical question?

The following quotes are taken verbatim from Dr Watson’s narrations.

The merely suggestive

One day in early spring he (Holmes) had so far relaxed as to go for a walk with me in the Park, where the first faint shoots of green were breaking out upon the elms, and the sticky spearheads of the chestnuts were just beginning to burst into their fivefold leaves. For two hours we rambled about together, in silence for the most part, as befits two men who know each other intimately.

_{The Yellow Face, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes}

Is it just me, or does “the sticky spearheads of the chestnuts” give this passage a unmistakable sexual frisson?

The implicit

I moved my head to look at the cabinet behind me. When I turned again, Sherlock Holmes was standing smiling at me across my study table. I rose to my feet, stared at him for some seconds in utter amazement, and then it appears that I must have fainted for the first and the last time in my life. Certainly a grey mist swirled before my eyes, and when it cleared I found my collar-ends undone and the tingling after-taste of brandy upon my lips. Holmes was bending over my chair, his flask in his hand.

_{The Empty House, The Return of Sherlock Holmes}

In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of shag which I had seen upon the previous night.

_{The Man with the Twisted Lip, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes}

The symbolism here is overwhelming.

The explicit

“What on earth does this mean?” I ejaculated after I had twice read over the extraordinary announcement. Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when in high spirits.

_{The Red Headed League, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes}

No comment.

The elementary

“This gentleman,” said he, with a wave in my direction. “Is it discreet? Is it right?
“Dr Watson is my friend and partner.” [said Holmes].

_{Charles Augustus Milverton, The Return of Sherlock Holmes}

So there you go.

Image – Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson, Smolensk Embankment, Moscow, from Wikipedia

Further reading:
Telegraph – Robert Downey Jr hints Sherlock Holmes was gay
Pink News – BBC drama hints Sherlock Holmes is gay
Londonist – Map of Sherlock Holmes locations

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