“You really are an automaton,—a calculating machine!” [SIGN]
To say Sherlock Holmes had trust issues would be an understatement.
He admitted to Watson that he was unable to enjoy the typical innocent observation of the world around him in "The Copper Beeches":
“Do you know, Watson,” said he, “that it is one of the curses of a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed there.”
Consider how this might affect how he inherently trusts other people. In his earliest cases—from his university days—he discovered that those closest to us might betray our trust.
In "The Gloria Scott," Trevor Senior is taken gross advantage of by Hudson, one of his former shipmates, which ultimately leads to Trevor's stress-induced death. And in "The Musgrave Ritual," Brunton, the long-time butler of Hurlstone, betrayed his employer's trust to go treasure-hunting.
So, years later, when Holmes was speaking to Watson in The Sign of Four, noting “Women are never to be entirely trusted,—not the best of them,” we shouldn't be terribly surprised. Especially when Holmes backs up his claim with his previous experience:
“I assure you that the most winning woman I ever knew was hanged for poisoning three little children for their insurance-money.”
Is Sherlock Holmes's cynicism and deep distrust any surprise? Perhaps he had even deeper experience in his days at Baker Street Elementary...
Baker Street Elementary follows the original adventures of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson, as they and their friends work through the issues of elementary school in Victorian London. An archive of all previous episodes can be viewed at www.bakerstreetelementary.org.
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