In fact, Holmes does not appear to recognize that he has accomplished a humanitarian act until Watson reminds him that he is “a benefactor of the race.” Even though Holmes works with the police, and his investigation serves the interests of law and justice, this is not his greatest concern. By helping good to triumph over evil, Sherlock Holmes eliminates the threat to his community’s stability. The orderliness of a society is always threatened by crime. Merryweather that he expects no reward beyond the repayment of his expenses. After foiling the attempted bank robbery, he tells the manager Mr. Not only does the promise of money in return for very little work take him away from his shop so John Clay will have free rein he first becomes vulnerable when he hires Clay as his assistant, thinking he is getting the better bargain because Clay was “willing to come for half wages so as to learn the business.” Sherlock Holmes, by contrast, personifies the virtue of unselfishness.
Jabez Wilson’s love of money also promotes crime and makes him an easy target for exploitation. Even though the story ends before their trial and punishment, the likely penalty for their history of criminal acts would be execution, demonstrating the fatal consequences of greed. Their greed takes them outside the bounds of law and leads to their capture. The bank robber John Clay and his accomplice Archie are motivated by the fabulous sum of money they hope to steal from the City and Suburban Bank. This is where the motives and morality guiding the actions of an intelligent mind become important, and where the key differences between the detective and criminal emerge. Only a brilliant mind like John Clay’s could pinpoint Wilson as the ideal target and conceive of the Red-Headed League as the perfect scheme to divert Wilson’s attention from his business while a tunnel is being dug in his cellar. Through Jabez Wilson, whom Holmes disdains as “not over-bright,” readers learn that ignorance-especially when it is accompanied by greed-can make people unwitting accomplices to crime.Ī keen intellect is not always a force for good, however.
Guided by this knowledge, and the observations he makes as a result, he stops a bank robbery and the further lawless career of a master criminal. His knowledge of crime and ability to reason allow him to discern that a serious motive must lie behind Wilson’s singular experience with the bizarre Red-Headed League.
Sherlock Holmes’s love of mental puzzles leads to his interest in the odd story Jabez Wilson tells him. With the detective’s victory, the beliefs and qualities he embodies are confirmed as superior. The opposition between detective and criminal tests the warring values each represents. As the story of bank robbers thwarted by a capable investigator, Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Red-Headed League” presents readers with a number of themes related to the classic contest between good and evil.
0 kommentar(er)
