Victorian Visual Culture

“A Scandal in Bohemia” has stuck with me since my first reading, and not only because I read it for two classes in the same week. Like others on this blog, I was struck by the power Irene Adler holds over Sherlock Holmes and the way she wields this power as a woman in the masculine world of Conan Doyle’s stories. Specifically, I’m interested in how her photograph can create this power: in “A Scandal in Bohemia,” photography is a means of controlling one’s image, and by extension, one’s identity.

As readers, our understanding of Irene Adler is formed only by male descriptions of her. The closest we come to seeing Adler directly is when we hear her voice in the letter she has left Holmes, but she is not physically present in this scene. And despite the fact that her photograph is central to the story, we do not get a textual description of the photograph, nor is there an illustration of her without a disguise. It seems that Adler loses control over her own image: she is objectified, both by the men who see her only for her beauty, and in the physical objects through which she is seen. 

This story is one that hinges on the dichotomy between seeing or being seen, or seeing and observing. Holmes begins the story telling Watson, “You see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear” (2). From an early point, sight is central to the narrative. Yet Holmes’ biggest failure is that he fails to observe Adler – he does not see through her disguise – while Adler succeeds in observing him when she sees through his.

Disguise is a means of control here. Holmes is a master of disguise, adopting his appearance at will and with ease. Among Holmes’ visual depictions in the illustrations accompanying the story, his appearance differs dramatically. His hair color changes between illustrations, though this is not mentioned as part of his disguise in the text, and his faces look to be completely different shapes. Holmes has absolute control over how he is perceived. Disguise, when meaningfully used, gives one control over their perception and identity.

This is especially true of Adler. While the purpose of disguise is to conceal, her ability to disguise herself so effectively is notable here because she lacks control over her own image when it comes to readers’ access to her. Where Holmes alters his appearance to affect the way in which he is perceived, Adler has the most control over her identity when she is not perceived at all.

Adler maintains this control through her possession of the photograph of her and the King. By withholding the photograph, Adler has control over who sees her. The photograph is a means of accessing her identity, and her possession of it is her only means of autonomy. This control offers her power over and protection against the men in the story who determine how she is perceived: she considers the image “a weapon which will always secure [her] from any steps which [the King] might take in the future” (14).

Adler’s control doesn’t lie in manipulation, but in concealment, both in in her physical disguise and possession of her photograph. In a story where a photograph is a weapon, Irene Adler’s only means of controlling her identity is to conceal herself entirely. 

Works Cited

Doyle, Arthur Conan. “A Scandal in Bohemia.” Stanford University, 2006.