The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Fiction | Short Story Collection | Adult | Published in 1892

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“A Case of Identity”Chapter Summaries & Analyses

“A Case of Identity” Summary

One day, while Holmes and Watson are having a conversation in the Baker Street flat, a young woman comes calling. Miss Mary Sutherland is a relatively well-to-do woman who works as a typist. She is, Watson says, “a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her ear” (51). She lives with her mother and the mother’s much younger second husband. Mary’s fiancé disappeared on their wedding day and the young woman seems the only one concerned with the situation. Both her mother and stepfather want her to forget about the incident. However, she is unable to do so and comes to Holmes as a last resort.

Mary met her beloved, Hosmer Angel, at a ball. They always meet at dusk, and he wears dark glasses and speaks in a whisper. He also types all of his correspondence, including the signature. Holmes immediately deduces that the missing lover is in fact Mary’s stepfather. As long as the young woman lives with her parents, they have access to her significant inheritance. However, she wants to have a family of her own. To prevent her from marrying and losing the money, her stepfather, who is only a few years older than Mary, disguises himself, woos her, and makes her swear on the Bible that she will always remain faithful to him. In this way, even after his disappearance, Mary will remain at home. The ruse is helped along by the mother.

Holmes confronts the stepfather that evening, but the man has not done anything illegal, and there is nothing the detective and Watson can do about the situation. Holmes is also convinced that it would be pointless to tell Mary as she would refuse to believe him.

“A Case of Identity” Analysis

This is the second case involving people of the working class and the first story in the collection depicting women in an unflattering light. Watson again displays his biased views, focusing unfavorably on Mary’s appearance, referring to her “preposterous hat and vacuous face” (57), as well as her body: she is a “large woman” who “loomed” (49, 50). As in the case of Jabez Wilson, such descriptors invite readers to dismiss the client as a person and focus on the case. Moreover, she is considered almost simple-minded by Holmes. Based on gender stereotypes, he washes his hands of the affair. After the puzzle is resolved, he is uninterested in what happens next.

This is also the second story that presents a lack of resolution. However, the unsatisfactory and presumably unhappy ending here is portrayed as a result of Mary’s personality rather than Holmes’s lack of cunning. It is within her power to find happiness, but her upbringing and religious outlook prevent her from doubting her parents, the representatives of authority. Holmes does not believe her capable of critical thinking and does not even attempt to get her to understand the truth.

Mary’s mother is also depicted negatively. She seems to be cruel and selfish, willing to engage in immoral, if not illegal, actions that harm her child. The mother can be considered the first instance of a woman villain in the volume, albeit a minor one. There are similar female side characters in later stories.

Mary’s stepfather is the third character in the collection, besides Holmes and Adler, to use disguise. Unlike in the case of Holmes and Adler, he does so for selfish, nefarious purposes. He wants to hide the truth, while Holmes and Adler use disguises to discover it. In this way, disguise is shown to be both a beneficial and dangerous ability. This is the first case in the collection dealing with a non-crime. While the stepfather’s behavior is despicable, as the detective points out, he has not broken any laws and cannot be arrested. Such a situation reveals the gap between legality and morality. Not all immoral acts can be persecuted and punished within the legal system. Holmes’s role of uncovering the truth becomes even more crucial for people who find themselves in such an in-between place.