Word portraits: Irene Adler

"To Sherlock Holmes, she is always The Woman"

This is how we are introduced to her. The Woman. The one who eclipses every other member of her gender. One of the most iconic and well known Sherlock Holmes characters. She appears in almost every adaptation, from Sherlock to Elementary, to the Granada series to the BBC audiobooks.

I think the first question is:

Why? 

Now, I know what you're thinking. Irene Adler is Holmes' love interest, she creates a spark of humanity within him, what would a Holmes adaptation be without her?

Except... is that really true? Fun fact, there are 4 Sherlock Holmes novels, and 56 short stories in the original canon. And how many of these does Irene Adler appear in?

One.

Not even one of the full length novels. A single short story, "A Scandal in Bohemia" is the only time she appears, almost the only time she is mentioned. 

Inspector Lestrade. Inspector Gregson. The baker street irregulars. All these characters appear more often than Adler in the original text, but seldom play as prominent a role in our modern adaptations as Adler. 

So... why? Why is she always such a fundamental part of any Sherlock Holmes adaptation?

Perhaps we need to take a look at the role she always seems to end up playing. I will ignore, for the purposes of this, the very true-to-the-source-material adaptations, and focus on three modern, looser, incredibly popular versions: Elementary, Sherlock and the Sherlock Holmes films.

 

Sherlock introduces us to Irene Adler at the end of the first season/beginning of the second. She calls Moriarty and convinces him not to kill John and Sherlock, then makes her appearance as The Woman, a dominatrix who literally "beats" Sherlock Holmes. She has pictures of herself and her various clients on her phone, as well as a wealth of other information about various criminals, including Moriarty, who she has worked with in the past, but is very much in the power of. She is ultimately foiled after falling in love with Sherlock, and using his name as the pass-code for her phone. She is put into witness protection, and carries on texting Sherlock until she is finally caught by a criminal organisation. She sends him one last message, a fond farewell, and the phone of her executioner sighs erotically. Sherlock has come to rescue her. We never find out what happens to her, presumably she is still out there somewhere, being a criminal.

In the Sherlock Holmes films, Irene is a rich, American criminal, who often works for Moriarty. We don't get to see Sherlock meeting her, but we do see them courting, trying to go on dates, playfully setting armed goons on each other ("But leave the face, don't want it spoiled for dinner"). They have a clear history of romance, and are shown in the films to be dancing around each other. Until, that is, Moriarty poisons Irene. Her bloodied handkerchief is given to Holmes, and he lets it blow away into the English Channel.

In Elementary, things are a little different. All through the first series, Sherlock mourns his lost love Irene. When he finds her again, he is overjoyed, but soon discovers that Irene is none other than Moriarty herself. They remain close correspondents after she is sent to jail, and although after that there are only hints of romance, it remains clear that Sherlock still sees her as his one love.

So, how can we summarize these three Adlers?

Well, it seems that they all play the role of the classic love interest. She meets Sherlock, they fall in love, attracted by the intelligence of the other. She is tangled up with Moriarty, Sherlock's biggest villain, and ultimately ends up being destroyed by Moriarty in some way, breaking Sherlock's heart and souring him to women and love forever. In this way, she is eternally preserved in his heart, The Woman, the perfect woman who he could never have, who was ruined by the world of crime he sought to destroy.

It's a sweet story. A sad story.

And I hate it. Sorry. 

Irene Adler, the tragic heroine, entangled in a world of crime she can't escape, fleeing to the arms of a handsome, intelligent man. Irene Adler, who needs Sherlock to save her, who needs him for redemption. A classic love interest to a man who sees love as a weakness.

But that's not her. That's not the character who enthralled me when I first read her story. That's not the character who beat Sherlock Holmes.

So who is?

Irene Adler is a retired adventuress, who has traveled extensively, often dressing as a man. She meets and has an affair with the king of Bohemia, a proud, selfish and self-conceited man who believes that she has an undying love and jealousy of him. They break up, she travels to London, carrying with her a photograph of him and her together, something which she can use to ensure her safety from retribution. The King sets men after her, they attack her, break into her home. Irene is intelligent, she knows while she has the photograph she will be safe. She also knows that being married will give her another layer of protection, and she has the perfect man in mind, a man she loves, a lawyer, Godfrey Norton. After agreeing to wed, and while being watched by Holmes who has been employed by the King, they dash off to a church. When they arrive, they find themselves lacking a witness. Norton spies Holmes, and he agrees to witness their marriage. Adler soon realizes who the stranger was when Holmes lies his way into her house and fakes a fire to discover where she keeps the photograph. She knows she is discovered, and escapes with her husband before Holmes can return.

She leaves a note:

The King is satisfied, he will pursue her no longer. He asks Holmes what payment he desires, and Holmes asks for just one thing, the photograph Adler sent, a portrait of herself. He holds it close, and looks at it regularly. She is The Woman to him, the most intelligent woman he knows of, the only one ever to beat him.

Now, I ask you, where is the Irene of modern adaptations? The woman who loves Sherlock Holmes? The woman who is ensnared by Moriarty, the repentant criminal?

Nowhere. The Irene of Conan-Doyle's work is a wise, intelligent, independent woman who admires Holmes, but loves someone else, someone who is conveniently written out of all modern adaptations. She outsmarts Holmes, is underestimated by Holmes. 

In short, Irene Adler does not love Sherlock Holmes. She admires him. She compliments him. She does not love him.

If one loves the other, Sherlock Holmes loves Adler, but even this is questionable. I would argue that what exists between them is a mutual admiration. Not love. Not sexual tension.

Unfortunately, it seems that in modern interpretations of the story, their relationship is simplified to simple, reciprocated love. It's easier to understand, but it also perpetuates the myth that admiration and friendship cannot exist between a man and a woman without a sexual element. 

Irene Adler is so much more complicated, more real than she is often portrayed. The media have done a massive disservice to her by making her a love interest, whose role in the plot is often just to be killed or damaged to anger Sherlock, rather than to exist as a person in herself.

There is one lesson that script writers need to understand: There doesn't always have to be a love interest. And if you are going to create one, please don't take the name of a character whose entire story arc was about trying to live a simpler life with someone she loves and make her a dominatrix, a criminal mastermind and a sexual object. 

Irene Adler is one of the most famous early female characters in popular literature who married intelligence with femininity, and had full autonomy over her own story. Since her creation, there have been many others, but they are still not the norm. We need to learn from Irene Adler, to use her as an example of what a strong female character could, and should be. 

Irene Adler is "The Woman". The woman who convinced Sherlock Holmes that women can be as intelligent, as autonomous as men. It's a lesson that we should pay more careful attention to.