Valeria Canavati
January 29, 2013
P.4
HOLMES DOES THE RIGHT THING
Sherlock Holmes departs on many adventures, to solve mysteries. In “The
adventure of the Blue Carbuncle,” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Horner is accused of being
the thief of the blue carbuncle. The precious stone belongs to the Countess of Morcar. It’s
been two weeks and after a few days Holmes has found the real thief, James Ryder. In
this case Holmes decides to let the man alone, and just lets him escape. Holmes did the
right thing on letting James Ryder go, the reasons being that he was too ashamed and
would not committee this crime again, the man accused would go free and finally, Holmes
show some mercy to the man after all it was the season of forgiveness.
First of all, Holmes did the right thing since the man accused would go free and the
gem would return to the Countess of Morcar. Holmes said, “If Horner were in danger it
would be another thing; but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must
collapse.” By Holmes having said that he is stating that there would not be any charges
and Horner will be free. Another thing is that if Horner were in trouble, Holmes would have
captured the real thief, to let Horner go freely and James Ryder could go to jail. So he also
kind of decided to let him go so that he wouldn’t show to court and appear against him.
Also that the gem will return to the owner, she will have her precious gem back. Everything
returned back to the way it was and according to Sherlock Holmes there was no need for
Ryder to go to Jail because Horner would go free and the gem would be with the Countess
of Morcar.
At last, Holmes did the right thing since he knew James Ryder was ashamed and
terrified and would not attempt to committee a crime ever again. As we can see in the
book how Doyle expresses his shame, guilt and suffering of this crime that he committed.
By reading this book we could see at the end how Ryder told every single detail to
Holmes, and we could imagine his face tumbling and suffering for what he had done. Even
though he stole something, the gem was now in hands of Sherlock Holmes and should be
returned to the Countess of Morcar immediately. As Holmes himself says, “Send him to jail
now, and you make him a jail-bird for life.” Meaning that if he would be send to jail now he
wouldn’t have learned a lesson and would not care going into jail again. Jailbird means a
person that has been various times in prison. So what Holmes is trying to tell Watson in
the story is that if he had send Ryder to jail we wouldn’t have learn a lesson and would
steal again and become a jailbird. Holmes is a detective he knows what he is doing and for
some reason he knew he wouldn’t committee a crime so he decided to let him go. James
Ryder learned he’s lesson and there was no need for taking him to the police then to jail.
Secondly, Holmes shows some mercy to the man after all it was the season of
forgiveness. At the end, Holmes is being kind to James Ryder by letting him escape, and
having confidence in him that he will not committee a crime ever again in his life. Even
thought he could see the pain and the suffering maybe he was just acting. It took a lot of
thinking from Holmes, after all the man did he just showed some mercy. Many people
stated the it he would have lied that he could be send into jail and not going freely. Commit
a committed a