WRITING CONTEST WINNERS:
1998,
1999,
2000,
2001,
2002,
2003,
2004,
2005,
2006 and
2007.
Winners of the
Annual Birthday Challenge 2002
Editors’ note: Each year the Muse editors
prepare a special edition to include in the packets at the BSI dinner and the
Baskerville Bash. In it, we thank our contributors for their efforts and
challenge our subscribers to enter an essay competition. This year’s topic:
Much has been said and written lately about “evil.” Evil,
of course, abounds in the Canon:
Moriarty, Moran, Milverton -- just to name a few
Men. In 200 words or less, name the
most evil Woman in the Canon and give your
reasons for your choice.
Muse readers are always original
thinkers, but we were startled by some of the responses and we think you will
be, too. Certainly this was our most successful competition to date in terms of
both numbers and originality of entries.
After much deliberation, we awarded the prize (a $30
gift certificate for the book store of her choice) to Laurie Fraser Manifold.
Runners-up (in alphabetical order) were Sandy Kozinn (last year’s winner),
Warren Randall, and Barbara Roden. Honorable mentions go to Don Izban, Dayna
McCausland, Julie McKuras and Sue Vizoskie.
And now, here are the winning and runner-up entries for
your enjoyment.
The Most Evil Woman in the Canon
A Poem (with footnote)
Laurie Fraser Manifold
Who might be the woman
With Evil so hearty
Her evil out-eviled
Even Old Moriarty?
It certainly can't be
That fair operatic genie
Whom Holmes called The Woman
And we call Irene.
Nor Flora Millar
(Since she's just out to brunch)
And none of the Violets
For they're a sweet bunch.
Nor is it poor Beryl
Who lived out a lie,
Nor it is sad Kitty
Who loved a bad guy.
And not Lady Carfax
Or Nihilist Anna,
Nor Effie Munro
Who had lived near Savannah.*
Nor Miss Sarah Cushing
(Tho’ she was a case)
Nor fair widow Klein
Of the loveliest face.
The Grand Prize in Evil
Has no share in blame
With any adventuress
We know by name.
Holmes found her so lovely
And quite full of charm,
But she had no conscience,
Instead doing harm.
She shall be anonymous
In nameless endurance.
She poisoned her children
To get their insurance.
*Apologies
to Georgians: Admittedly, Savannah and Atlanta are not near at all, yet they are
closer to each other than they are to Baker Street.
What are the characteristics of
the most evil woman in the Canon?
Sandy Kozinn
She acts vilely to her own father.
She is inflexible in her behavior.
She is obdurate in her views.
She is loath to listen to others.
She is egocentric in her concerns.
She is trusting of the wrong person.
She is determined to have her own way.
She is educated, but not contemplative.
She is maddening at times.
She is extravagant in her emotions.
She is rational, but not reasonable.
She is very singleminded.
She is intelligent, but not sensitive.
She is loving only in the wrong direction.
She is lacking the ability to sense hypocrisy.
She is extraordinarily unaware of character.
Good reasons,
perhaps, but not definitive. Nevertheless, we know this is the most evil woman
in the Canon because Watson, in choosing a name to disguise the real woman in
the story, told us so.
The letters of the
name of the most evil woman form an anagram for the words of an introduction:
Evil, meet evil Lord.
And Baron Gruner
bowed to Violet de Merville.
EVIL
Warren Randall
Here live forever those wicked ones
Who always schemed and made men cry
How very dear they seem, to mother's sons
The time before they made men sigh.
But still the game's afoot for these little dears
Attuned to catch the unwary innocent
Sherlock is Sherlock yet, through all the years
To straighten up any who are criminally bent.
A red lamp glows above these ladies' acts
It matters not if she has done a crime.
A lonely Sherlock splashes after facts
So many women, so little time.
Here, though all are equal, One is great
And She is always wicked, Evil Incarnate.
“You have seen me as an old lady, Watson,” said Holmes describing one of his
escapades, while Billy, the page, reported Holmes went out as an old woman who
“fairly took me in, he did.” There is no report on whether suitable
undergarments were worn; that makes these little transvestite jaunts even more
morally wrong, immoral and wicked.
As these last terms define evil, Mr. Holmes is the most evil woman in the Canon,
since every single female considered for this honor had a good and sufficient
reason for her action.
Detailed explanations supplied upon request.
The Most Evil Woman in the Canon
Barbara Roden
The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines “evil” as “1) morally bad;
wicked; 2) harmful or tending to harm, esp. intentionally.”
Leaving aside 1, with its overtones of judgment and looking at the second
definition, I have no hesitation in saying that Mrs. Sutherland -- mother of Mary,
the unfortunate fiancée in IDEN -- is the most evil woman in the Canon. Unlike
other women in the Holmes adventures, who act under duress (cf. Beryl Stapleton,
Mrs. Rucastle), Mrs. Sutherland is an active (“Mother was all in his favour from
the first”), enthusiastic (“[she] was even fonder of him than I was”), and
determined (“Mother said he was quite right to make me swear”) participant in
the deliberate deception played on her own daughter. Where most women would
expect to find loving guidance and sympathy, Mary unknowingly finds guile,
deception, and cold-blooded cruelty, carried out in order to defraud Mary of an
income which would disappear out of her parents’ grasp upon her marriage. That
this deception is apparently intended to extend over a period of several years,
causing Mary untold anguish and distress, further emphasizes the evil nature of
the monstrous Mrs. Sutherland.
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