Were Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson gay?

Answer 1

Did you ever have a roommate or apartment mate? Someone to share the rent with? Perhaps the two of you were or became best buddies?

That was how Sir Arthur Conan Doyle described the terrific fictional crime-solving team of Holmes and Watson in his books. He described them so well they seem like real people to us.

So, as characters and not people, they can only have the sexual orientation that their author intended them to have.

Sadly, we can no longer ask Doyle because this charming Victorian has passed away long ago. However, his books are immortal and perhaps they will leave hints of the author’s intentions.

What did Doyle intend in his portrayal?

Eventually, Watson, a retired army doctor, marries and moves out of their rooms on Baker Street. That would seem to indicate that the author believed this character probably was not a homosexual.

Then there is the issue of Holmes himself.

Holmes does not seem to have much success in the field of love. I do not consider that to necessarily mean he was gay. He did have a considerable cocaine habit. That may have made it challenging for him in terms of romance, whether he was straight or gay. Also, he seems to have a considerable familiarity with opium. Perhaps solving crimes and these habits replaced love for him.
Was that because he was avoiding that he was gay?
In the Victorian era that Doyle himself wrote in and placed his characters in, it would be unusual to admit if Holmes was gay, if it were true.
This is the era that in non-fiction was cruel to famous author Oscar Wilde for challenging laws against homosexual acts.
So, even if Doyle thought Holmes might be gay, it would be hard to directly state it during the time Doyle lived and wrote.
In summary, we may never know what sexual orientation Holmes had, for certain. He and Watson were definitely close friends. The author never related any information about a romantic relationship between the two men.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

I doubt Doyle meant his characters to be gay. When they roomed together, each man had his own bedroom. Sherlock entered Watson's once to wake him up and tell him "The game is afoot." Even during the one time we're told they shared a double-bedded room, (The Man with the Twisted Lip) Holmes spent the night pondering the case on top of three pilllows while Watson slept. Watson was also married at least once. Watson has a good eye for describing women's clothing, but that may be because he appreciates wooing women (experience through three continents, he boasts) and might have gone shopping with his wife to pick out the dresses he pays for. Holmes does not think much of women's intelligence, but he seemed bowled over by Irene Adler - body, mind and character - in "A Scandal in Bohemia". Just because he says, "My dear Watson" doesn't mean he's sexually attracted to him. It might be akin to the way a parent talks to a child. He did not think much of Watson's mental abilities, remember. Still, one never knows how a writer is consciously and subconsciously influenced by his environment and his acquaintances. Doyle admired Oscar Wilde as a writer. He also admired Roger Casement as a humanitarian and as a man who the Foreign Office sent to the tough spots of Africa and South America. Both men were gay, though Casement probably kept his sexuality a secret until he was outed at his treason trial.

Answer 4

They once masqueraded as gays to catch the villain- I only read about this, it was in a film, which I never saw myself. Apparently, after the event, there is the following exchange-

Watson: "Holmes, perhaps I'm being presumptuous, but...there HAVE been women, haven't there?"

Holmes: "You are correct, Watson...you are presumptuous."



That's just film evidence, I mean I don't think there's anything overtly mentioned in the books to say he was gay, even if he definitely wasn't a ladies man... If he was gay though, it doesn't look as if he and Watson had anything going on between them... unless that happened after the film ended ;-)

In jest, my source makes the following comment- "...Holmes, via the Baker Street Irregulars, DID keep himself surrounded by bedraggled youths who would do anything for a shilling..."

The source explains the issue like this: 'In some ways it's a reasonable deduction; Holmes' distaste for all women (with the notable exception of Irene Adler) is well-known, and his close friendship with Watson is a given. But there's no evidence within the canon for Holmes being of a Uranian disposition. Holmes is sexless; he's a dispassionate character who would never give in to primal feelings like lust.'

So, if you want to think of Holmes and Watson as lovers, that's fine, but there's nothing really to support it anywhere... except, perhaps, some regions of the popular imagination xx.

Answer 5

In their time it was quite common for men of a certain standing to be 'confirmed bachelors' meaning they were completely asexual and had no preferences one way or the other.

However later interpretations alluded to gayness. In The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes directed by Billy Wilder in 1970 Holmes fends off a Russian dancer by suggesting just such a thing.

Answer 6

Certainly Sherlock Holmes seems pretty camp in the Jeremy Brett series.

Answer 7

The man that Sherlock Holmes was based on was in fact Gay but he was also a schizophrenic

Answer 8

Even today many people assume that when two adults of the same sex share a dwelling space that they must be gay. In some cases this may be true but not always. In any case, it makes no difference what so ever to the story line. It is futile to speculate.

Answer 9

I always thought Holmes was asexual...kind of like Doctor Who. He never really showed any interest in women, probably because he was too intellectual. Love wasn't part of the equation for him.
As for Watson...he had a wife...but that ain't sayin' much...lol.

Answer 10

Holmes almost certainly was, I think. Watson, I'm not sure about. Neither of them came out, of course.

You might ask the same of Boswell and Johnson.