I didn't know how else to title this, so you get that one.

Anyway, in one of my English classes we were talking about the Victorian period since a lot of what we will be reading in the coming weeks will be from that time, and my professor was telling us about what the Victorian era was like.  And then I saw a post on Tumblr and something jogged.

We knew the special was coming and that it would be "Victorian," Steven even said so.  We, of course, knew this meant that it would take place in that time, and when we saw the trailers we saw the visuals to prove that (the fashion, horse-drawn transportation, etc.), but that's not everything that's Victorian about The Abominable Bride, I have now realized.

The Victorians wondered about how we can separate our view of ourselves from how others view us, they wanted to try and figure that out.  But we always have a biased lens, since we can't completely get rid of our view of ourselves.  That puzzling with the different perspectives of ourselves is something that also figures in the episode, if perhaps not in a completely explicit way.

Until partway through the episode, we don't know for sure whether the scenes are playing out in "real life" or inside Sherlock's head, but since they are we can think about how all these comments made by other characters about Sherlock are still informed by Sherlock's thoughts - how he thinks others see him, how he sees himself....some of it is what he thinks others think about him, but are they really what others think of him? I think we've discussed those possibilities already quite a bit, and I honestly don't know what else my making this new topic could add, I just thought it was interesting that that aspect of the episode was also quite Victorian, outside of the visual element.
 

Last edited by Yitzock (February 2, 2016 11:05 pm)