“Characteristics of the Hands”: Gender, Race, and Palmistry in The Sign of Four

Abstract

Images of hands bookend Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Sign of Four, but hands are more than a framing device in the text. Through a close reading of these hands and their connection to the popular nineteenth-century science of palmistry, this article illustrates how deeply embedded misogynist and colonial stereotypes are in this canonical work. Dr. John Watson’s hands figure as strong and masculine emblems of the British Empire, for instance, frequently depicted as taking hold and taking care of Mary Morstan’s gloved and modest hands. In the context of an historical palm reading, the cowardly Thaddeus Sholto’s hands are described as effeminate; in reference to their smallness and unrestrained emotionality, the text draws a parallel between Sholto and Tonga, the novel’s diminutive antagonist. A colonial subject, Tonga is so dehumanized in the text that Holmes looks to the baser appendage of his feet, rather than his hands, in deducing his character. In this way, a holistic view of the hands allows readers to analyze what Anne McClintock has called layers of hierarchy.