2 responses to “Irene Adler, villain or victim?”

  1. Irene Adler was not a villain in the Conan Doyle story. Although she was in an adversarial position to Holmes, this does not make her one. She may or may not have threatened the king (her letter suggests otherwise), but she never blackmailed him (asked for money) or extorted (forced him to call off his marriage). She released him in the end, despite what may have been his poor treatment of her. It was partly her doing this, and not just her “outsmarting” Holmes, that led Holmes to respect her.