Quote:
Originally Posted by Sil_liS
I guess out attitudes are different because I never saw him as the hero. To me he was a cold blooded murderer, so his attitude towards virginity didn't surprise me.
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I think Doyle saw him as a hero, if that makes sense. There's a lot of "poor, tormented soul" overtones in the text as I read it, and implications that any right-thinking man would have done the same thing.
He's one of Doyle's 'honorable' criminals -- everyone treats him with a certain amount of tenderness and respect as his story is told: he vows not to flee, his cuffs are loosened, and his heart condition is remarked upon sadly.
Again, YMMV.
If he's not a "hero", though, that makes his second half of the book even more tedious. The Sign of Four has the same problem -- thank gods Doyle finally realized that condensing the villain monologue to a few lines rather than half-a-book was the smarter option.