Work Text:
CAM, as we all know, is a master of blackmail. That’s true in ACD’s story and it’s true in the BBC version.
At ACD’s time, blackmail was very much serious business, especially because some things, such as homosexuality, were very, very likely to put a person in extremely dangerous situations. (Just think about what happened to Oscar Wilde, just when he was at the top of his career…)
In the introduction to Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Penguin Classic edition), Robert Mighall reminds the readers that according to Rictor Norton “the law prohibiting homosexual intercourse was described as Blackmailers’ Charter, for very many - perhaps even most - blackmail attempts involved a threat to expose a man as a homosexual”. (p.xix.)
For a more subtext-based reading of The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton, go here:
http://nekosmuse.com/sherlockholmes/subtext/charlesaugustusmilverton.htm
Apparently, in HLV there was nothing of the sort. We get Magnussen blackmailing Lady Smallwood, and we know he’s got stuff about Mary (obviously) and Janine. On the other hand, in the Granada Holmes episode based on this story, they had added the case of a soldier blackmailed for his homosexuality.
But then, rewatching HLV, I noticed what Sherlock says when Mycroft asks him why he hates Magnussen so much.
"Because he attacks people who are different and preys on their secrets.”
Sherlock’s answer is interesting because it doesn’t seem to fit perfectly with the way Magnussen is working. In the episode we don’t really get the impression that Magnussen is targeting people who are different. I mean, the secrets don’t seem to imply any particular “difference”.
Sherlock’s answer seems to be much more suited for ACD’s times, when a “different” lifestyle could earn people a sentence to jail.
So, who is Sherlock talking about here? In the story, and in HLV this has been kept, Sherlock Holmes claims to be extremely disgusted by CAM, so much that even Watson is surprised by this hatred.
In the text by nekosmuse I linked above it is suggested that most likely in the original story Holmes might have had personal reasons to resent CAM so much.
In HLV, Sherlock claims to be revolted by CAM even before knowing that he has stuff about Mary, and therefore knowing that CAM can harm John. So, his hatred is not based on what CAM does or can do to John.
Has Sherlock told us something about himself with that sentence? In my opinion it is very likely. It would also be consistent with the things that are left unsaid about Sherlock’s sexuality or romantic inclinations, especially in s3.
(Obviously, there are many ways of being different, but Iìm trying to focus on the elements that might be linked to Sherlock’s love for John.)