Critical Analysis
Critic Peter Marrow wrote: "As it stands, the story's ending makes no sense – forcing one to try to look for something left unsaid. Far from Windibank's conduct not having broken any law, he has left himself wide open to Miss Sutherland suing him for breach of promise and certain to win – as the proposal had been made by a man who was already married, and her step-father at that. Yet Holmes does not advise to his client this obvious course. This could, however, make sense on the assumption that Windibank was not only interested in Miss Sutherland's money but also in her person; that the bogus engagement covered an illicit and effectively incestous attaction which might have been mutual, even if not consumated ; that Miss Sutherland on at least some level knew all along who 'Hosmer Angel' truly was; and that Holmes was acting in her best interest in not bringing all this out in the open and avoiding a traumatic and shattering breakup of her family in the glare of sensational publicity. It can be assumed that Doyle's readership in the 1890s was aware of these undercurrents and tended to agree with Holmes' decision."
Read more about this topic: A Case Of Identity
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