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Inspired from a conversation with my friend, something I feel about Sherlock Holmes, is that to read him as unempathetic, monotone and emotionless, is to misread his mask for truth. Holmes's real state only comes out around those he trusts; Watson, of course, being the prime example.
For an instant the veil had lifted upon his keen, intense nature, but for an instant only. When I glanced again his face had resumed that red-Indian composure which had made so many regard him as a machine rather than a man. [CROO]
for a moment I saw something in his eyes which was nearer to tenderness than I had ever seen. The next instant he was his masterful, practical self once more. [BRUC]
We often see Holmes highly expressive and unable to contain himself at the peak of his enjoyment and stimulation of a case, and often this is something he actively suppresses. (God, we're all thinking about that scene in SIXN - or 3GAR, aren't we?)
There was a gleam in his eyes and a suppressed excitement in his manner which convinced me, used as I was to his ways, that his hand was upon a clue. [SILV]
Holmes had taken out his watch, and as minute followed minute without result, an expression of the utmost chagrin and disappointment appeared upon his features. He gnawed his lip, drummed his fingers upon the table, and showed every other symptom of acute impatience. So great was his emotion, that I felt sincerely sorry for him, while the two detectives smiled derisively, by no means displeased at this check which he had met. [STUD]
Holmes is actively masking his excitement very often, and it's through his relationship with Watson and success in his career that he learns to accept and be his openly emotional self more and more as we progress through the Canon. Aside from this, Holmes is highly emotional and compassionate towards his clients, take FIVE, SPEC, or ILLU. I don't think ACD tumblr is really the audience that needs to hear this, but I want people to read this who understand where I'm coming from. I feel that Sherlock Holmes is so often misunderstood as genuinely dispassionate, when this is, in fact, the act, the mask, the antic disposition that he wants those around him to believe.
To believe that Holmes's coldness is in any way a truth doesn't fly with me. For me it's nothing more than defence-mechanism, which, to be fair, is what most intolerable behaviour really is. However, I would disagree with anyone who argues that it is a natural part of Holmes.