Book Review: The Adventure of the Cardboard Box by Arthur Conan Doyle

The Adventure of the Cardboard Box by Arthur Conan Doyle

The Adventure of the Cardboard Box is a short story penned by Arthur Conan Doyle. It is written in a straightforward tone and most of the mystery unfolds during the time of its investigation. The plot of mystery in this story is mainly depicted in the narrative of thinking that Detective Sherlock Holmes presents when he encountered the clues. It is only the description of his thought process in which most of the mystery is shown to be solved in the story. The story goes something like this.

A retired woman named Mrs. Susan Cushing, who lives in Croydon, receives a parcel containing a yellow cardboard box packed in brown paper. Inside the box are two raw ears freshly cut off from two human bodies, lying inside a mound of coarse salt. The parcel was sent from the city of Belfast, yet its owner remains uncovered by the authorities.
The case goes under the investigation of Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard who suspects three medical students for sending this parcel to the woman, to carry out a mischief. He suspects them because these three medical students once lived as tenants in the woman’s house and were thrown out by her because of their spoiled behaviorr.
Lestrade seeks the help of Detective Sherlock Holmes, who visits the woman’s house along with his friend Watson, who is also the narrator of the story. Holmes, who is a crackerjack at solving mysteries, walks to the woman’s backyard to witness and inspect the cardboard box himself. Having examined the box and its contents, Holmes suspects that it is evidence of a serious crime, and not merely some prank or mischief. As per his thinking, there are many reasons for this. First and foremost, if the medical students had hacked the ears off some dead body in their laboratory, the ears would have been dipped in preservative fluids, and not merely covered in salt. Second, the handwriting scribbled on the package appeared to belong to someone who was not very educated and was largely unfamiliar with the locations of Croydon. He thought this when he noticed a spelling mistake in the spelling of Croydon, which was corrected and covered up by hastily writing over it with the pen.

Upon putting back the package where it was kept, Holmes began asking a series of questions from Mrs. Cushing, while also scrupulously observing the surroundings of her living room. His observations revealed that Susan has two sisters named Mary and Sarah. Mary is married to a man named Jim Browner who is a sailor.

Holmes quickly dispatches a telegram to an acquaintance of him in Liverpool where the Browners are known to be residing. Post this, he visits Sarah’s house, and comes to know that she will not be able to meet them, as she has “brain fever.” Soon enough, he receives a response to his telegram which informs him that the Browners have not been present at their residence for the past two or three days. His analysis, that the parcel’s receiver was originally intended to be Sarah Cushing and not Susan Cushing, is proved to be true.
Later on, as they catch Jim Browner, he confesses his crime and blurts out the entire story. He was the one who had sent the parcel to Susan’s house, thinking that Sarah was living with Susan as she used to do in the earlier days. The name “S. Cushing” written on the parcel had sparked confusion whether it was for Susan or Sarah. It was for Sarah. The two freshly-cut ears contained in the parcel belonged to Jim’s wife Mary and a man who was Mary’s lover. He had sent these to Sarah as a form of revenge. He believed that it was Sarah who had poisoned his wife’s mind against him and introduced her to this man. This was all because Jim, had once rejected Sarah’s love.
While Jim appears to be wracked with guilt as he confesses the entire story, Holmes starts to ponder on the nature of life, the circle of misery. Whose fault it was actually? Jim committed the crime enraged with a sense of passion that arises from experiencing betrayal in love. At the same time, a crime indeed was committed, that cannot be denied. So, whose fault it was, Sarah’s who interfered in their happy relationship, the other man who indulged in an affair with his wife, his wife Mary or him? In the end, the truth remains unanswerable.

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