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The Case of Lady Sannox

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The Case of Lady Sannox
“The Case of Lady Sannox” Would you ever consider lying to the person you love? The one person you trust and care about most in the world? In the last few years, divorce rates have risen dramatically. Many of these divorces are the effects of secrets, lies, and the rise of temptation in our modern world. The relationship between Lady and Lord Sannox in the short story “The Case of Lady Sannox,” by Arthur Conan Doyle, is an example of a marriage destroyed by deceit and lies. In Doyle’s story, each character portrays deceitful qualities while Lord Sannox takes his revenge upon the arrogant Doctor Stone and Lord Sannox’s unfaithful wife. The lives of the characters in this story are controlled by many of the qualities that cause marriages to fail such as revenge, arrogance, and deceit. Revenge is the desire to repay injury for injury, which is exactly what Lord Sannox does. His heart is brutally broken by his promiscuous wife who is having affairs with several men, including a man named Doctor Douglas Stone. So, in order to pay her back for the pain she causes him, he derives a plan. One night, he disguises himself and begs for the Doctor’s help, claiming his situation is urgent. After some explaining and a very persuasive bribe, Doctor Stone agrees to check on the man’s wife (who supposedly has a poisonous infection) and see what he can do. Lord Sannos then brings him to his house to perform an operation he convinces the doctor is necessary for her to live. Although this scheme is gruesome and horrifying, Lord Sannox finds great satisfaction in watching his wife, Lady Sannox, have her lip be surgically removed by the oblivious Dr. Stone, using no anesthetic or pain reliever. As a result, Lord Sannox obtains his revenge on not only his wife, but also her arrogant lover. To be arrogant or proud means to exaggerate one’s importance in an overbearing manner. Doctor Douglas Stone’s character portrays this quality by neither caring if people find out about the affair

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