Describe the character of Helen Stoner.

Helen is the central figure in the case, but her character is largely undeveloped. Holmes was never overtly condescending to women, but he had little use for the opposite sex, believing affairs of the heart to be detrimental to cool, logical thought. Certainly Holmes' heart, and the reader's, goes out to Helen because of her pitiable state of fear and agitation. However, beyond the fact that she is a damsel in distress, there is very little told of her. We know she loved her twin sister, but does she love her new fiancé? Her stepfather's motive for murder is her marriage to this man, but we learn nothing about her feelings for her future husband. Is she marrying him out of desperation, to escape her cruel stepfather? Or perhaps she loves him passionately, and if so, does she feel betrayed when her fiancé doesn't take her suspicions seriously? There is much more we could have learned about Helen if the author had been of the mind to tell us. Instead, her character could be described with the same nice, vague words which Conan Doyle, in his memoirs, used to describe his first wife, Louise: "gentle and amiable," nothing more.