sherlock holmes character analysis essay

• Science & Math
• Sociology & Philosophy
• Law & Politics
• Sherlock Holmes: Character Analysis

Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective in Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories. Famous for his deduction skills, he is an esoteric character, this making him more entertaining as the readers try to guess what his next steps will be.

During the Victorian era, which is when the Sherlock Holmes stories were written, the Metropolitan Police had been founded, and using scientific methods to solve crimes was rare.

This meant that, for Victorian readers, Holmes’ methods were new to them, making him more captivating and unique. Holmes appeals to modern readers as well, as they try to understand his personality.

At many different points in the Sherlock Holmes stories, Doyle presents Holmes as infallible. Holmes is described by Watson in ‘ Scandal in Bohemia’ as “the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen”.

The use of the metaphor “machine” suggests that Holmes is perfect and constantly working to solve the crimes he is faced within the books. This quotation shows us Holmes’ faultless ability to reason and observe, thus making him a better detective.

The Sherlock Holmes stories were written from Dr. Watson’s perspective who, like the average reader, does not share Holmes’ amazing skills, and so presents him as perfect. This might have been used by Doyle to entertain the reader by presenting them a character who is never wrong, which is seen in ‘The Red-Headed League’ and ‘The Blue Carbuncle’.

As this presentation of Holmes is seen throughout the books, it would require specialist knowledge in order for one to truly understand him. We know that it is possible to understand him because he was outsmarted by Irene Adler.

Furthermore, Doyle makes Holmes seem inscrutable. In ‘A Scandal in Bohemia’, Watson describes Holmes through the metaphor “grit in a sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power lenses, could not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in nature such as his”.

This metaphor presents an enigmatic character, the idea of mechanization suggested by “high-power lenses” working against Holmes’ emotional side. “Sensitive instrument” might also remind the reader of Holmes’ violin playing, which is first mentioned in the first Sherlock Holmes book, ‘A Study in Scarlet’.

Music-making is also heavily associated with strong emotions, making him seem less machine-like. Holmes’ emotional side is also explored in ‘The Blue Carbuncle’, where he lets James Ryder go free. This metaphor perhaps betrays Watson’s and the common reader’s inability to understand what Holmes’ nature is really like.

Doyle might have presented Holmes as impossible to understand to make him more entertaining for the audience; however, we later learn that Holmes is not impossible to understand as he is outsmarted by Adler.

Moreover, Doyle presents Holmes as mercurial. This is seen in ‘The Red-Headed League’, when Watson describes Holmes as “wrapped in the most perfect happiness… his gently smiling face and languid dreamy eyes were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound’.

Through this description of Holmes, Doyle shows the reader Holmes’s dual-nature: his manic, detecting side and his quiet, introspective side. The use of the metaphor “wrapped” shows how Holmes is not focused on the outside world, while “dreamy” suggests that he is in a trance-like state. When combined, these two quotes show Holmes’ quieter side.

In contrast, the metaphor “sleuth-hound” acts as evidence of Holmes’ relentless side because dogs are known for their energetic nature. “Sleuth-hound” also acts as further evidence of Holmes’ incredible observational ability; this is because sleuth-hounds are dogs used to track and find people or objects.

This may have been used by Doyle to make Holmes more captivating for the audience by making them wonder what Holmes is thinking when he is in his different states and how each side of his dual-nature will eventually help him solve the mystery. Because of Holmes’ changing and unpredictable personality, it is clear that only people with special knowledge of his two sides would be able to understand him.

Related Posts

• Hamlet: Polonius Character Analysis
• Ophelia Character Analysis (Hamlet)
• Beowulf: Character Analysis
• Character Analysis of Robinson Crusoe’s Friday
• Hamlet: Horatio Character Analysis

Author:  William Anderson (Schoolworkhelper Editorial Team)

Tutor and Freelance Writer. Science Teacher and Lover of Essays. Article last reviewed: 2022 | St. Rosemary Institution © 2010-2024 | Creative Commons 4.0

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Post comment

Home — Essay Samples — Literature — The Great Gatsby — Sherlock Holmes: a Study of His Characteristics

Sherlock Holmes: a Study of His Characteristics

• Categories: The Great Gatsby

About this sample

Words: 584 |

Published: Mar 20, 2024

Words: 584 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

Table of contents

Intellectual brilliance, eccentricity and quirks, morality and integrity.

Cite this Essay

Let us write you an essay from scratch

• 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
• Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

Dr. Heisenberg

Verified writer

• Expert in: Literature

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

2 pages / 990 words

8 pages / 3849 words

3 pages / 1235 words

4.5 pages / 1980 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Related Essays on The Great Gatsby

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. 'The Great Gatsby.' Scribner, 1925.

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” This famous closing line from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, encapsulates the themes of disillusionment and the illusory nature of [...]

The Great Gatsby film techniques encapsulate the visual and narrative strategies employed in translating F. Scott Fitzgerald's literary masterpiece onto the silver screen. As one of the most celebrated novels of the 20th [...]

When F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby, was published in 1925, it provided a scathing critique of the American Dream and the societal structures of the Roaring Twenties. The novel explores the lives of characters [...]

The novel The Great Gatsby is written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1925. The story takes place in East Egg, West Egg and New York City. It is about a young man; Jay Gatsby catches a great opportunity and works hard to achieve his [...]

For characters in The Great Gatsby, rendering delusive illusions of one’s self may be fundamental to climbing social hierarchy, but compromising the tension between their painted picture and concealed canvas may be [...]

Related Topics

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Where do you want us to send this sample?

By clicking “Continue”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

Be careful. This essay is not unique

This essay was donated by a student and is likely to have been used and submitted before

Download this Sample

Free samples may contain mistakes and not unique parts

Sorry, we could not paraphrase this essay. Our professional writers can rewrite it and get you a unique paper.

Please check your inbox.

We can write you a custom essay that will follow your exact instructions and meet the deadlines. Let's fix your grades together!

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

• Instructions Followed To The Letter
• Deadlines Met At Every Stage
• Unique And Plagiarism Free

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

• We're Hiring!
• Help Center

Sherlock holmes - Character Analysis

this article analyzes the character of Sherlock Holmes.

Related Papers

Margaux Mallet

This paper, written in the course of a Research Master specializing in English studies, questions a wide-ranging literary phenomenon: the famous detective Sherlock Holmes. This reflection is based on the observation of this character’s permanency and universality, whose identity transcended, throughout the years, the strict scope of its creation. This research paper considersthe reasons of such a universal success, for a character who is referenced just about everywhere, whatever the time and place, who takes multiple forms in both our daily lives and in the diverse shapes taken by culture (Literature, art, cinema, television…). This study relies on the reading of the original short stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle, his autobiography, as well as the analysis of the various adaptations and pastiches that were made after the detective’s adventures generated such a huge enthusiasm. In addition to these readings and viewings, this paper is complemented by previous reflections on the character and his author. This research work was furthermore completed thanks to the reading of documents regarding Sherlock Holmes’ context of creation, the Victorian era, as this period had a very important role to play in the understanding of the character. The main idea that came out of this reflection is that Sherlock Holmes is no longer, nowadays, only a character of fiction. He is an idea, a concept, a symbol, which makes him seem so omnipresent.

https://lume.ufrgs.br/handle/10183/170417

Eduarda De Carli

The Sherlock Holmes stories have captivated innumerous readers since the first novel was published in 1887 by Scottish author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The adventures lived by the Great Detective Sherlock Holmes and his companion Dr. John Watson have been adapted to other media from as early as 1890, and different times present different portrayals of the characters. Two of the latest television adaptations, BBC’s Sherlock (2010 –) and CBS’s Elementary (2012 –), are set in contemporary times, inspiring a reconfiguration of the characters, especially John Watson, considering the fact that he is not the main narrator of the stories in the audiovisual medium – the filmic narrator fulfills that function –, opening new possibilities for the character’s roles. These possibilities motivate this thesis, and we propose a study of the characterization of the literary character in the novels A Study in Scarlet (1887) and The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902), so that we can consider the new Watson’s characterization in the two television series aforementioned. Therefore, the thesis is divided into four chapters. The first presents an introduction to the author and his relation to his own work, along with a historical overview of film and television adaptations, emphasizing Watson’s characterization. The second presents the theoretical framework of the analyses, particularly the literary narratology as proposed by Mieke Bal (2009), film narratology as proposed by Peter Verstraten (2009), and Jason Mittell’s (2015) considerations about television characters. Chapters three and four are dedicated to the analyses of the novels and television series respectively, focusing on Watson’s (re)configurations. By the end of this work, we hope to have contributed to the further development and diversification of character studies with the use of narratological references, an undeveloped line of studies, especially in Brazil. In addition, we hope to demonstrate how television adaptations explore and amplify the role of character-narrators, giving them and other characters more autonomy in the audiovisual work.

Norbert Spehner

Charlotte Juergens

In this paper, I consider how the Archive of Our Own’s trove of Sherlockian fan fiction engages with Doyle’s biography in order to amplify the spiritualist undertones present in the original Sherlock Holmes stories. I draw upon secondary literature concerning Doyle’s spiritualism, Holmesian fandom, and rogue archives in an effort shed light on the incongruous marriage of empirical reasoning and spiritualist intuition that lies at the core of Doyle’s stories, of the Archive of Our Own, and, I will argue, of many archival endeavors today.

Lucyna Krawczyk-Żywko

After years of treating Doctor John H. Watson as a faithful but not-that-clever friend and chronicler of Sherlock Holmes, recent revisions finally offer a character closer to Doyle’s version. Since each reworking of the great detective calls for a reworking of the diarist doctor, this paper aims to analyse contemporary Watson’s counterparts – literary: Carole Nelson Douglas’s Irene Adler has her Penelope Huxleigh, Neil Gaiman’s consulting detective his “S_ M_”, and cinematic: Gregory House has his James Wilson, and the Whitechapel DI Chandler his Edward Buchan. Each rewriting retains some features of the canonical sidekick through which the new character reflects on the original. Anglica. An International Journal of English Studies Issue 24/1, Warsaw 2015

Deepika Sharma

Anne Kustritz

This article argues that two modern reinterpretations of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, that is the BBC's Sherlock (2010–) and CBS's Elementary (2012–), differ in their representations of the city in ways that bear significant political ramifications. In particular, Sherlock repeats many of the social structures of Conan Doyle's stories that construct an imperial cosmopolitan vision of life in London, while Elementary offers an interpretation of Holmes's life in modern New York with a critical cosmopolitan ethos. Building on the works of Craig Calhoun, Ann Stoler, Paul Gilroy, and Walter Mignolo, this article argues that imperial cosmopolitanism refers to a colonial node wherein the global circulation of goods and people leads to increases in segregation, social differentiation, and ethnocentrism, whereas critical cosmopolitanism refers to circumstances under which the arrangement of the global city creates increased contact between various kinds of people as well as decreased social differentiation, which may lead to mutual understanding, solidarity, and what Lauren Berlant calls political empathy. This article demonstrates these two divergent approaches by analysing the programmes' aesthetic choices, depictions of social contact between Holmes and the diverse inhabitants of the city, and the representations of women, particularly with regard to the casting of Watson. As a result, the article finds that Sherlock depicts London from above as a space that must be strategically traversed to maintain social distance, while Elementary depicts New York from street level as a space wherein Holmes learns to encounter diverse others as co-equal citizens and the audience is invited to experience multiple perspectives. Consequently, Sherlock reiterates an imperial cosmopolitan view of urban globalisation, while Elementary includes key preconditions for the emergence of critical cosmopolitan mentalities.

Ragnhild Sollid

This thesis is an analysis of both Doyle's original detective and Moffat and Gatiss' updated version of the detective, seeking answers about the alleged connection between the famous sleuth and pathological psychology. My claim is that the psychology of Doyle's original Sherlock Holmes does not correspond with theories on the nineteenth-century equivalent to psychopathy/sociopathy (namely "moral insanity") and the updated Sherlock's alleged psychopathy/sociopathy can therefore not be attributed to the character, but must be seen as a symptom of a culture which increasingly values psychopathic traits.

Eduarda De Carli , Elaine Indrusiak

https://seer.ufrgs.br/organon/issue/view/3586

TLS. The Times Literary Supplement

David Lloyd Dusenbury

There is something uncanny about one of the first scenes of A Study in Scarlet, the novel in which Arthur Conan Doyle introduces his consulting detective, Sherlock Holmes. The setting is late-Victorian London, “that great cesspool” Conan Doyle writes “into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained”. In the scene I have in mind one such idler, Dr John Watson, is seated beside Holmes in a hansom cab which is taking them to a vacant house on Brixton Road where the Metropolitan Police have identified the corpse of an American gentleman. Asked by Watson what he is thinking, Holmes snaps that he has “no data yet”. “You will have your data soon”, Watson says soothingly. Watson’s reply now reads like a sort of prophecy. In the last decade, IBM has invested roughly 1 billion euros in a front-wave computing platform called Watson. Whatever IBM’s Watson may lack – a mind, or at least, a blood-suffused brain in a warm body – this “cognitive” entity can mine, and scan, and sift, and analyse titanic, oceanic amounts of data. Or, as IBM’s brand-consultants prefer to put it, “Watson can ingest, enrich and normalize a wide variety of data types”. ....

RELATED PAPERS

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Kate M. Donley

Tom Ue, FRHistS

Slow Reading and the Shock of Recognition, ed. Andrea A. Robiglio (Cordoba: University of Cordoba Press)

Christian Doyle

Maciej Wieczorek

The Historical Journal

Michael Saler

S D Chaudhuri

Re-examining Arthur Conan Doyle

Benoit Guilielmo

Ramkrishna Bhattacharya

Max Heiliger

The Baker Street Journal

Mary M Alcaro

Margaret Terrill

Sherlock Holmes: The Man and His Worlds, Sally Sugarman (ed.) (Shaftsbury, VT: Mountainside Press, 2013)

Ailise Bulfin

Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 08913811 2011 664851

John Harpham

Jessica Seymour

Florian Blom

Lydia Simon

Conversations a Graduate Student Journal of the Humanities Social Sciences and Theology

Krystal Fogle

Daniel Bundred

Stefanie Lehmann

Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities

Simon Stern

Tamas Demeter

James Carney

Darren Hindley

alice barale

Christophe Gelly

inter-disciplinary.net

RELATED TOPICS

•   We're Hiring!
•   Help Center
• Find new research papers in:
• Health Sciences
• Earth Sciences
• Cognitive Science
• Mathematics
• Computer Science
• Academia ©2024

Literary Theory and Criticism

Home › British Literature › Analysis of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Analysis of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on April 29, 2022

These 12 detective stories were first published as a series in the Strand Magazine , 1891–92, and then as a collection by George Newnes in 1892. After the novellas A Study in Scarlet (1887) and The Sign of Four ( 1890), Sir Arthur Conan Doyle employed the shorter form for subsequent stories featuring Sherlock Holmes, not returning to the novel until The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902). The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes comprised the first 12 stories to be included in the Strand Magazine: “A Scandal in Bohemia,” “A Case of Identity,” “The Red-Headed League,” “The Boscombe Valley Mystery,” “The Five Orange Pips,” “The Man With the Twisted Lip,” “The Blue Carbuncle,” “The Speckled Band,” “The Engineer’s Thumb,” “The Noble Bachelor,” “The Beryl Coronet,” and “The Copper Beeches.” The stories mark a departure from the embedded narration form of the longer stories and show modifications in the character of Holmes, from the decadent figure of the novellas to a more ascetic character (for example, as Ian Ousby points out, Holmes’s use of cocaine is greatly reduced). The short stories are, perhaps deliberately considering the intended family readership of the Strand Magazine , less sensational than the first novellas, which featured corpses in bloodied rooms and macabre deaths by exotic poisons. By contrast, the Adventures are mostly based in romantic and political intrigues, financial conspiracies, and ingeniously planned robberies; only three of the stories (“The Boscombe Valley Mystery,” “The Five Orange Pips,” and “The Speckled Band”) involve a murder investigation.

The stories make use of tropes used extensively in late Victorian detective fiction and developed in the 20th century, most significantly the threat of the criminal foreigner and the return of a colonial past with criminal consequences (“The Engineer’s Thumb,” “The Boscombe Valley Mystery,” “The Five Orange Pips”) and the instability of identity (“A Case of Identity,” “The Man with the Twisted Lip”). In other stories, the mystery lies in explaining an unusual set of circumstances, usually connected to a criminal plot; for instance, in “The Red-Headed League,” Holmes must find out why only a red-headed man should be employed by a mysterious organization to copy out pages from an encyclopedia. The short story form allowed Doyle to establish a structural technique that would become familiar to readers: Many of the stories open with Watson’s musings in Baker Street, followed by a display of Holmes’s powers of detection, then the entrance of a client who relays a mysterious narrative leading to the central investigation, before Holmes solves the mystery and explains his reasoning at the conclusion. The repetition of this form may have contributed to Holmes’s popularity with readers of the Strand ; it also allowed formalist critics to propose a structural “grammar” for the 56 Holmes short stories written by Doyle.

Each story was accompanied in the Strand by as many as 10 illustrations by Sidney Paget, and the tendency of later editions to omit these presents certain methodological difficulties for those studying the stories, not only because it provides a different textual experience from that of the Strand, but also because of the close relationship between Doyle’s text and Paget’s visual representations. The images were largely responsible for the establishing the visual iconography associated with Holmes (the other major influence was the American actor William Gillette’s stage portrayal in the early 20th century), to such an extent that Doyle’s later descriptions of Holmes were consciously altered to better fit Paget’s depiction, which was itself modeled on Paget’s brother William.

Analysis of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Stories

Analysis of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Novels

BIBLIOGRAPHY Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. London: Newnes, 1892. Ousby, Ian. Bloodhounds of Heaven: The Detective in English Fiction from Godwin to Day 6. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1976. Stashower, Daniel. Teller of Tales: The Life of Arthur Conan Doyle. London: Allen Lane, 2000.

Share this:

Categories: British Literature , Literature , Short Story

Tags: Analysis of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes , appreciation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes , criticism of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes , guide of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes , notes of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes , plot of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes , Sir Arthur Conan Doyle , Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes , Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes apprecition , Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes guide , Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes notes , Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes plot , Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes stories , Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes structure , Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes themes , structure of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes , Summary of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes , The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes , themes of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Related Articles

You must be logged in to post a comment.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

By sir arthur conan doyle, the adventures of sherlock holmes summary and analysis of "the adventure of the blue carbuncle".

Peterson, a commissioner, brings to Holmes a hat that was left by a man, along with a Christmas goose, who ran away when Peterson rushed over to try to save him from a fight. Holmes at first tries to deduce for whom the goose was intended, but Peterson returns with the discovery in the goose's crop of a famous jewel, the blue carbuncle owned by the Countess of Morcar, which was recently reported as stolen. John Horner, a plumber who was at the Hotel Cosmopolitan, the hotel where the Countess was staying at the time of the theft, was accused of the crime, but Holmes suspects someone else.

Holmes traces the path of the goose back to its source, beginning with the Alpha Inn, where it was sold. He then goes to Mr. Breckinridge, a salesman, from whom he learns the goose came from Mrs. Oakshott. Visiting Mrs. Oakshott, Holmes comes across James Ryder, the head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan, who stole the carbuncle after hearing of it from Catherine Cusack, the Countess' maid. After the theft, Ryder had struggled for an idea to conceal the carbuncle, lest it were found it his person; but his idea of stuffing it down a goose's crop backfired when he lost track of the goose.

Holmes lets the man go.

This story takes a peculiar structure whereby Holmes' usual deductive fireworks from observing an object, in this case Henry Baker's hat, reveals detailed information that has a completely different relevance from what he thought it would have. Once Peterson shows up with the carbuncle, Holmes realizes that what he had taken for a case of simple fun is in fact of a much greater importance, and that finding Henry Baker is just the first step in a longer chain of identities to discover. This gives the reader the sense that the seemingly insignificant but highly curious mysteries that attract Holmes attention sharpen his skills for cases of importance.

The conclusion of the tale, with Holmes' usual confrontation with the criminal, takes an unusual turn in that Holmes practically pardons the man.

Holmes' explanation of why he has let Ryder off the hook reveals much about Holmes' ethos as an investigator and moral man: "I am not retained by the police to supply their deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a fellow, but it is just possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong again; he is too terribly frightened" (175).

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

The Adventure of the Three Students

What is your question here?

What is the character traits of Sherlock Holmes?

Holmes's chief characteristic and his most useful trait is his cold, calculating mind and his method of deduction. He is able to devise theories to explain crimes with the smallest amount of evidence. He, as he constantly tells Watson, sees what...

Study Guide for The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes study guide contains a biography of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Summary
• Character List

Essays for The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

• Sherlock Holmes’ Mentorship of Christopher Boone
• With Holmes in Mind: Christopher's Extended Allusion
• The Effects of Aging on the Well-Known Sherlock Holmes
• “The Woman”: How Multiple Texts Failed Irene Adler
• “The Adventure of the Speckled Band”: The Peculiarities of the Genre

Lesson Plan for The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

• Introduction
• Critical reception
• Adaptations

Sherlock Holmes Essays

The well-known Sherlock Holmes was a detective character in a series of stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle. All the stories go into great detail about life during the Nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The specific stories I have been studying are titled ‘The Speckled Band’, ‘The Man with the Twisted Lip’, and ‘The Copper Beeches’.

All of these stories have common themes and ideas which I will be discussing in my essay. One theme which is explored in all three stories is the idea of class. Sherlock Holmes often takes on cases which involve members of the upper class, such as in ‘The Speckled Band’, where an upper class woman approaches him for help.

The stories also often feature crime, and the various motivations for why people commit crimes. In ‘The Man with the Twisted Lip’, the criminal is driven by poverty, whereas in ‘The Speckled Band’, the criminal is driven by greed.

All three stories also feature detectives, both professional and amateur. Sherlock Holmes is the professional detective in all three stories, and uses his skills of deduction to solve the cases. In ‘The Man with the Twisted Lip’, Neville St Clair is the amateur detective, who uses his knowledge of human nature to help solve the case.

In all of the Sherlock Holmes stories, Sherlock and Watson have play different roles. Usually, Sherlock is more intelligent and able to put together clues faster than we mere mortals can; he’s also quite mysterious and you never know what he’s going to do next. However, even though Watson is less intuitive than Sherlock, his role in the story is still important because he represents us normal folk who wouldn’t be able to connect all the dots like our great detective friend.

Another big difference between Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson is that Doctor Watson is always getting himself into trouble and Sherlock Holmes always has to save him.

For example in “The Adventure of the Speckled Band”, Doctor Watson nearly gets himself killed a few times if it wasn’t for Sherlock Holmes he would have been dead.

This story is also a good example of how Sherlock Holmes is more intelligent than Doctor Watson he works out what is going on a lot quicker than Doctor Watson does.

Even though Doctor Watson doesn’t always understand what is going on he still helps Sherlock Holmes solve the mystery.

I think that Arthur Conan Doyle wanted to make Doctor Watson more like us so we could understand the stories better.

Another difference between these two characters is that Sherlock Holmes never really shows his feelings but Doctor Watson does, for example in “The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor” when Miss Hatty Doran got married and ran off with another man, Doctor Watson showed his feelings by saying “I never saw a woman so completely carried away by love” but Sherlock Holmes didn’t really say anything he just kept on talking about the case.

I think that Arthur Conan Doyle wanted us to see that even though Sherlock Holmes is more intelligent than Doctor Watson, Doctor Watson is still a very important character in the Sherlock Holmes stories.

Arthur Conan Doyle is splendid at characterization, as he painted personalities of his characters with words in great detail. For instance, “Carriage driver: ‘he is a man of immense strength and absolute uncontrolled anger…” This quote was taken from ‘The Speckled Band’ describing Dr. Roylott. I think the author gave us a general sense of what kind personification the character has without delving too much into it so we can have a better understanding before going more in-depth about them later on.

Sherlock Holmes is the main character in the book and he is a very interesting character, he is what you would call a ‘high functioning sociopath’. He doesn’t seem to feel emotions like other people do and this makes him very good at his job, which is solving crimes. He is also extremely intelligent and can deduce things that other people wouldn’t be able to.

One of the things that I really like about Sherlock Holmes is that even though he isn’t a very emotional person, he does have a sense of justice and he will always try to help people who are in need.

For example, each story starts with an introduction that gets to the core of the plot. This is followed by development, where the story progresses and Sherlock narrows down his list of suspects. Finally, there is the denouement in which the crime is solved and everyone gets their just desserts. I think that how a story is structured can make or break it because some people might like knowing how it will end while others may not want to know that crimes always get solved in these stories.

The stories of Sherlock Holmes are all very similar in structure. They all start with an introduction, followed by the development of the story, and then the denouement where the crime is solved. This makes them very predictable, but some people may enjoy knowing that the crime will always be solved in the end.

What really makes or breaks these stories is the characters. Sherlock Holmes is a brilliant detective, and his sidekick Watson is always there to help him solve the case. The two of them have a great rapport, and their adventures are always interesting to read about.

If you’re looking for a good mystery story, then you can’t go wrong with Sherlock Holmes. With intriguing characters and exciting plots, these stories are sure to keep you entertained.

Descriptive writing allows the reader to see what the place, people, or object is like. For example, in “The Speckled Band,” one quote describing the house they are approaching says it was of gray stone with curling wings looking like claws of a crab. This particular description is great because not only can readers visualize what the house looks like, but also feel trapped–giving them a sense of how aggressive it may be.

Another example of description from the same story is “the window was closed and barred by heavy wooden shutters,” This again is another way of showing that the house looks aggressive because it has bars on the windows.

More Essays

• Sherlock Holmes Research Paper
• Sherlock Holme Analysis Essay
• Essay about The Adventure Of The Speckled Band Character Analysis
• The Adventure Of The Speckled Band Essay
• Holmes Vs Burnham Analysis Essay
• Detective Fiction Conventions Essay
• Dr Faustus Essays
• Jean Watson Letter Home To Keep Away Analysis Essay
• Nat Turner Essays
• Essays On The Necklace By Guy De Maupassant

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

The Adventure of the Speckled Band

36 pages • 1 hour read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Story Analysis

Character Analysis

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes, the story’s protagonist , demonstrates the traits traditionally seen in detectives, including a superhuman intellect, a focus on logic and rational thinking, and an eccentric personality. Early on, Watson praises his friend’s genius by stating that he has “no keener pleasure than in […] admiring the rapid deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were submitted to him” (142). Holmes demonstrates these remarkable mental powers by deducing the mode of transportation Helen used from the mud stains on her sleeve. Like Edgar Allan Poe’s C. Auguste Dupin before him, Holmes is also an eccentric. He pursues the investigation at Stoke Moran with frenetic energy: During his inspection of Julia’s room, he “threw himself down upon his face with his lens in his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining minutely the cracks between the boards” (151). Even when examining the scene of a terrible crime, he cannot hide how much he relishes his work. As the protagonist, Holmes’s decisions and detective skills shape the story.

Don't Miss Out!

Access Study Guide Now

Related Titles

By Arthur Conan Doyle

A Case Of Identity

Arthur Conan Doyle

A Scandal in Bohemia

A Study in Scarlet

His Last Bow

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

The Hound of the Baskervilles

The Lost World

The Sign of the Four

The Valley of Fear

Featured Collections

Challenging Authority

View Collection

Loyalty & Betrayal

A Scandal in Bohemia

Sir arthur conan doyle, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions, irene adler quotes in a scandal in bohemia.

“He’s a brave fellow,” said a woman. “They would have had the lady’s purse and watch if it hadn’t been for him. They were a gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he’s breathing now.” “He can’t lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?” “Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable sofa. This way, please!”

Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes.

I wish she had been of my own station! What a queen she would have made!

“From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a very different level to your Majesty”

“Your Majesty has something which I should value even more highly,” said Holmes. “You have but to name it.” “This photograph!”