Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
First, Holmes is the first scientific detective. Second, all of his cases ended up solved so therefore there are no flaws in his method. Well after researching in and out of books and web sites, I finally found the "true" way Holmes solved crimes. The site I found such spectacular information is Sherlockian.Net. This sight was helpful and it made me understand most of the stories by Conan Doyle.
The way Holmes began most investigations was by finding an alternative and providing against it. This step is comparable to the popular saying, "don't put all your eggs in one basket." Holmes never once only had one thought of what happened. What made Sherlock great was that all the possibilities were relevant to him. Nothing could ever slip by him. If something out of the ordinary did happen it was not a surprise to him.
Then comes the step of finding data. Holmes once said, "It is a capital mistake to theorize without data." You should never come up with theories and then try to support them. You must always find facts and then come up with theories. My thoughts are that you go in the wrong direction if you do it ass backwards. Not only will the crime take longer to solve but it also could never be solved.
As soon as Holmes had all of his data and theories in order he determined what he had, what he needed, where it must be. This is all based upon the experience of ones self. Detectives get this part done, not just regular civilians. For an example in the Adventure of the Speckled Band, Holmes connected the crime with the bed being nailed down under a useless ventilator. There is no way in hell everybody could easily do that. I am trying to say that Holmes was a natural or even a great detective. That pretty much sums up all of his work.
You can forget about the golden rule. That rule is to never guess. Guessing only makes you tied down. You need hard-boiled facts, solid theories, and all that other good stuff to solve a crime. Guessing is the number one sin in crime solving.
Finally, I think that Holmes approached all his crimes in a fictional way.
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Show MoreA detective is vital in an effective detective story because arguably there would not be a story and a detective to restore law and order and the villain/criminal would not be caught. Whereas it there was a detective it would have been a different story. A typical detective should be smart, observant, manipulative, and analytic and should have a good sense of justice. Sherlock Holmes has all of these elements to fight crime. Sherlock Holmes has the typical elements as a normal detective in classical detective fiction for example he is observant “Sherlock Holmes’s quick ...
On page 39, it describes the moment in which bullies from his school force him to go face to face with a skeleton in a doctor’s office. Such a terrible experience truly could have scarred Holmes, but at the same time his comfortability with an representation of death could have prompted his killer roots. Also, the “accidental” death of Holmes’s childhood friend, at an event that Holmes was present, was another red flag in terms of potentially becoming a psychopath. We learn more of Holmes’s younger upbringing through the text in which it states,"He drifted through childhood as a small, odd, and exceptionally bright boy....in the cruel imaginations of his peers, he became prey" (Larson, 38) Holmes was essentially an outcast, a person who has been rejected by society or a social group. He was the target of many because of his oddness and rather unique characteristics. With no solid upbringing, and a probable fascination with death, Holmes was bound to be the infamous serial killer he became in his future.
At the moment, that information was irrelevant. It was Holmes way of showing that he was intelligent, more so than Watson; which was both arrogant and condescending. Another aspect of
Holmes was never arrested for the incident with his father-in-law. However, he was later arrested in “July 1894, Holmes was arrested for the first time. It was not for murder but for one of his schemes” (Taylor). Being arrested should have scared Holmes onto the straight and narrow path, it did not. It was in jail that Holmes met one of his accomplices, Marion Hedgepeth (Nash, Bloodletters 448).
...he met the detective, fell victim to Moriarty’s games. “Moriarty is playing with your mind too. Can’t you see what’s going on!” (Sherlock). During Holmes’ last days before his faked suicide, he pleads with John to see reason through Jim’s manipulations, as does Desdemona with Othello’s accusations. Even Sherlock’s oldest friend Detective Inspector Greg Lestrade was doubting Holmes’ credibility.
He believes that Openshaw can remove his danger by satisfying the sender of the letters. Yet, in this particular case Holmes oversees the danger and sends Openshaw home and dives directly to the mystery, “In all previous cases the superiority of Holmes has been evident, but in this case, Holmes is shown not to be infallible, and fails to bring the case to a conclusion” (“Colin Quarter” Letterpile.com). Holmes knew that Openshaw would be in danger but did not know he would be murdered shortly after leaving Holmes safety. This case hurt Holmes’s pride and his moral deeply because of how he failed. He cannot live with himself knowing the murderers of John Openshaw are unjustified so he must find them. Though Holmes has failed to keep his client alive, he plans on justifying the murderers because his failure has become a personal matter in which he must
Doyle being the writer of crime novels some can deduce that crime fiction should always have a build up in tension and suspense, this is simply what makes a good crime stories. It can be said that Doyle put a bit of suspense into his short novels, but others may argue that he did not. Watson had narrated all the short tales, and since he is not in the same league in brightness as Holmes, he is not able to distinguish what Holmes observes. An example of this is shown in “The Red-Headed League”; “What did you see?’ said I ‘What I expected to see’ said Holmes’. Due to Watson being unable to grasp the concept of Holmes’ theories, this is what creates the tension, the short stories being narrated by Watson who obviously does not know of every thought that goes on in the mind of his great friend, Sherlock Holmes. Although in some way, this may have exactly been the clever technique Doyle planned on using in his short novels.
In the book, Holmes’ first descriptive deduction is made in the short story “A Scandal in Bohemia” when he analyzes the letter he had received from Bohemia (4). Holmes uses his analytical skills to intrigue the reader. In the movie, Holmes’ first deduction is made when he fights one of Blackwood’s men when trying to stop Blackwood (Ritchie, ___). When watching the movie, the audience believes it is fascinating. It creates a sense of urgency and excitedness. Holmes uses his skills to figuratively and literally beat his opponent. Using the movie Holmes as an embodiment of twenty-first century humans, it can be inferred that society often resorts to violent thoughts and ideas first, with ignorance and little regard to the details and
As you can see there is no perfect crime. The littlest piece of hair or paint or anything left behind can be found. Suspects often miss these tiny peieces of evidence and while they looked over it, it is still lurking at the crim scene. It is guarenteed that a Crime Scene Investigator will find this evidence no matter how small and use it to find, prosecute, and convict a criminal.
Lyman, D. Michael; Criminal Investigation, The Art and Science; 3rd edition, 2002 Prentice Hall. Pgs. 188-200.
The Holmes series, and some would argue genre, was created by Conan Doyle at nearly the same point in time that Darwin was assembling his Theory of Evolution for the world to critique. Holmes became the personification of the Victorian era’s obsessions with science and technology and reflects it with the numerous, above mentioned, scientific advances made at the time. He uses his numerous techniques and equipment, similar to that of a scientist, and is a good representation of a real-life scientist. Through this, he is able to make quick deductions in order to solve any problem presented to him, a trait that any great scientist possesses. Sherlock Holmes establishes all of these abilities on more than one occasion in The Hound of the Bas...
From the start Watson is seen as smart but Holmes is seen as a genius.After finding the mysterious walking stick Watson tells Holmes what he observes and Holmes replies with “Really Watson,you excel yourself,”said Holmes(Doyle 2).Sherlock Holmes is seen as the type of man that thinks he is higher than anyone else.Although Holmes blatantly tel...
Sherlock Holmes does take on the responsibility of solving the mystery to make society better and safer because he’s a detective and he finds clues that no one else can find. He takes on the responsibility because he’s good at finding clues during an investigation. While others say there is nothing else there, Mr. Holmes takes a look for himself. When he does, he finds clues! It makes this very interesting because I say that he has a good eye sight because even if it’s a tiny piece of clothing, he’ll find
“The single biggest mistake writers make while creating characters, is they think of the hero and all other characters as separate individuals.”-John Truby: Anatomy of Story. How true, especially when it comes to the characters of the Sherlock. Without Watson, most would not know the true character of Holmes and vice versa. With that being said, the characters would be weakly developed, and pointless. Luckily this show, does not depict those said bad habits’. Sherlock: A study in pink embodies the five elements of a detective story, therefore having fully developed characters. The five elements are: The milieu, victim(s), murderer, suspects, and the detectives.
Likewise, changes have been made on the level of the character in pursuance of the strong bond between Holmes and Watson. For instance, due to plot change some character have been removed, but John H. Watson and Sherlock Holmes the heart of the whole story indeed are kept. For instance, Sherlock Holmes is portrayed as Watson describes him in the “he was as sensitive to flattery on the score of his art as any girl could be of her beauty” (Doyle 38). Also, Holmes calls himself a “consulting detective” just like the title he gave himself in the novel. Indeed, Holmes as one of the main characters of the story needs to show similar characteristics of the original Holmes, or else the show would have lost its meaning. Although Holmes’ deductive skills are shown pretty clearly in the show, his expertise in cigars are not mentioned as in the book the detective says he “‘can distinguish at a glance the ash of any known brand either of cigar or tobacco’” (Doyle 37). Yet the writers of the show, might reveal Holmes’ expertise later on in the show since they have the 60 different