A Scandal in Bohemia by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - Essay Example

A Scandal in Bohemia Introduction The book “A Scandal in Bohemia” is a short story written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle about a woman named Irene Adler, who had a love affair with king Bohemia. However, five years later, the king attempts to marry the princess of Scandinavia. Irene on the other hand, stands firm by refuting the upcoming marriage and goes ahead to use their picture with the king as an evidence of their past intimate relationship. The king is aware of the plotted blackmail and he orders Sherlock Holmes, a renowned detective to be his detective with an aim of recovering the mysterious picture (Langbauer 148). The detective raid Irene’s home severally and even bribes her servants but no pictures were retrieved. In an eventuality, the princess family acquires the information concerning the scandal and calls off the wedding; hence, the king loses both the princess and Irene who eventually flees with his lawyer lover to America. During her departure to America, Irene sends Holmes a letter telling him how he foresaw his schemes in his detective mission and leaves her picture portrait to be given to the king. This paper will analyse the general overview of the short story and how femininity is portrayed as the main theme in the story. Analysis The short story contains four characters namely Walton, Holmes, the king and the only woman named Irene. However, the narrator brings out the woman Irene as the main character who takes the central point in the story. In this case, the author tried to bring out the contrast between the woman character and the expected woman character in the 19th century also referred to as the Victorian era. Unlike the usual Victorian woman perceived to be naive and submissive, the author brings out the character Irene in a different perspective (Doyle 11). To begin with, the author depicts the secretive nature of Irene because she secretly hid the much-wanted photo from everyone and eventually runs away secretly with his lover to another country. In addition, the author depicts Irene’s nature of instinct because somehow, she knew that the king was marrying a Scandinavian princess and more still, her instinct showed her that her precious picture portrait was needed; hence, she hid it. The other amazing fact about her instinct is that she knew that the king was planning for her arrest and that is why she run away in time with his lawyer lover to America. More so, Irene knew that Holmes would visit her home in an attempt to arrest her. On a more interesting note, she exactly knew that Holmes would come looking for the picture where he had previously seen it; hence, Irene kept a letter in the same place for Holmes to read and her portrait picture of the king to possess. However, Irene possesses the Victorian woman values because the author depicts how women valued their homes, children and other domestic valuables because in the 19th century, the woman was a homemaker who got married and took care of her home. Irene Adler portrays such a character by rushing home to hide her most valued items, the picture of her, and the king after she learned that the king needed the precious picture portrays (Doyle 11). Moreover, the author depicts how women of the Victorian era were victims of love because they had no authority over the male decisions in terms of love affairs. Irene, who is entangled in a past affair with the king, and uses the picture as the weapon to fight and protect her love right depict this weakness. Nevertheless, Irene Adler’s intelligence surpasses the few portrayed weaknesses, because prior to her instinctive and secretive nature, she goes ahead to show her intelligence by keeping the portrait of his former lover, as a weapon that will protect her from future steps that the king might take, which shows that she has strong intensions of controlling rather than destroying. Ideally, Irene Adler’s beauty and brains lays a platform for admiration. The admiration is in a puzzle concept because at the end of the story the king is puzzled by Irene’s intelligence of outsmarting them all. Despite that, the king disliked Irene for hiding his pictures and plotting to use it to blackmail him; he eventually applauds her claiming that Irene would have successfully become an admirable queen simply because of her smartness (Doyle 57). More so, the hired detective named Holmes admires Irene by claiming that she is of a higher level than the king is in spite of her low class. The appraisal was because Irene outwitted him in intelligence. In general, Adler portrays a different woman compared to the Victorian women because she is control of the male characters. More so, she sets the pace in terms of class, because her intelligence ranks her on a higher level than the king himself. This is the case because according to the author, class is not depicted by an individual’s position in the society but by the respect earned just like Adler earned her respect by beating the intelligence of a prominent leader (Shmoop 74), the king and the highest ranked detective in London. Conclusion A scandal in Bohemia is among Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s finest works because in the short story, the author is able to create an outstanding woman named Irene Alde who outdoes Holmes, the king and even Holmes the detective, which was a rare aspect in the 19th century. It is amazing how this woman outsmarts the great detective intellectuality and defeats the smartest man in London, the king of Bohemia who underestimated her simply because of her gender (Crompton 1). In general, the author brings out the clear picture of the contrast between the Victorian era woman and Irene Adler. In this case, the author shows that gender should not be a basis for undermining the inferior individuals because their brains could surprise them. The other thing that the author tries to portray is social class because according to our analysis, class is acquired through respect and admiration just like in Irene’s case. Work cited Crompton, Constance .Dissimulation And the Detecting Eye: Female Masculinity in “A Scandal in Bohemia”. University of Vitoria, 2011. Web. Available from, http://www.ncgsjournal.com/issue73/crompton.htm Doyle, Arthur C. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Oakdale, NY: EDCON Pub. Group, 2003. Print. Doyle, Arthur C. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Harper & brothers, 1892. Print Langbauer, Laurie. Novels of Everyday Life: The Series in English Fiction, 1850-1930. Ithaca, N.Y: Cornell Univ. Press, 1999. Print. Shmoop. The adventures of Sherlock Holmes: Shmoop literature guide. Shmoop university inc, 2010. Print. Read More