A Scandal in Bohemia by Arthur Conan Doyle - Essay Example

“A Scandal in Bohemia," by Arthur Conan Doyle Introduction “A Scandal in Bohemia," by Arthur Conan Doyle is a new opera that narrates the story about Sherlock Holmes. It is a fiction narrative that reveals the mystery behind Holmes and the way he condescends the views of women. The narrative discourse was written in a chronological sequence of events behind the mystery are written in a way similar to expository narrative. However, the fiction narrative was meant for entertaining the reader and it makes the story appealing to the reader. The fiction narrative was also meant to stir the emotional response of the reader. What makes the narrative somehow different from the expository one is the writing of the content. The author stylizes his writings by speaking from the viewpoint of different characters. He also complicates the story rather than being straightforward and creates the story in a way that makes the reader to believe that the events are in the narrative form. Narrative Discourse The narrative discourse is distinct from the story because the events are arranged in a chronological manner. Instead of arranging the information of the story in a manner that makes sense, the author switches the story between the characters or moves the reader through flashbacks and flash-forwards. Although narratives of all genres are ubiquitous in the day-to-day life, Doyle’s narrative does not leverage the aspects that separate narrative from expository discourse. In the narrative discourse, Doyle employs varied approaches that include the solution to the narrative. For example the dialogue between Watson and Holmes provides a clear understanding of the story. For instance, “was there a secret marriage?” also reveals the way the Holmes condescends the views of women in the story (Doyle, n.d, p. 8). One of the approaches employed in the story is the conversational approach, which the author included in the fiction work as the key aspect to the narrative discourse. The second approach on narrative discourse provides a new genre of literary texts that represents a certain meaning. Suspense Doyle also uses suspense in the mystery story that leaves the reader to keep thinking about what happens next in the story. The author creates suspense in the story through explaining the atmosphere of the narrative in order to enable the reader to understand what is around him or her or what the people around the reader are doing. Suspense is used in narratives in order to enable the reader to think, or focus into insight of the story. It also allows people to make conclusions after reading and understanding the story. Doyle wrote the story in order to create suspense and in many phrases, Holmes reveals suspense. For example, Holmes tells Watson that “you know my methods….it’s elementary” (Dyle, n.d p. 2 and 3). Therefore, based on the extraordinary powers of observation, Watson made the solution upon the suspense created by Holmes. Doyle seems to have used the narrative structure of the first person account. The first person account seems to have destroyed the tension or suspense created in the story. This is because Holmes provided explanation of the narrative as he continued to narrate the story a long way. This makes the story unappealing especially when Holmes is appearing unbearably conceited when narrating the story. Even so, when Doyle sets the plot, it creates suspense because the skills employed in writing the story makes the plot difficult for the reader to know exactly the way the plot is going to untangle. For instance, Doyle says that” Do not join in” (Holt and Doyle 1999, p 25). This statement reveals that no one knows what Holmes will do next to Watson when he tells him not to join in. Therefore, Dr. Watson is left in suspense as the reader is left in suspense too because both of them do not understand what Holmes is exactly doing. Moreover, Holmes creates and maintains suspense when he asked in case Watson minded breaking the law; thus he quotes” You don’t’ mind breaking the law?” (Doyle n.d, p.15). This quote leaves the reader in suspense because he or she does not know what is going to happen next. This is because Holmes does not explain what he is going to do next; thus leaving the reader in suspense. This is where the reader pauses and attempts to unravel the mystery behind the story. Doyle created suspense by dropping some hints whereby he quotes some few words that singled out the meaning, but he left the reader to crack the mystery behind such tales. The aim of doing this was to make the reader interested to the story since the few hints could make the reader to keep guessing what will happen next. Conflict The conflicts in the story functions as the major theme and it reveals the clear meaning of the scandal in Bohemia. There are varied sorts of conflicts revealed in the story and these conflicts rotates between the major characters. One of the major conflicts explored in the story is the marriage conflicts whereby the Bohemia King moves into London and visits Holmes in disguise. This is because of the worry that his marriage to the daughter of the king would be a danger because of Irene Adler. This can be seen where the author quotes that “Married! When?” (Doyle n.d, p. 22); thus the king demands Holmes to make a plan in order to find the picture of Adler. The marriage conflicts arise whereby Adler uses some pictures to blackmail the king. Holmes is the one seen in most cases solving the mysteries in the story. Secondly, Doyle introduces the scandal between Adler and the king whereby the king demands Adler’s photo. The author deals with the conflicting issues of recovering items such as photographs, which are used to blackmail people of royal heritage (Shaw Cosson, Rohrbach and Doyle, 2011). The author attempts to reveal the way such items causes conflicting issues in the society. Closure Surprise and resolution is handled in the story through using Holmes in tackling varied issues. For instance, Holmes handles surprises and resolution through ironically reprimanding the king, who proudly proclaims “what a woman oh, what a woman?” (Doyle n. d, p. 24). The plot is driven and finally resolved through relationships that are created in the end of the story. Despite the marriage conflicts or varied scandals that threatened the Bohemia Kingdom, the wit of the woman, Irene Adler defeated Holmes. Focalization The focalization method in this story is used in order to attract the attention of the reader. The author designs the work in a manner that draws one’s attention to the main significant elements on some pages. There are diverse methods employed in emphasizing the significant aspects on a page. First, the author creates the page in a manner that makes it easy for the reader to spot some discourse words. The words are irregularly arranged and some phrases are bold which catches the eyes of the reader. For instance, “there will call upon you to-night” is a phrase that is written in boll letters; thus attracting the attention of the reader. Evaluation The omniscient narrator could have been the effective approach for maintaining suspense; thus Holmes could have used it in order to maintain suspense. This could have enabled the reader to view the authorial intelligence of the author in creating the fictional nature of the narrative. However, the story is appealing because the authors employed varied structures that makes the stroy unique. First, the use of suspense in the story telling is crucial because it makes the reader to improve his or her reasoning capacity about the events as they are taking places in the story. The suspense enables the reader to concentrate in order to find the answer of what happens next when the author leaves one in suspense. Lastly, the author arranged the story in chronological manner. This is especially where the author shifts the story in the narrative discourse and engages the character into the conservations; thus enabling the reader to understand the story effectively. This story is relevant to varied aspects taking place in the contemporary society. Thus, it educates the reader on the way varied aspects such as conflicts happen in the current society and the way people solve them. References Doyle, A. C. (n.d). A scandal in Bohemia, p. 1-25. Retrieved on February 22, 2013 from http://www.thevoiceofreason.com/sherlock/Unlockedpdfs/AScandalInBohemia.pdf Holt, R., & Doyle, A. C. (1999). A scandal in Bohemia. Harlow, Essex, Eng: Pearson Education Ltd. Shaw, M., Cosson, M. J., Rohrbach, S., & Doyle, A. C. (2011). Sherlock Holmes and a scandal in Bohemia. Minneapolis: Graphic Universe. Read More