Finding Reality in Sherlock Holmes Detective Stories - Research Paper Example

English Literature ic and Modern) 27 November Finding Reality in Sherlock Holmes Detective Stories It is necessary to stress that Conan Doyle’s stories are not real, although there are some characters taken from everyday life. For example, the character of Sherlock Holmes was created by the author not by chance. He was based on the personality of Dr. Joseph Bell who worked as a surgeon at one of Edinburgh’s hospitals. However, still Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes Detective Stories are analyzed by critics as fictional ones. The situations described there were invented by the author. Each of the stories starts the same way – someone meets Sherlock Holmes and tells him about an awkward situation in order to find answers to the questions he/she does not know. In any case these stories are very valuable because their mystery plots describe the cultural details which really existed when Conan Doyle was working at his well-known stories. The setting of the stores under consideration is very important. In fact, Conan Doyle’s writing may be used by ones who are eager to get information about late Victorian London. This city is described in detail by Conan Doyle. That is why it is worth paying attention to the stories in order to study London and its culture in the Victorian period. It is necessary to stress that sti8ll there are some places in London that were mentioned by the author in his stories. This argument proves that Conan Doyle described London contemporary to him. He did his best in order to impart his attitude and point of view upon this city. Nevertheless, London is not the only real element in Sherlock Holmes Detective Stories. The protagonist of the book frequently applied the techniques that are widely used today. Holmes investigated and studied each case as attentively and thoroughly as contemporary CSI technicians. He applied the techniques that are so popular on television shows today. The methods used by Sherlock Holmes were applied by doctors in the middle of nineteenth century. They had much in common with diagnostic procedures. So, all above-mentioned information proves that Sherlock Holmes Detective Stories are rather useful to the contemporary reader. On the one hand, they show various techniques to get information. On the other hand, these stories introduce the Victorian London to the audience. The author of Sherlock Holmes demonstrates the characteristics of Victorian people in his stories. This is especially easily seen in the following stories: A Scandal in Bohemia The Musgrave Ritual The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor Here the reader may come across male understanding of a Victorian woman. This understanding is closely connected with crimes and injustice. It is necessary to stress that the Victorian society could not agree with the thought that woman may be connected with any violent crime somehow. Conan Doyle opposed this point of view in the stories mentioned above. In two of them (except Musgrave Ritual) women were in charge of some crime. They planned them and organized. The motifs of some women were explained as mental duress. This fact demonstrates the author’s intention to show the reality of the Victorian society. It should be noted that Arthur Conan Doyle was extremely sensitive to the environment he lived in. It is easily seen through his writings. For instance, he applied the images of passive women demonstrating the real attitude towards them. The stories of Sherlock Holmes stress Victorian ideals of domesticity. However, there still were several female characters participating in crimes. That is why women in the stories under consideration may be divided into three groups. They are the following ones: 1. Females who were in charge of crimes 2. Females who participated in them 3. Females who stayed aside This classification does not mean that Conan Doyle created his own images of female criminals; he depicted women only the way it was acceptable in Victorian period. Thus, the majority of female characters in the writing under analysis are rather passive. It is necessary to take into consideration the fact that in Victorian England women who were respected could not be even suspected in some crime. This message is shared with the readers of Sherlock Holmes Detective Stories. Thus, Conan Doyle tries to connect crime and gender ideals of the period he lived in. During Victorian period women participating in crimes were viewed as “hideous perversion”. Perhaps, that is why the author rarely created any female character in order to oppose Sherlock Holmes. One of the most remarkable female characters used by Conan Doyle was Irene Adler. She was depicted as a blackmailer. In fact, a lot of crimes shown by the author had the same root – greed. Sexual violence was ignored. This hints that Victorian people were not motivated by sexual relations at that time. Greed was the major problem of the society depicted by Conan Doyle. It was the major motivator of human actions. Doyle’s stories are very significant because they demonstrate the relations between two genders at the period under consideration. For instance, a man should have occupied at least the same class as a woman. Only in this case the match was treated as a proper one. Not by chance, in one of the stories Watson utters: “Because you are within my reach again… these riches sealed my lips. Now that they are gone I can tell you how I love you” (Doyle, 105). It should be noted that Doyle behaved the same way as all other writers of Victorian period. Thus, he did not accept the notion of sexual violence. It was not a good topic to discuss in upper class Victorian society. That is why the author of Sherlock Holmes Detective Stories very seldom applied a female character as an antagonist. Instead he applied women as victims and greed as a motive of human actions. As a rule, women were not characterized as antagonists in Doyle’s works. In fact, the antagonist was human greed. It is logical that Conan Doyle focused on this because it was a common motivation in the Victorian society. Moreover, it was the most popular motivation to produce novels and stories. As for sex, it was frequently characterized as something like marital duty. It was never done just for having fun. That is why sex does not exist on the pages of Sherlock Holmes Detective Stories. It just were not discussed in Victorian England, at least it was not normal to do so in polite society. According to the critics’ point of view upon Victorian period, sexual crime existed at that time, it just was not acknowledged. Sherlock Holmes Detective Stories were written during the period when females could be viewed only as the victims of crime. It happened so even if they had committed some criminal action. In this case, people believed that they either came under the wrong male influence or just were insane. This Victorian idea is fully reflected in Conan Doyle’s writings. Sherlock Holmes’s antagonists must be intelligent and calculating. Women did not have these characteristics in England contemporary to the author. That is why the major female antagonists for Holmes were not active participants of crime. For example, Miss Hatty Doran had run off to be with a man she loved instead of marrying Lord St. Simon (Paul, 98). It is necessary to stress the fact that both Sherlock Holmes and Conan Doyle belonged to the time they lived in. In fact, they were the products of Victorian epoch. That is why they depicted morality of this society. Conan Doyle describes a lot of characteristics common to Victorian people, especially these concerned women. The latter were often called insane because of the rise of consumer culture. At that time the notion “kleptomania” appeared. Shoplifting became a common thing among women. Again, this happened because of greed. The same motifs made females kill their spouses. According to Sherlock Holmes’s point of view these cases were closely connected with men. This happened because of the implausibility in the Victorian female mind to organize such a serious crime. “The popularity of the scenario of a bad man seducing and abandoning naive women encouraged magistrates, judges, and juries to look for an evil man behind the poor unmarried girl” (110) became the idea that influenced the content of many Victorian books. This motive was used by Doyle as well. For example, it is seen in The Musgrave Ritual. Victorian society tried to prove that only insane women are able to commit a crime. However, all the stories created by Conan Doyle describe sane people. They oppose and stress the idea of female insanity at the same time. London meant a lot for Conan Doyle; he loved it very much. That is why the reader often finds London’s shadowy quarters and black alleys in Sherlock Holmes Detective Stories. It was the image of this city during Victorian period. Thus, Lycett wrote that “Holmes could never have lived anywhere else but London. London was the hub of the empire. In addition to the Houses of Parliament, it had the sailors’ hostels and the opium dens of the East End, the great railway stations. And it was the center of the literary world” (76). So, no wonder that Conan Doyle chose London to be the setting of his famous stories. For both Holms and Conan Doyle London is a great city. Thus, in The Red-Headed League Holmes addresses Watson saying “it is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of London” (Doyle A., 119). This statement fully demonstrates the attitude of Victorian people towards London. This means that not by chance Doyle’s protagonist states in A Case of Identity: “if we could fly out of that window hand in hand, “he explains, “hover over this great city, gently remove the roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the wonderful chains of events, working through generation, and leading to the most stale and unprofitable” (156). It is necessary to stress that Holmes dressing and habits can also tell a lot of information about Victorian people and those who lived in London. All readers of the stories associate the protagonist with his dressing gown. Holmes liked to wear it at home. He did so even when there was a meeting with some client. There is nothing strange in this detail in Conan Doyle’s stories because practically everyone in Victorian period had some dressing gown to accept close friends at home. In fact, a dressing gown reminded of a robe that people wore at home. In the majority of cases it was made of silk and looked expensive. Nowadays there are no such gowns. Instead people put the bathrobe on at home. There is one interesting fact about Sherlock Holmes’s gown. The critics still debate if the protagonist had one gown or three. The author of the stories presents his character in blue, purple and mouse-colored gowns. This issue is still unclear. Perhaps, there was only one gown that just faded because a long-term use. The refusal to change the gown fully demonstrates the mood of Victorian people contemporary to Conan Doyle. There is one more thing Sherlock Holmes is associated with. It is smoking and pipes. For some people from Victorian authority this was the sign of intelligence and abilit6y to think analytically. So, a pipe clarifies the image of Sherlock Holmes. In fact, tobacco smoke is an element of Baker Street. As for the protagonist of the stories, he was a constant smoker. He enjoyed the process using cigarettes, cigars and pipes. This process helped the protagonist to achieve two important purposes: 1) To have pleasure from life 2) Motivate his brain to think analytically. For example, in The Red-Headed League Holmes addresses his companion Watson: “it is quite a three pipe problem, and I beg that you won’t speak to me for fifty minutes” (Doyle S., 223). Smoking had both physical and psychological effect upon the famous Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock Holmes also personifies the religious beliefs of his contemporaries. They are based on the views of William Paley, who was a celebrated English philosopher and theologian. He applied the analogy of a watch. In other words, “if one going across a field finds a watch that is based on the intricacy of its design and interrelated moving parts, he/she would naturally draw a conclusion that the watch must have had a maker; that there must have existed at some time and at some place or other an artificer or artificers, who formed it for the purpose which we find it actually to answer; who comprehended its construction, and designed its use” (204). It should be noted that Conan Doyle takes his readers to various places while telling his stories about Sherlock Holmes and Watson. The adventures occur in different places. They are: Dartmoor The United States The Reichenbach Falls Although the scenery is frequently changed, there are some places that occur in all the stories or in the majority of them. 221b Baker Street is one of such places. It is often called the most unchanging element in the book. Actually, it is symbolic and stands for Victorian people’s intention to live a traditional life without moving to some other place. They seem to be conservative and do not want to change something in traditional norms of their society. The apartment where Holmes and Watson lived is described as “consisting of a couple of comfortable bed-rooms and a single large airy sitting-room, cheerfully furnished, and illuminated by two broad windows” (276). Very often the stories described by Conan Doyle start or end with 221b Baker Street. It is known that the characters of the stories lived in this apartment during twenty years and had no desire to change anything there. To conclude, it is necessary to stress that all the stories created by Conan Doyle are fictional. However, they give the readers a lot of important information about the Victorian epoch and its people. For instance, the author indicates the habits and culture of the people contemporary to Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes. It is possible to learn more about religion, attitude towards women, crimes and Victorian morals. All these things are very significant for those who study history and literature. In fact, Sherlock Holmes Detective Stories are a real godsend of it is necessary to analyze the Victorian period. In other words, in his unreal stories Conan Doyle applied real cultural details. He did it so that the reader understands – nothing in the book was described and mentioned occasionally. Everything was done with certain purpose. It should be noted that Conan Doyle not only described various crimes, their victims and investigation. He also tried to find the root of the crimes and show it to the readers. According to the author’s point of view, it is greed that is the root of all evil. It is greed that motivated the actions of Victorian people. That is why no wonder that Doyle mentioned it in the majority of his stories. So, a lot of important information is hidden between the lines of so well-known Sherlock Holmes Detective Stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Works Cited Doyle, Arthur. Favorite Sherlock Holmes Detective Stories. Canada: General Publishing Company, Ltd, 2000. Print. Doyle, Steven. Sherlock Holmes for Dummies. USA: The Baker Street Journal, 2010. Print. Paul, Robert. Whatever Happened to Sherlock Holmes: Detective Fiction, Popular Theology and Society, USA: Library Materials, 1991. Print. Read More