Sherlock Holmes and Detective Fiction - Essay Example

Sherlock Holmes and Detective Fiction Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish Arthur Doyle and heis a famous and immensely successful fictional detective with many successful stories in his name. This detective story is considered to be amongst the greatest detective stories of the modern times and his abilities border great fantasies. He is famous for his logic reasoning coupled with his abilities to use forensic science in solving most of very complicated mysteries in investigations (Thomas 31). In the study of the scarlet, Holmes background is given as a brilliant student of chemistry with several side interests that would later help in his detective activities. This is evident when he is crowned as having been the first student to invent a method of detecting bloodstains, which is related to solving crime. He also indulges in recreational home chemistry when he indulges in filling the room with foul smelling vapors due to his love for experiments. Holmes believes that the mind has a finite capacity of storing information and thus he has no reason of storing useless thin in his brain, as this would reduce his brain storage capacity. He is also depicted to know Latin language, which became very useful to his detective lifestyle since he needed no interpretation in such matters if they arose (Ousby 33). Locked room mysteries are amongst the best-known genre of crime fiction, which has existed in the literary world. This is a showcase of a seemingly impossible crime committed in a locked room with most cases having single doors. The question always being asked is that how such a murder did took place in a securely locked room in which there is no sign of entrance and access into the door. A well-designed locked room always provides a pleasure from trying to figure out the puzzle before it’s revealed in a very satisfying and logical manner to the reader and the viewer and this gives a good satisfaction to the reader. The author should be very careful because a poorly designed locked room showcase provides a feeling of being cheated due to unreality events depicted in the artwork. The issue of locked room murders doesn’t necessarily mean that the crimes were committed in locked rooms but they can also imply that the crime was executed in an impossible manner (Miller 24). The murder in the rogue is a good example of locked room mystery case of two women who are brutally murdered in the morgue and people are in desperate mood to know the likers. There are numerous witnesses who heard of the suspects but they could not understand the language of the suspects and this called for interpreters in the scene to help reveal the mystery. The story becomes complicated when the hair, which does not feel human, is discovered in the story scene posing more questions than answers. This story surrounds the murder of a mother, her daughter in a room locked from the inside, and they are so brutally murdered in a very sympathetic manner. The mother’s throat is so strangled that it is attached to the chimney in the same locked room in which they are murdered. The murder is in the fourth floor of inaccessible room and the very witnesses who heard of the murder are of little help since they cannot interpret the language used in the murder scene. The case is complicated because the speech is unclear and nobody admits to knowing the language spoken in the murder scene. Duplin and his friend the unnamed narrator read the story in the newspaper with a lot of interest so that they may have some clues in unraveling the mystery in the rue rogue murder case. Duplin is so intrigued when a man is imprisoned with no evidence pointing to his face and he concludes that this is a big injustice done to the society and thus should be reversed. This is supported by the fact that the hair found at the crime scene is not for a human being but belonged to the animal. He decided to begin a clever move aimed at establishing the murderer by putting an advert in the newspapers asking for anyone who has lost an Ourang Outang and the advert is quickly answered. The sailor who answered dunlins advert comes to his place to talk to him about the loss of his beloved animal. Duplin then interrogates the man about all information he knew about the murder in the morgue so that he can establish if there is any link between them. The sailor admits that he has been keeping a captive Ourang Outang but the animal escaped with straight shaving razor thus, he was in a desperate search for the animal. He admits that when he pursues the animal, it escaped and entered through the rogue window by climbing a lightning rod and he never saw his beloved animal again. The animal is believed to have tried to shave the woman in the rogue morgue with the razor as part of his master daily routine but with little success since she resisted such a move from the animal. This struggle led to the woman’s throat being cut by the razor and her daughter being squeezed by the animal to death and tried to hide the body in the chimney. The theme in this murder is an application of imagination since he is not a qualified detective but chooses to pursue the matter in an attempt to know the mysterious truth that the police have not succeeded in establishing. Duplin decides to pursue the investigations for his own personal interest of unraveling the truth and to save the wrongfully imprisoned man from jail. He does not want material benefits like money since he refuses the offer monetary reward from the owner of the Ourang Outang (Gardiner 12). Most of the stories surrounding problems always evolve in his strong display of talent in deduction as a means of achieving his goals. His stories are a strong application of logics in attempt to solve day-to-day problems, which affect the society. He is demonstrated to be drawing inferences based on straightforward principles together with a careful observation of whatever he is undertaking in his study. One famous quote he is associated with is that “when you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains however improbable must be the truth” (Booth 14) In the scandal of Bohemia, Holmes applies the principle of deductive reasoning to help solve the mysterious case, which baffled many in that town. He deduced that Watson has a very has a very lumbering and a inconsiderate girl and this makes Watson amazed about such conclusions. Holmes always applies several connected principles to solve his mysteries like in the case of Watson. He says that the leather in the side shoe is score by numerous corresponding cuts cause by someone who scrapped around the ends to eliminate the thick mud and as such, he should check into that. He also asserts that if the London doctor shoes are scrapped then the person who scrapped them is the doctor’s girl sine she is close to doing that. He further asserts that if someone cuts the shoes while removing encrusted mud them the person is flimsy and careless in his behavior (Ousby 11). Silver blaze is amongst the most popular Holmes stories with has captured a lot of readers attention in most of his books. The stories is based on the disappearance of one of the titular race horse which always won on most of the horseraces making it very important animal to the owner. This case happens on the eve of a horse race coupled with the murder of it trainer and the mystery is that it happens in the middle of the night. The story begins when Holmes is invited to investigate a crime that is placed on a newspaper thereby capturing a lot of public attention in the country. Inspector Gregoy has already arrested a suspect by the time of Holmes and Watson arrival making the investigation to start immediately and seriously. The suspect is a London bookmaker who has come to gather information specifically relating to horse racing putting him as a potential suspect for the disappearance and the murder of the trainer. From the onset of their investigations, Holmes seems not to agree with the inspector arrest of this suspect since he does not see his story to be logical according to his standards. Holmes tracks down the silver blaze literally with clear visible tracts along the soil to establish the truth about the situation. He wonders why the police failed to find the horse and despite a desperate search and turns away to other aspects of the case due to complexity of the case. The investigations unravel the mysteries which were unexpected by many due to the logic in which they were presented after a thorough investigations by Holmes and his friend dr. Watson. He establishes that starker had a mistress with expensive tastes and that he tried to influence the outcome of the horse race to in an attempt to earn a large sum of money for himself. This puts him into unnecessary actions, which initiated the disappearance of the horse and subsequent murder of the trainer which would prove fatal when exposed. Currie mutton was the biggest clue in this investigation since only such a spicy dish could mask the taste of powdered opium in an attempt to conceal his intentions (Haddon 42). The incident of dog not making any noise at night was a proof that no stranger was there and that the whole arrangement was from an insider who the dog was familiar with. This is because a dog can also be silent to a midnight visitor if the dog knows him or her and this proved that it was starker who removed silver blaze from his stalls to accomplish his weird mission. The horse sensing danger killed the trainer by kicking him on the head ending his mission and causing the disappearance of the horse. Rose is concerned with getting the horse back safely but Holmes is reluctant to tell him his horse wins the whereabouts of the horse despite knowing where it is until the horse race. He could not know that it’s his horse who has won the race due to the distinguishing white markings covered with dye despite attending the horse race with a lot of interest in it. It was later found that the horse was hidden by one of the neighbours when he found it wondering at night but was reluctant to tell the owner about it (Duncan 8). The Boscombe valley mystery is another evidence of Holmes investigative talents when a landowner is murdered outdoors by unknown person. The deceased son is strongly implicated in his father murder due to the fat that they were last seen arguing with him near the bush shortly before his brutal death. Holmes quickly determined that a mysterious third man is responsible for the murder and not his son as suspected by other detectives. James, the implicated son is fails to explain the cause of their argument with the father but he asserts that the last words he heard his father spoke when he while dying is rat even though he never understood what those words meant especially during that incidence. Alice, the deceased wife met Holmes in hotel and explains to him that he believed that his son is innocent and that Holmes should help him prove this. She believed that she was cause of argument between James and his father because she wanted James to marry but his father refused. Holmes then went to the Boscombe pool where he found the evidence of a tall, limping, left-handed man who smoked cigars whom he believes was a murderer beside the pool and not the deceased son as earlier stipulated. The left-handed nature is supported by the fact that the deceased has a mark on the left hand side of his head since he was attacked from behind and a right handed man would have struck him from behind. The cry over the rat his son heard minutes before he died is a name of a place in Australia called Ballarat to imply that the person who killed the deceased was from Australia and he knew him (Duncan 45). The story about the murder of Ronald Adair in park lane is a motiveless killing whose motives and killers are hard to establish from the beginning of the investigations. Everybody including the authorities and the family members are perplexed by the case that due to the complex nature the killing took place. The deceased was a very polite and silent person who seemed not to have enemies saves for a place where he used to play whist regularly earning him good sums of money for himself and his family. The motive does not appear to be robbery as nothing is stolen from the scene hence the first task for the detectives is to establish the motive of the killers to enable them identify the culprits. The crime since also seems strange since the door is locked from the inside with only window acting as the possible exit root for the unknown killer. Holmes told Watson that they are going to perform some dangerous work that evening in an attempt to capture the killer of Ronald in the city and thus he should be very prepared and ready to do the task. Holmes is expecting an attempt on his life if the Moran’s could be aware that he is back in London despite disguise that he has travelled to other countries (Thoms 19). Through the ruffian shoots in the air, the gunman is disarmed and self-possessed ending the hint for the murderer, Holmes does not like the idea of police to pressing charges for attempted manslaughter but he wish the police to charge the Moran with the killing of Ronald Adair because that is what he did initially. He was found to be a partner of Ronald who in playing whist and that Ronald found him cheating in most of the games he won and this prompted him to eliminate Ronald. He used to plat whist for a living, he earned a lot of fortune from the game, and thus he was ready to eliminate anybody on his way to victory in the game. This was also another of several of Holmes successful detective puzzles which he solved thus earning him a name and reputation the world as a great detective (Duncan 26). Holmes used several detection techniques, which managed him to be very successful in most of his operation, and earned him a fortune in investigation science. A month the techniques in disguise, especially when he needs to gather evidence to enable him unravel most of the criminal’s mysteries at the start of the investigation. He used disguise in the adventure of the empty house, the scandal of bohemia just but to mention few in his desperate attempts to gather full information to enable him logically establish the magnitude of crime (Thomas 15). He also used the method of history of crime, by studying it carefully to enable him analyze trends in criminal activities thus enabling him to distinguish crime from what is not crime. He also observed the crime scene carefully, this enabled him to see and observe what other investigators and the police could not establish thus raising the levels of his competencies. This enabled him to draw logical conclusions from these observations hence establishing the hidden motives behind criminal activities, which he investigated. He was also able to experiment with situations as deemed necessary catalyzed by the fact that he was good in chemistry and experiments. He began his investigations by first establishing motives to enable him eliminate the suspects one by one to remain with the prime suspect. His principle method of gathering information is through vigilant observation of the exact crime scene (Kayalvizi 143). Works Cited Booth, Martin. The Doctor, the Detective and Arthur Conan Doyle: A Biography of Arthur Conan Doyle. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1997. Print. Duncan, Alistair. Close to Holmes: A Look at the Connections Between Historical London, Sherlock Holmes and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. London: MX Publishing. 2009.  Duncan, Alistair . The Norwood Author: Arthur Conan Doyle and the Norwood Years (1891–1894). London: MX Publishing. 2010. Gardiner, W. Lambert. The Whole Art of Detection. New York City: Black Cat Press 2011. Haddon, Mark. The curious incident of the dog in the night time. London: Bloomsbury Publishing 2012. Print. Miller, Larry. Sherlock Holmes’s Methods of Deductive Reasoning Applied to MedicalDiagnostic. 2011. Print. Ousby, Ian. Bloodhounds of Heaven: The Detective in English Fiction from Godwin to Doyle. Massachusetts: Harvard UP, 1977. Print Thomas, Ronald. Detective Fiction and the Rise of Forensic Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2003. Print Thoms, Peter . "Poe's Dupin and the Power of Detection". In Hayes, Kevin J. The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 133–147. 2002. Print. Kayalvizi Akilan. Cerabral Analysis of Sherlock Holmes in Detection: Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow. Vol, 12 : 4. 2012. Print. Read More