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

Essay, English Literature ic and Modern) Topic: Close reading on A Scandal in Bohemia, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle The passage cited below throws reflection on the whole story. Im going to analyze this in part by part, phrase by phrase, for several significant elements are craftily elucidated in it. As I passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers.

In the first sentence, the word ‘wooing’ is highlighted. Many scholars have articulated that this reference is to Mary Morstan, or to Watson’s some other previous wife. The other prevalent opinion is that this could as well be the reference to Holmes. To me, the latter appears to be the correct version. It has nothing do with wooing of any lady member. Watson refers to his ‘wooing’ and ‘A Study in Scarlet’ in one sentence. It is reasonable to assume that both are connected well.

Watson was not married in ‘A Study in Scarlet’, and at that time he used to share accommodation with Sherlock Homes. The bachelor Watson, with no member of the fair-sex associates in A Study in Scarlet, the wooing process is directed towards Holmes. Holmes was a detective with very special talents. He relied on backward reasoning or analytic reasoning to study the chain of events in an effort to solve the cases. He employed the same method in ‘A Study in Scarlet’ in which Holmes explains to Watson that “this was a case in which you were given the result and had to find everything else for yourself.

” With the recollection of his past Watson intensely remembers his association with Holmes and is filled with an intense longing to see him again. That memory should have seized the inner world of Watson and became uncontrollable. This wooing has no sexual overtones. It is linked to the extraordinary talents of Holmes of which Watson admired and after the marriage he somehow failed to be in touch with him. Watson was pleased with the reception that he got at his friend’s residence when he arrived unannounced.

Their connection was spontaneous, even though they met each other after considerable lapse of time. They lose no time in enjoying each other’s company, as such their relationship defies definition and they enjoy a unique bond. It is evident that Watson is pleased to learn that Holmes is thrilled by Watsons arrival. It is obvious that together they are timeless. Holmes takes enthusiastic note of the physical appearance of Watson, and comments sarcastically about the extra pounds of flesh that he has gained.

The immediacy and warmth in their interaction is pointer to the fact that Holmes and Watson have not met each other since the marriage of the latter. Both share the sense of missing each other. “There are a few people, however, who, if you told them a result, would be able to evolve from their own inner consciousness what the steps were which led up to that result. This power is what I mean which I talk of reasoning backwards, of analytically.” (A Study in Scarlet).The phrase ‘dark incidents’ refers to the interruption that happened in the association of Holmes and Watson.

That bad patch haunts the inner world of an individual for good or bad associations over there and the imprint of it remains in the mind of an individual forever and it is difficult for the concerned individual to transcend it or erase the memory of the place where it happened. Watson’s predicament is the same as he ‘passes the well-remembered door’. ‘employing his extraordinary powers’ indicates the genius of Holmes to which Watson is attracted to and the wooing hints at Watson’s efforts to regain the confidence of Holmes.

Work Cited Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan. A Scandal in Bohemia