Sherlock Holmes in the Final Problem Questions - Assignment Example

Prof’s Sherlock Holmes in the Final Problem Questions There are many prallalels between the characters of Sherlock Holms and Professor Moriarty. Moriarty and Holmes share, for instance, an almost inhuman set of skills in observation and deduction, which Holmes has demonstrated many times, and Moriarty demonstrates by noting that Holmes is “loading a revolver” in the pocket of his night gown. However they may be similar, they retain one fundamental difference: moral character. While both appear to do what they do as a way of satisfying their massive intellects, Holmes chooses, for little apparent reason, to favor order over chaos, law over crime. 2. Phrenology is a practice, which many people believed in Victorian times, of discovering things about a person based on the size and shape of their head.

It was often used as part of scientific racism to explain why white people were supposedly better than others. He is surprised because Holmes’s head doesn’t fir the “type” – even though he is very intelligent he doesn’t have a large forehead, which is what one would expect based on phrenology. People do not believe in this pseudo-science any more. 3. The plot device used is the open-door plot device. In this device, the author tells the reader that something has happened, bug gives some evidence that what has been said might not be the case, or gives the reader no actual proof that something has occurred.

In this story, for example, Holmes’ death is demonstrated through a note and a set of footprints. However, there is no body, there is nothing that shows he actually died instead of writing a note then going into hiding. This leaves the door open for future books should the author choose to write them. 4. There are several ways that Moriarty challenges Sherlock Holmes. One of the most important is simply him having a mental capacity that can match Holmes’s own, as discussed in the question above, 3.

More importantly, however, Moriarty seems to have more people “at his back” – he has an army of thieves, assassins, and so forth from his dealings in the underground, along with nearly unlimited funds to use them to build interesting devices such as air guns. Holmes is eventually able to thwart Moriarty, however, because Holmes has slightly better planning and mental abilities than Moriarty does – he’s barely smarter. 5. There are many differences and similarities between the film version and the book version of this story.

The overarching plot, and especially characters, remain very consistent: Moriarty remains the genius criminal professor while Holmes stays the genius hound on his scent. One of the biggest differences, however, is that the location is made much more exotic in the movie version. Holmes’s work in France is much more central to the story, for instance, to give the story a more robust flavor. Furthermore, the stakes are raised by having famous and important things involved, such as the Mona Lisa.