Detective Fiction & Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Essay

[4] In 1841, Poe launched the new genre of detective fiction with "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." His literary innovations earned him the nickname "Father of the Detective Story." A writer on the rise, he won a literary prize in 1843 for "The Gold Bug," a

Introduction--London Metropolitan Police was the first police agency and was developed in 1829. The first police agencies in the United States were in Boston (1838), New York (1844); and Philadelphia (1854). Criminal justice system was first recognized in 1919, by the Chicago crime commission.

The detective genre is recognizable by the mystery that it represents or establishes. Every word of a fiction novel is chosen with a purpose, and that purpose on a detective novel is to create suspense. The excerpts from The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler, Murder Is My Business by Lynette Prucha, and Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley, create an atmosphere of suspense and mystery. Even though they all fit into this category, there are some differences that make each novel unique. The imagery that the authors offer in the excerpts helps the reader to distinguish the similarities and the differences.

Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window continues and expands on traditional themes of the Detective Fiction Genre. In 1841, Murder in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe broke the traditional character constraints of the Crime Fiction Genre, by introducing a new type of lead detective figure. The ideal detective figure encompassed traits of superiority, intelligence, wit and a keen sense for observation. The lead detective figure is a sophisticated character that is not bound to the constrictions and limitations of the Law and the exploration of this figure through the use of visual aid and techniques, provides contrast and variation on the common themes within the genre. Hitchcock provides an alternative approach through a new medium carving way

The London Metropolitan Police Act was passed by Parliament in 1829. This Act created the first legitimate police force composed of salaried police officers’ designated to patrol the city of London. London’s Metropolitan Police force is important to present day crime control in America because it is where the idea of policing in America originated.

Primarily, readers read detective stories because they expect a dramatic event to happen whether that be criminal activity or more prominently, a murder. The audience of The Murders in the Rue Morgue didn’t have extremely eventful lives; it wasn’t every day that a horrid murder would take place in the real streets of Paris. They desperately craved excitement for their boring days and for that, they turned to books: detective stories in particular. The horror of the actual act offered a form of excitement and entertainment to the reader. The story allowed them to escape from their already routine life. Other than that, the society in detective stories like The Murders in the Rue Morgue was outwardly perfect in which the characters “have very simple problems” (Aydelotte, pg. 4). Everything in the society went right, up until the point of the murder. The fact that a seemingly ideal world was interrupted by such a gruesome event, offered the reader a reality check and made them aware of their anxiety of the evil that exists in the world. For the audience of detective stories, “The mess, confusion, and frustration of life have

The Adventure of the Speckled Band stars Sherlock Holmes who is a detective who only takes on the most unusual cases, one day a young woman comes to Holmes in need of his help to solve the murder of her twin sister. Holmes is eager and excited to help and begins his investigation upon the discovery of the number one suspect Holmes also finds that this suspect is a doctor. Holmes comes to the conclusion "that doctors make the greatest criminals." This observation by Holmes is something one can completely agree with, for a few examples the first being doctors tend to be intelligent, second doctors are familiar with how the human system works and lastly one should never question the prominent Sherlock Holmes.

Police departments were began approximately 350 years ago, and the first police department was established in the city of Boston. As soon as colonists had arrived there in 1630, confined regulations had allowed for constables to be prearranged. "Soon after, in April 1631, the townspeople formed a "watch" made up of six watchmen, one constable, and several volunteers who patrolled at night, walking the rounds" (Johnson, 2012). From 1630 until now a lot of things have changed within police departments.

In detective fiction, authors create chaos, which they balance with a sense of structure and reason. They implement many elements to entice the reader to continue with the detective on his quest to solve the riddle and defeat the chaos, which can be divided into two sections: noticeable chaos and silent chaos. Noticeable chaos includes elements such as murder and thievery, obvious aspects of detective fiction that make the reader cringe. Silent chaos, on the other hand, includes locked rooms and settings; things that make the reader shiver because they have no idea why it is affecting them so much. Authors use these different elements to support common themes that are woven into many different works of detective fiction. Sir Arthur Conan

Poe's detective fiction or mystery fiction can best be felt in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock Holmes is one of the best knows detectives in the history of literature. His fame can be spotted in the books that have been written and the movies that have been produced about Holmes. Poe's works were able to influence the author of the Sherlock Holmes series, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in which he based the character of Sherlock Holmes off of one of Poe's characters whose name was Dupin who was used in the mystery story The Murders in the Rue Morgue. The similarities between the two characters are quite grand. “Both are solitary men who prefer to live quietly in either isolation or in the company of one close companion.”(“Nineteenth Century Influenced Poe”). Both men also tend to shift to the bottom of their mysteries without a large amount of clues that other detective writers appear to have in their stories. The impact that Poe has had on authors and stories cannot be matched. His stories have provided a model for future authors to use, in the hope of growing the notoriety of mystery fiction or the horror genre.

The movie The Maltese Falcon is about a private investigator who is striving to unravel the mystery surrounding a black enamelled bird known as the Maltese Falcon. Samuel Spade, the protagonist of the story, is what was known as a “hard-boiled” detective. Men such as that rarely show a tender side (if they have one). Likewise, they are physically tough, frequently resorting to guns or fists to get what they want. In addition, they tend to be amoral, yet with an inflexible code of honour of their own.

'That was the evidence itself . . . .' and talks like this for the

While American and British authors developed the two distinct schools of detective fiction, known as “hard-boiled and “golden age,” simultaneously, the British works served to continue traditions established by earlier authors while American works formed their own distinct identity. Though a niche category, detective works reflect the morality and culture of the societies their authors lived in. Written in the time period after World War I, Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon and “The Gutting of Couffignal”, and Raymond Chandler’s “Trouble Is My Business” adapt their detectives to a new harsh reality of urban life. In “hard-boiled” works, the detective is more realistic than the detective in “golden age” works according to the

In 1829 the first police force was formed in London. Later came the Scotland Yard, France and Berlin. Many of the European police forces took advice and modeled their prisons after some of the prisons in the United States. “Sherlock Homes” By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was really the forefront that brought about the forensics in police work. “Sherlock Holmes” really changed the views on police work. Even today “Sherlock Holmes” is still very popular, in other words, something that was written over a hundred years ago is till shaping peoples minds of the police.

The history of a professional police service in England dates back to the creation of the Metropolitan Police in 1829 by the then Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel (Joyce, 2012), the City of Glasgow Police was the first professional force to be created in Britain in 1800 (Newburn, 2013). The Metropolitan Police force replaced the volunteers who had until then served in an unpaid capacity to perform police duties. The professional police service then served as a template on which to model other local police forces throughout England and Wales (Joyce, 2012). There are 41 provincial police forces outside London and two within London, the Metropolitan Police and the City of London Police, at its peak the total number of officers in England and Wales was over 143,000 in 2006 (Hale et