Sherlock Holmes Character Traits

He grew up secluded with his two brothers, Henry and Arthur, and his sister Ellen. He also grew up with his parents who were devout Methodists. A common factor about serial killers is that they usually grew up in a strictly religious household. His home life was hard because of his mentally and physically abusive parents, especially his father. Researchers have found out that his father used tactics such as “prolonged isolation and even food deprivation. Furthermore, his father reportedly held kerosene soaked rags over Holmes and the other children’s mouths to “quiet them” when they cried.” (Concordia University). A child’s relationship with their parents is crucial in their development. Psychologists have researched this specific topic for years and drew the conclusion that, “Without the safety net of a secure attachment relationship, children grow up to become adults who struggle with feelings of low self-worth and challenges with emotional regulation. They also have an increased risk of developing depression and anxiety.” (How Childhood Trauma). Because of his parents neglecting, his idea of relationships was skewed, and he became isolated. He had no positive relationship to model after and that really took a toll on his social life. In fact, “It is possible that Holmes...was so traumatized by the abuse that it ultimately led to his inability to form meaningful relationships.” (Concordia University). He was bullied at school for being smarter than the rest of the class and having no friends. His most notable bullying incident was when “ Holmes, blindsided by classmates, was forced into a doctor’s office, where the hands of a skeleton were forcibly placed over his face.” (Concordia University). Holmes had a phobia of doctors and anatomy as a whole, and the event was so traumatic to him that his fear reversed itself and turned into an extreme interest, something that is not uncommon between trauma victims. The

The legendary fictional character Sherlock Holmes was constructed by a basis of a French criminal expert and a famous police investigator. He is known for his prowess in perception and analysis. On the other hand, Holmes sympathy towards people is near absent. Holmes loves to breakdown the story of each person he comes in contact with it. However, he does make a mistake occasionally. Although, there are many positive representations of Holmes, the Downey-Holmes is the best.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes is one of the most easily recognizable characters in detective stories. He has many remarkable traits that other fictional detectives do not. Some examples of this are his observational abilities, his dual personality, and his being a skilled musician and composer.

Sherlock Holmes holds the Guinness World Record for “literary character most frequently portrayed on screen.” Over one hundred actors have played Holmes on screen. There are over two hundred and fifty movies, hundreds of episodes, and even plays based around Doyle’s writings with the first known Sherlock Holmes movie debuting in 1905. The first American Sherlock Holmes actor was William Gillette, who played him on stage in 1899 and on film in 1916 (Dawidziak, n. p.). The many adaptations make it very hard to

Following a massive investigation and numerous interviews with Holmes, forensic psychiatrists would diagnose Holmes with Schizotypal personality disorder. This mental illness makes it difficult for individuals to maintain social relationships and causes the person to isolate themselves from society, causing anxiety, depression, among other symptoms.

Holmes became a medical student at the University of Michigan (“H.H.” 1). This is when he started to steal human bodies and experiment on them. This is when people started to heed and pay very close attention to him. “I was born with the devil in me”, he wrote. “I could not help the fact I was a murderer, no more that the poet can help the inspiration to sing” (Larson 109). This gives an insight into his mind. Based on this statement, it seems that he had no control over his actions. H.H. Holmes was hung on May 7th, 1896 (“H.H.” 1). They considered him to be one of America’s first serial killers. He killed anywhere between 20 to 200 people. He is most definitely a stark opposite of good.

Larson describes Holmes as a well dressed man who made an “impression of wealth and achievement”(Larson 35). Holmes uses his charm to allure women and achieve higher standards in business. Holmes was not like traditional men “he broke prevailing rules of casual intimacy.. and women adored him for it”(Larson 36). He was a different kind of man. Holmes was able to use his words to his advantage.

Larson includes a description of this by referencing the work of a famous psychologist and stating, "...in his path-breaking book The Mask of Sanity, Dr. Hervey Cleckley described the prototypical psychopath as 'a subtly constructed reflex machine which can mimic the human personality perfectly'" (88). Holmes greatly demonstrates this ability and takes it one step further by manipulating people. He uses it almost like a superpower. In his time, Holmes was considered handsome and certainly charming. People often found Holmes to be a sweet and caring guy, which he then used to his advantage. For example, Holmes knew how to treat a woman. Holmes in multiple cases would have long relationships with women which he then used not only to kill his lover but also a family member as well if he wished. He could also manipulate Men, such as the workers he hired and fired in in a repeating cycle in order to build his hotel for virtually no cost. Most people would not have suspected Holmes to be a psychopath or a murder. Holmes' ability to not only disguise his psychopathy but also to manipulate people, allowed him to have complete control over the situation and commit his crimes with little to no

Let us begin with Holmes. Holmes lived in Chicago and owned a pharmacy. He had medical training and loved money and women (Larson 36-37). He was able to smooth talk and gave people a sense of happiness. Holmes could convince people of anything, which he used as a way to sell stories as to why the people he killed had just disappeared. He also used this in constructing his building/hotel. He barely paid a dime because he convinced workers that their job was unsatisfactory (Larson 67). The furniture companies would come looking for H. S. Campbell, the alias he used as the owner of the building, and he would tell them he was out on business (Larson 71-72). A man named Belknap, the uncle of one of Holmes’s three wives, described him as “warm and ingratiating, but also telegraph that some important element of humanness is missing”. For a long time this was known as “moral insanity” and later the term psychopath was used (Larson 87-88). Holmes himself was intrigued by Jack the Ripper (Larson 70).

“Holmes was charming and gracious, but something about him made Belknap uneasy. He could not have defined it. Indeed, for the next several decades alienists and their successors would find themselves hard-pressed to describe with any precision what it was about men like Holmes that could cause them to seem warm and ingratiating but also telegraph the vague sense that some important element of humanness was missing.” (pg 23) There are two levels of power, emotional and physical power. Holmes was the kind of man who had learned to master both. He was stunningly handsome, and emotionally manipulative, a poison for anyone who could get close to him. In this quote, it shows just how addictive Holmes was to the people around him. He’s like candy. After you’ve had a piece or two, deep down you know it’s not good for you, but the feelings it gives you trump all doubt you have. A deadly mix of youthful exhilaration and feelings of lust, and the combined fact that the man they want so badly is a cold serial

After the encounter with the skeleton, he started to become more and more obsessed with death and dead things. Holmes was known to dissect dead, and even alive, animals as a hobby. As he grew into his teens, he became a bully, too. Younger children were afraid of him, but Holmes saw his actions almost as payback for what he had to endure as a young child. Some could say that these encounters with dead animals, bullying classmates, and his obsession with death should have been

When questioning Holmes’s motives, one can first examine biological theories. Did crime run in his family? Did he have a bad childhood? Or maybe he was just born with a gene that would somehow trigger him to be a criminal eventually in his life. It’s very possible that he could have suffered an abusive childhood, causing him to grow up and seek a way to somehow enact ‘revenge’ for his own pains.

Sherlock Holmes is a well-known detective, deeply in which royalty has asked for his assistance in retrieving a photograph from Irene Adler. He is known for the excellence use of skills in solving crimes, of astute logical reasoning and of disguise. Holmes work has consistently involved

Sherlock Holmes is a character created by British author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock is a legendary detective who solves even the most baffling and meticulously puzzled cases with astute observation, abductive reasoning and with little to no people skills. As a "consulting detective," he favors reason and logic above all else and rarely makes personal attachments beyond those that benefit him. He calls himself a "high functioning sociopath" because he does not make any acquaintance or understand emotions very well, beyond what can be studied.

When someone mentions the occupation of detective, a single image usually comes to mind, a man wearing a cape and deerstalker, holding a magnifying glass and smoking a pipe. This entire image can be contributed to one character: Sherlock Holmes. Holmes is considered by many to be the greatest detective to ever exist, even if he only exists in the pages of books and on movie and television screens. It is impossible to escape the influence of Holmes. Countless references are made to him in all types of media and he is used as an inspiration to may more fictional characters we have all grown to love. The cultural impact of Sherlock Holmes has spread to more than just fiction; Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s