The Detective Story Genre: Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes Stories

Sherlock Holmes novels are the face of mystery, featuring literature’s greatest detective, but one might ask, how does The Hound of the Baskervilles fit into the genre’s common conventions? Mystery being a sub genre of genre fiction novels, it has many common conventions found throughout the majority of the novels. In the average mystery, the plot focuses around a crime, commonly a murder or a robbery, in which the culprit must be found by the protagonist. The crime in Sherlock Holmes and the Hound of the Baskervilles is that Sir Charles Baskerville has been murdered, or frightened to the point of death. Generally the protagonist who solves the mystery, has a dominant character flaw and/or defining characteristic which aids them in cracking

Sherlock Holmes used deduction to solve mysteries. Firstly, by using deduction, Holmes can tell a lot from Mr. Wilson. For example, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, an author, shares how Holmes used deduction to solve the mystery of the Red Headed League (Doyle). Thus, Holmes is a very smart man that knows how to pick apart a mystery. Secondly, Holmes deduced that Helen came to see him by train and rode on muddy roads. For instance, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle reports that Holmes deduced that Mrs. Stoner’s step father is violent (Doyle). Therefore, Holmes can solve any mystery by deduction. Thirdly, Holmes looks at the evidence and concludes that Mrs. Violet is impersonating the prisoner in the wing. To illustrate, Sir Arthur Conan

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 was a British physician and writer, mostly well known for his stories “Sherlock Holmes”, which are generally in the field of crime fiction. He was a prolific writer whose other works include science fiction stories, historical novels, plays and romances, poetry, and non-fiction.

Although this may be true, Holmes investigates what sparks his interest, with his exceptional analyzing and deductive reasoning. He is actually very well known for it, especially with Dr. Mortimer (Doyle, 9).Whereas, Drew often jumps to conclusion, caused by when she overlooks the little things that may prove to be of interest. “‘There must be some clue I’ve [Nancy] overlooked,’”(Keene, 61). Yet, Drew has this amazing ability for quick-thinking. On the other hand, Holmes has a huge ego and acts like every spectacular thing he does is obvious and elementary (Doyle, 45)., Wwhile Drew is very humble and helpful, “I[Nancy] don’t want a reward, really I don’t … She’d [Mrs. Topham] never offer a reward. Even if she did, I wouldn’t accept it”(Keene, 141). That is, to say nothing of her huge heart and how compassionate and dedicated she is towards others. Nancy Drew risked her life many times for nearly-complete strangers and saved their lives (Keene, 62). In contrast, Holmes is arrogant, ignorant, and has an unhealthy habit of smoking. In the same way, Drew has an irregular habit of constantly talking to herself. Meanwhile, both detectives are very clumsy, careless, and

Watson describes Holmes’s process of looking for clues and evidence of the murder as thus: “…he lounged up and down the down the pavement, and gazed vacantly at the ground, the sky, the opposite houses and the line of railings. […] he proceeded slowly down the path, or rather down the fringe of grass which flanked the path, keeping his eyes riveted upon the ground” (17). This shows that he focuses his attention first on any possible clues from the surrounding area outside and then concentrates on the ground once he’s determined where to look. It is also indicated that he has lowered levels of stress since he was lounging while looking for

“They tend to share certain key characteristics. They're manipulative, cold, and lack what we might call a moral compass--they know right from wrong but are not invested in that distinction. Their only concern with their ‘wrong’ behavior is getting caught, but because they are deceitful, callous and not subject to anxiety, they easily elude capture” (Spikol, 5). These sort of criminals were ones that the Chicago Police Department had never been introduced to before, causing them to change their entire perspective on cases once Holmes’ had passed. According to John Bartlow Martin, a writer for the “Harper’s Archive”, Holmes’ murder castle was filled with trapdoors, gas chambers, secret passageways, and even pits of acid used to get rid of bodies and other pieces of evidence. These were all things that the law enforcers had never even heard of in a story, much less seen or thought of in real life. It’s safe to say that Holmes drastically affected the police’s outlook on the cases in the near, and even far, future of criminals after his mystery; or at least part of his mystery had been

The basis of detective fictions is a well-developed and observant character that is able to walk the audience and outside perspectives through the case. In this case, Arthur Conan-Doyle utilizes the observant perspective of Watson to describe the actions of Sherlock Holmes. Doyle characterizes Sherlock through underscoring vocabulary and the first person understanding of Watson. A series of analytical language and descriptive literary devices such as juxtaposition to portray the effects of Irene Adler on the near-perfect character of Sherlock Holmes.

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 had everything he could ever want, which was great for him of course. His childhood was very privileged, and he enjoyed it. People told his family that he was a very intelligent kid for his age. Holmes was treated well. As he grew up, he got interested in the art of medicine. He graduated from the University of Michigan. Holmes was married twice. Holmes was treated well there as well. He passed his exam to practice medicine. He was always treated well, he was smart. He was looked as an equal. This led Holmes to animal experiment and also used corpses as experimental subjects. Holmes also stole corpses and used them to make fake insurance claims. There were rumors that indicates that he was responsible for his friend’s death. That was the first rumored victim of Homes later on he got a job in a pharmacy. Which Holmes convinced the pharmacy wife’s owner to sell him the pharmacy due to his suppose claims that the owner had “passed away”, and it was rumored that he killed the owner of the pharmacy. Then one day the wife went missing, to which Holmes claimed that she had moved to California. But it’s

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’s intelligence is demonstrated in both “The Red-Headed League” and “A Scandal in Bohemia”. During “A Scandal in Bohemia” he first demonstrates his intuitive thinking by figuring out that Count Kramm, the man introducing him on the case, is actually the King of Bohemia himself. This shows that he is able to make a quick determination about people’s lives just by having a brief conversation with them. This allows Holmes to solve mysteries that others cannot by simply looking at a suspect or location associated with the scenario. He uses this ability later in the story to find where the incriminating photo of the king with Adler is. He does this by creating a situation for himself where he will be able to get into Adler’s home. He then fakes a fire to see where Adler goes first so he can see where she keeps her most valuable possession, the photo. Holmes states “When a woman thinks that her house is on fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she values the most… Now it was clear to me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious to her then what we are questing for” (Doyle 19). This line of thinking shows that Holmes knows how to get people to inadvertently give him the information that he needs by putting them in the right situation and observing what they do. This skill

The homicide scene introduces Holmes's incredible reasoning processes. In a search to figure out the answer to a death, the local detectives call in Holmes. The man, who had a boarding pass for a flight that crashed the day before, appears suspiciously dead in the trunk of a car. Within thirty seconds of investigation, Holmes's observations lead him to over four conclusions. As Holmes searches through the contents found on the dead man's body, the point of view is placed directly through Sherlock's eyes. His eyes focus on intricate

While there has been criticism of the Holmesian method of deduction, many people support the idea that the use of deducing people can help with capture of criminals. While Holmes refers to his findings as deduction himself many people say, “that the process that Sherlock Holmes engages in is usually not deduction” (Novella). Deduction is defined as using a logic method of assumptions based on general statements about the world (Novella). However, Holmes himself makes more of an educated inference on what he observes about the suspects and evidence in his surroundings. The term “Holmesian Deduction” has been used to distinguish the two different methods (Novella). Holmes most famous quote, “when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth”, is often cited as the best definition to his method of deduction. While it is not a method commonly used now thanks to more advances in crime fighting methods and technology, Holmesian deduction has certainly influenced that way we look at a crime scene.