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The Final Problem Comparative Essay

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There are many heated debates which occur within the literary community, largely due to the passion literary works inspire within us. One of the most prominent arguments, revolves around the question of whether or not literary adaptations, in film and on stage, are better than the original published work. In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Final Problem, the mastermind detective known as Sherlock Holmes is confronted with his nemesis, “the organizer of half that is evil and nearly all that is undetected” (p.276), ex-professor Moriarty. In the short story, the plot is divulged by Watson as he details his final days along with Sherlock, in which they have gone on the run from Moriarty. Sherlock has endangered his life through attempting to expose …show more content…

The television show has made many heavy embellishments to the plot line. It can be easily deemed that these differences were included simply in order to modernize the show, but through analyzing the episode, there are much more apparent changes to even the plot. To begin, throughout the story Moriarty doesn’t simply intend to kill Sherlock through physical harm, his true intentions are to tarnish his reputation in the media through framing situations in order to make Sherlock appear as a fraud. These tactics ultimately result in Sherlock spiraling into Moriarty's web of lies, where the only way out is through his suicide atop a building in order to save the lives of all of his closest friends. One of the most major plot changes occurs in the end of the show, in which it is revealed that Sherlock actually faked his suicide, this is of course an homage to the fact that Doyle planned to end the stories at this point, but chose to continue them in response to public uproar. Along with these major plot shifts, there are minor changes that accompany them in order to make the newfound plot flow in this twenty first century era. Such as how Moriarty codes in order to hack into the buildings which he robs, and how Sherlock is forced to go on the run from the police rather than Moriarty's henchmen as the nemesis has thoroughly convinced the public that Sherlock had to have performed the crimes himself in order to solve

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