Jennifer Bernal Dr.

Haas Writing 37 February 19, 2014 Emotionless as Can Be In a Mystery genre there is typically always a lead detective who is trying to solve a certain case or mystery. Examples of a mystery genre convention would be crime, horror, and possibly even disguise. In a mystery genre there is typically always a lead detective. Usually the lead detective that is in charge of solving the case is extremely brilliant and most of the time relies on evidence to solve the mystery. Typically when you think of a detective you generally imagine a trusty right hand man that acts as a sidekick. This is ordinarily true in most cases and most of the time the sidekicks thinking abilities are not up to par with those of the lead detective. We see various examples of where this is true in many of Sir Arthur Conan Doyles novels. In Sir Arthur Conan Doyles novels Sherlock Holmes is the keen and clever detective where as Watson, his sidekick is less observant. A convention that has been utilized in Sir Arthur Conan Doyles novels that is still being symbolized in the present day 21st century versions of the novel would be the cold, impassive state of mind of the lead character. We see this cold impassive state of mind in many of the modern day interpretations of the Arthur Conan Doyle novels including, House M.D, Elementary, Sherlock, Psych and many more. This impassive state of mind plays a huge role in both the original Arthur Conan Doyle novels, and the modern day interpretations. There are many scenes throughout theses modern day interpretations that explicitly display the unemotional traits that Holmes attributes. The

best modern day interpretation would be House M.D, which aired on November 16, 2004. House M.D is a modern day take on the original Holmes series. It is a medical drama featuring a lead doctor named Gregory House, who according to (David Shore) is inspired by Holmes. In this modern day twist House is a brilliant doctor whos downfall is that he is addicted to Vicodin. Unlike in the original Arthur Conan Doyle novels, House does not have one specific assistant. He has a whole team of Watsons who help him solve mysteries, in this case diseases one step at a time. David Shores modern take of the Arthur Conan Doyle novels portrays House as an arrogant doctor who is impassive. The audience that is targeted will definitely notice the similarities in the coldness and impassiveness of House In the House M.D series. In season 1 episode 8 Cursed of House M.D. the targeted audience is quickly able to observe how parallel Holmes and House are. In this episode we see a super natural side, similar to The Hound of the Baskervilles. A boy who has been hanging out with the wrong crowd gets into some trouble when he falls in an abandoned house, he also encounters a ouiji board and it all goes down hill from there. The next morning the boy who is named Gabe wakes up extremely sick and has to be taken into the emergency room due to his deteriorating condition. With very rare symptoms House and his team are not quite sure of what was the source of the illness and although they are all extraordinarily smart House and his team seem to end up at square one with all of the new rare symptoms that appear. This scene occurs in the middle of the episode, by the end of the episode House and his team come down to a conclusion and pin point the source of Gabes disease.

Throughout this specific scene we are introduced to Houses team, we meet Dr. Chase an extremely talented doctor who seems to be disturbed by a certain guests company. A man with a foreign accent is introduced into the scene and all the team seems to like him except for Chase. Because House is such an observant individual he notices the tension between Dr. Chase and this foreigner. The audience could feel how thick the tension was because of the look on both mens faces when the camera focused on them. It turns out that this foreigner was actually a well-recognized and appreciated doctor. House was ecstatic to have such a well-esteemed doctor working by his side to solve such a tough mystery such as Gabes disease. Throughout the process of trying to determine the cause of Gabes disease Holmes was also trying to solve another mystery. The mystery of why Dr. Chase despised the foreign doctor so much. Using his keen observation skills House began to meddle into Dr. Chases personal life. He began by interrogating both the foreigner as well as Dr. Chase. The audience then figures out that the foreigner is actually Dr. Chases dad and the reason Dr. Chase wanted nothing to do with him was because his father abandoned him and his ill mother. Resentment is very common behavior for people who have been abandoned by their parents. According to Medscape Older school-aged children, 9 to 12 years old, are more embarrassed and angrier, even hostile. They see the world in black and white, right and wrong. They take sides with one parent against the other. This is exactly what happened to Dr. Chase. It is in this specific scene where we see how impassive House really is. He doesnt care to respect his colleagues personal life and he proves this by showing how unemotional he was when it came to considering how his colleague felt.

In Sir Arthur Conan Doyles novels Holmes was portrayed as a very serious impassive man. We see this in The Hound of the Baskervilles when Holmes observes Watsons watch and deduces how old it was, and who it belonged too. Holmes was going too much into Watsons personal life and he did not care how his colleague felt about the situation he just kept going on. This scene in the novel once again shows how emotionless Holmes is. During the Victorian Era Holmes behavior would not have been so frowned upon because people expected this of him since he was basically the only real detective in that time so even if they didnt like it they would have to put up with his behavior whereas in the present 21st century if House was as impassive with his patients as he is with Dr. Chase and the rest of his team his patients could have had the option of requesting another doctor since there are many doctors now in present times. Although requesting a different doctor would have been an option patients would have stuck it out with House just like they did with Holmes. The reason for this is because like Holmes, House is the best of the best. Overall you will not find such and intriguing unique individual in any other office, just like you could not find another Holmes. The modern day texts of Sir Arthur Conan Doyles novels have been revised and designed to fit the modern day audience. The convention has changed in many ways to appeal to the new audience. One way that the convention has been changed in House M.D is by using modern day technology that did not exist during the Victorian Era. Examples of this would be all of the modern day equipment the doctors used in the modern day text House. Also throughout the House series we see an extensive amount of medical knowledge whereas in Conan Doyles series this was not seen, Holmes and doctors would base their reasoning on the little knowledge and training they had. The

new technology appeals to the modern day audience because it is what the audience is used to seeing in the present 21st century. The modern day series also deals with more common modern day problems like illnesses and disease whereas in Conan Doyles novels we would hear about more crime mysteries. We do not see this as much in modern days because we know have police and laws that distinguish our way of living from the Victorian Era. This is what is so different from the old novels, which makes the modern day series more appealing to the modern day audience. It simply relates more to the lives of modern day people which is what intrigues the audience.

Works Cited 1. Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan. The Hound of the Baskervilles. United Kingdom: The Strand Magazine, 1890. Print. 2. Cursed House M.D. Fox. 1, Mar, 2005. Television 3. Medscape.com Children of Divorce J Am Board Fam Med. 2001;14(3)