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Peipei Nie
Professor Haas
Writing 39B
30 April, 2014

The Characteristics of the Detective and how does it contribute to the Detective Stories

The characteristics of Sherlock Holmes are drawn attention to the worldwide audience.
His way of thinking is eccentric and has a significant influence on people who deal with modern
criminology. We still can see the elements in todays TV shows or books that are obtained from
Sherlock Holmess inspiration. By looking at how Sherlock Holmess intelligence leads to the
development of the detective stories, we can see both rational and emotional perspective for him
to solve the cases, and this is important in mystery genre because only being rational or
emotional is not enough for a detective to solve cases.
One way to consider Sherlock Holmes intelligence is from his rational perspective. In
the text Theory and Practice of Classic Detective Fiction, Jerome and Ruth Prigozy found the
common characteristics of three leading British detective (Sherlock Holmes is one of them) who
can always estimate or conclude specific procedure and anticipations by extrapolating of the
traditional detective genre. Eccentricity is an apparent trait they shared with. Holmess
chronicler, Dr. John H. Watson, characterizes Holmes as emotionless, unable to love,
possessing a cold and detached mind, a mind that Watson equates with a scientific instrument
(Jerome, Prigozy, 22). Watsons words are also reflected in The Sign of Four. When Watson is
attracted by Mary Morstan, he exclaims to Holmes his feeling. Holmes shows his carelessness to
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Morstans physical attraction and reminds Watson, It is of the first importance not to allow
your judgment to be biased by personal qualities. A client is to me a mere unit, - a factor in a
problem. The emotional qualities are antagonistic to clear reasoning (Doyle, 378) In other
words, Holmes believes that a woman with a beautiful look is not enough to be trusted. As
Konnikova Maria mentioned in How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes, One of the things that
characterize Holmess thinkingand the scientific idealis a natural skepticism and
inquisitiveness toward the world. Nothing is taken at face value. Everything is scrutinized and
considered, and only then accepted (17). In other words, Holmes teaches us to doubt, to think,
and to question rather than to believe at the first sight. Letting emotions to cloud ones judgment
is one of the fatal weaknesses of being a detective. However, as Konnikova said, Holmess
insights into the human mind rival his greatest feats of criminal justice (11). A detective must
understand the sophisticated emotion among suspects, victims, and the people related to them
because it is essential to understand what motivates people to commit a crime, how victims feel,
and what complex relationships they have experienced, etc. Therefore, rationality is created by
emotion and is driven by emotion. The challenge is do not let emotion interferes with rationality.
In Doyle, Holmes, again and again, wants the narratives to be didactic, stressing the intellectual
side rather than the less dignified sensational elements incidental to crime and detection. Doyle
wisely makes Watson decline to do this, but as compensation and as intellectual veneer, he
places considerable stress on the professorial qualities of Holmes. This may be, in fact, one of
the secrets of the character (Panek, 21). Holmes is deliberately tagged by eccentricities and is
compensated with a partner Watson who has the opposite personality toward him. Doyle is smart
because only by contrast of the personality, people would be impressed by the collaboration
between the two characters and plot is able to develop. In Sign of Four, Holmes said himself
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cannot live without brain-work. His mind rebels at stagnation. He would be in the proper
atmosphere when he is given problems, work, the most abstruse cryptogram or the most intricate
analysis. Watsons work that designed to please Holmess achievement with a title A study in
Scarlet was directly criticized by Holmes, Detection is, or ought to be, and exact science, and
should be treated in the same cold and unemotional manner. You have attempted to tinge it with
romanticism, which produces much the same effect as if you worked a love-story or an
elopement into the fifth proposition of Euclid (Dolye, 9). In A Study in Scarlet, Doyle writes
He was the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen; but as a
lover, he would have placed himself in a false position (11). Konnikova agrees with this, in A
Scandal in Bohemia, Watson has mentioned Holmess cold, precise, but admirably balanced
mind, which buries his all sensitive emotions(14). Holmes once said to Watson love is an
emotional thing, and whatever is emotional is opposed to that true cold reason which I place all
things (Doyle, 2184).
The other way to consider Sherlock Holmes intelligence is from his emotional
perspective. In Doyle, Panek explains that Conan chooses to give Holmes this eccentric
hobbies because he wants to make this character more like a human being, instead of a thinking
machine. (Panek, 82) In the text Murder Will Out, Binyo mentioned that Conan Doyle initially
expected to create his hero as a pure detective, who is simply rational and rarely emotional.
But gradually the unwanted characteristic human traits occurs and develops imperceptibly.
Holmes can feel emotion: annoyance, anger, chagrin (Binyo, 10). In the end of The Final
Problem, Watson reads the letter from Sherlock, Indeed, if I may make a full confession to
you, I was quite convinced that the letter from Meiringen was a hoax, and I allowed you to
depart on that errand under the persuasion that some development of this sort would follow
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(Doyle, 882). Holmes chooses to die with the dangerous antagonist who is intellectual equally as
him in order to protect his friends and all people in London. His choice implicitly shows that he
truly understands love, but he prefers to convey his emotion by his behavior. Not only in this
case, he devotes his emotion to every action he takes to protect victims. Doyle creates the ideal
of the chivalric hero who is fearless to the strong, humble to the weak, [and who dispenses]
chivalry to all women Help to the hopeless, whosoever shall ask for it (Doyle, 27). Holmes
has the compulsion to solve crime and at the same time, he needs music to help him clarify his
thinking. In some extend, he is a product of romantic tradition. This idea is also agreed by Binyo.
In Murder Will Out, Binyo describes Holmes as an aesthete, a music lover and amateur
violinist who, during the intervals in the action, will drag the philistine Watson to concert hall
and opera house (10).
In conclusion, Sherlock Holmess both rational and emotional perspectives contribute his
intelligence to solve the cases. He is not a merely scientist, but also an artist, and he knows how
to switch between them. The mystery genre experiences four stages. During the primitive stage,
the audience set their expectations on how the conventions of the genre go to develop. During
the classical stage, with the emergence of the character Sherlock Holmes created by Conan
Doyle, the mystery genre came to its peak of popularity. During the parodic stage, the
conventions of mystery genre became well known. During the revisionist stage, the texts are
moved on to the TV texts.




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Work Cited:
Binyon, T.J. "Murder Will Out": The Detective in Fiction. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1989. 9-12. Print.
Delamater, Jerome and Ruth Prigozy, eds. Theory and Practice of Classic Detective
Fiction. New York: Praeger, 1997.
Conan Doyle, Arthur. The Sign of the Four. Seattle: Amazon Digital Services, 2013.
Kindle eBook.
Doyle, Arthur Conan. "Adventure 11: The Final Problem." The Memoirs of Sherlock
Holmes, 1894.Web.
Konnikova, Maria. Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes. New York:
Penguin Books, 2013
Panek, Leroy. An Introduction to the Detective Story. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling
Green State University Popular Press, 1987.