Specialty: Romanian- English Dunarea de Jos University, Faculty of Letters

Sherlock Holmes
Professor Examinator: Merila Isabela Student: Lungu Angela

12.05.2012 Galati

Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Holmes, who first appeared in publication in 1887, was featured in four novels and 56 short stories. All but four stories are narrated by Holmes's friend and biographer, Dr. John H. Watson; two are narrated by Holmes himself ("The Blanched Soldier" and "The Lion's Mane") and two others are written in the third person ("The Mazarin Stone" and "His Last Bow"). In two stories ("The Musgrave Ritual" and "The Gloria Scott"), Holmes tells Watson the main story from his memories, while Watson becomes the narrator of the frame story. Doyle said that the character of Sherlock Holmes was inspired by Dr. Joseph Bell, for whom Doyle had worked as a clerk at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. Holmes is portrayed as a patriot acting on behalf of the government in matters of national security in a number of stories. He has an ego that at times borders on arrogant, albeit with justification; he draws pleasure from baffling police inspectors with his superior deductions. He does not seek fame, however, and is usually content to allow the police to take public credit for his work. It is often only when Watson publishes his stories that Holmes's role in the case becomes apparent. Holmes is a loner and does not strive to make friends, although he values those that he has, and none higher than Watson. He attributes his solitary ways to his particular interests and his mopey disposition. (Wikipedia, 2012) Holmes's emotional state and mental health have been a topic of analysis for decades. In the next paragrah I wil make a short anlayse of the way this hero acts in the story A scandal in Bohemia. "A Scandal in Bohemia" was the first of Arthur Conan Doyle's 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories to be published in The Strand Magazine and the first Sherlock Holmes story illustrated by Sidney Paget. ( Wikipedia, 2012) The story line is simple: the king of Boehimia wants to obtain a photo of him with Irene Adler, his ex mistress so he hires the best detective to find that photo. The king is about to marry with Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meiningen, a young Scandinavian princess but Irene threatens him into exposing their past relationship. Despite Holmes's best efforts, she escapes with the photograph, but promises never to reveal it; a promise that is accepted by the king. The only woman who impressed Sherlock was Irene Adler. According to Watson she is always referred to by Holmes with the deepest respect as 'the woman': To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex. ( Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; 1891:1). When the case is closed, the king asks the dedective how he wants to be paid. Holmes wants only the photograph of Adler. He keeps it as a souvenir of the cleverness of Irene Adler, and how he was beaten by a woman's wit. He admires her and he doesnt want to admit that he may have fell in love with her. One of the core issues developed here is the fear of intimacy. This is a fear of emotional involement with another human being and can also function as a defense. And from here appears the fear of betrayal, the fear that friends and the loved ones cant be trusted. (Tyson L; 2006:16) He keeps not only women at distance but also the other people. He is not a sociable person and Sherlocks only friend is Watson. With Watson there is a confortable distance: two victorian gentleman, sharing the truest of friendship- the depth and nature of wich would not be understood in todays fast-paced and transient society-as well as lodgings and adventures, but never their innermost secrets. (Henry Zecher, 2006) : He never spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They were admirable things for the observer -- excellent for drawing the veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained teasoner to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. ( Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; 1891:1).Watson believes that Holmes does not have a relationship because this would affect his capacity of resolving the cases. The

detective's isolation and near-gynophobic distrust of women could suggest also the desire to escape. Holmes stays up late and gets up just as late. He gets in depression when he is not involved in a case. Holmes appears to undergo bouts of mania and depression, the latter of which are accompanied by pipe smoking, violin playing, and cocaine use. When Watson arrives home he finds his friend in a bad mood and discovers that he takes drugs again. He believes the use of cocaine stimulates his brain when it is not in use. He is a habitual user of cocaine, which he injects in a seven-per-cent solution using a special syringe that he keeps in a leather case: while Holmes, who loathed every form of society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. ( Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; 1891:1).Holmes is also an occasional user of morphine but expressed strong disapproval on visiting an opium den. These drugs were legal in late 19th-century England. Both Watson and Holmes are serial tobacco users, including cigarettes, cigars, and pipes. Dr. Watson strongly disapproves of his friend's cocaine habit, describing it as the detective's "only vice" and expressing concern over its possible effect on Holmes's mental health and superior intellect. What appears to others as chaos, however, is to Holmes a wealth of useful information. Throughout the stories, Holmes would dive into his apparent mess of random papers and artefacts, only to retrieve precisely the specific document or eclectic item he was looking for.

List of References
Wikipedia (2012) Sherlock Holmes [online] available from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherlock_Holmes#Use_of_drugs [23.05.2012] Wikipedia (2012) A scandal in Bohemia [online] available from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Scandal_in_Bohemia [23.05.2012] Doyle, A.C. A scandal in Bohemia [online] available from http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/ScanBohe.shtml#14 [23.05.2012] Tyson, L Critical Theory today A User friendly-guide, second edition (2006) Zecher, H. (2006) Sherlock Holmes and the 21st Century [online] available from http://www.henryzecher.com/sherlock_holmes.htm [23.05.2012]