Writing at the end of the 19th century and in the beginning of the 20th, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

marks the uprising of the detective story in the English literature. As a fiction writer, he was included in the Victorian Age, mainly due to the time limits. However, in what concerns the literary concepts and visions upon life he seems to belong to a group derived from that of the Victorian writers, Late Victorian and Edwardian Literature1. At the end of the 19th century the moral confidence of the mid-Victorians, such as Life is earnest, quoted by Thomas Carlyle from Schiller or there is no substitute for thoroughgoing, ardent, and sincere earnestness (David Copperfield, chapter 42), begin to have an outmoded, even comically2 resonance. Writers such as Oscar Wilde and Samuel Butler thought that the old-fashioned earnestness, which presupposed moral probity, religious orthodoxy, sexual reserve, hard work and a confident belief in personal and historical progress were doubtable and should be replaced by a new kind of seriousness. Arthur Conan Doyle does not necessary meets all the demands of this new literary trend initiated as a reaction to the stiffness of the Victorians proper but his novels or better said stories open a new path in literature, that of the detective story. Even though Edgar Alan Poe, an American writer, had previously tried his hand at writing detective stories, thus creating the fictional detective C. Auguste Dupin, the one who attempted to find out who dunnit? in the first known detective story: The Murders in Rue Morgue (1841), Arthur Conan Doyle remains the one that had strengthened the foundations of this new genre. Thus, Dupin remained an eccentric genius, whereas Holmes, the detective that resolved the crimes in Conan Doyles novels, made a single impact on the popular imagination, becoming the prototype for the modern mastermind detective. Detective fiction is a genre, which presents a mysterious event or crime, usually but not necessary
1 Notion introduced by Andrew Sanders in The Short Oxford History of English Literature (second edition) 2Andrew Sanders, The Short Oxford History of English Literature

murder, at first concealing the solution from the reader but finally revealing it through the successful investigation and deduction of the detective. The traditional elements of the detective story are: the seemingly perfect crime the wrongly accused suspect whom circumstantial evidence points the bungling of dim-witted police the greater powers of observation and superior mind of the detective the startling and unsuspected dnouement in which the detective reveals how the identity of the culprit was ascertained3 Sherlock Holmes is a slim, nervously intense, hawknosed man who uses purely scientific reasoning to solve crimes and can make the most startling deductions from trivial details and bits of physical evidence overlooked by others. He also smokes a pipe, wears a deerstalker cap, plays the violin, and uses cocaine when bored. He lives at 221B Baker Street in London. Holmes's most formidable opponent is the criminal mastermind Professor Moriarty. If Sherlock Holmes is the master, the brilliant detective who finally solves the mystery of the crimes, next to him stands Dr. John H. Watson, his partner and friend, good-hearted, genial but slightly obtuse and, at the same time the narrator of the Holmesian stories. Perhaps the destined part of this partner was to enhance the importance and the qualities of the hero, but as far as psychology is involved Dr. Watson creates a prototype, that of the less important character that helps creating and increasing the heros fame and qualities. If there had not been Dr. Watson to make mistakes of judgement or of intuition, the discoveries and sparks of genius of Sherlock Holmes would have not had the same importance. Arthur Conan Doyle created Watson to emphasise the personality and aptitudes of Sherlock Holmes.
3 as they are presented in the article Detective story from the Encyclopaedia Britannica on Britannica CD 2000 Deluxe Edition

Analysing the present of the partner impersonated by Dr. Watson in Arthur Conan Doyles detective stories, I could easily think of Sancho Panza, Don Quixotes partner in Miguel de Cervantess novel. The relationship between the hero and his helper is not the same here as the one in Doyles novels. The pragmatic squire, Sancho Panza, a short, pot-bellied peasant whose gross appetite, common sense and vulgar wit serve as a foil to the mad idealism of his master. He is famous for his many pertinent proverbs. Cervantes used the psychological differences between the two characters to explore the conflict between the ideal and the real and based much of his novels narrative development on their personal relationship. Don Quixote de la Mancha is an old man who has gone mad while reading chivalry romances and sets out riding on his old horse Rosinante to seek adventure. Along the road a squire, Sancho Panza, accompanies him. The novel is a parody of the clichs from the chivalry romances and the road is a search for an ideal world. The role of the partner here is to support the hero in his quest but only in the real world. He is the mark of reality, of what can and it is very possible to happen. Between the two literary masterpieces lies a large number of differences: first and foremost is the difference of time, one was written in the 17th century, the other at the end of the 19th century and in the beginning of the 20th, then the difference of culture, one belonging to the Spanish literature, the other to the English one. If I were to list the differences I would fill up page after page, but this is not the purpose of this essay. I tried here to bring to your attention the prototype character of the partner and how this mechanism was employed in two different literary works and what was the purpose of employing it. Arthur Conan Doyle creates Dr. Watson, a perfectly capable man, intelligent and cultivated; nevertheless, he lacks something, the flair, and because of this he is not the main character, Sherlock Holmes, but he helps the master to solve mysteries and crimes, thus making and sustaining the latters fame.

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra builds up Sancho Panza, a common peasant, not very intelligent, nor educated but with a strong sense of reality, specific to simple people, sometimes surprising the reader with pertinent proverbs. He is the novels anchor to reality. He helps the mad, idealistic Don Quixote to keep in touch with the real world. This is his specific and destined role in the novel. The technique of employing partners to underline the heroes is interesting and can be studied from the psychological point of view. Thus, one can explain the silent intentions of the writer and decode their meaning.

Bibliography:
Conan Doyle, Arthur, The Hound of the Baskervilles on the www. gutenberg.org Coordinators Cartianu, Anca, Preda Ioan Aurel, Dicionar al Literaturii Engleze, tiinific Publishing House, Bucharest, 1970

 De Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel, The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of la Mancha on the www. gutenberg.org Encyclopaedia Edition, 2000 Britannica, Britannica CD Deluxe

Klingopulos, G. D., The literary scene in Boris Ford (ed.), The Pelican Guide to English Literature, volume 6 (From Dickens to Hardy), Penguin Books Ltd., Great Britain, 1979 Milea, Doinia, Forme ale ficiunii narative, Editura Alma, Galai, 2002 Professor F. Selton Delmer, English Literature from Beowulf to Bernard Shaw, Weidmannsche Verlagbuchhandlung Publishing House, Berlin, 1940 Sanders, Andrew, The Short Oxford History Of English Literature, Second Edition, Oxford University Press, Great Britain, 2000

At this point they came in sight of thirty or forty windmills that are on that plain. "Look, your worship,'' said Sancho. "What we see there are not giants but windmills, and what seem to be their arms are the vanes that turned by the wind make the millstone go." "It is easy to see," replied Don Quixote, "that you are not used to this business of adventures. Those are giants, and if you are afraid, away with you out of here and betake yourself to prayer, while I engage them in fierce and

unequal combat." Sancho hastened to his assistance as fast as the ass could go. When he came up and found Don Quixote unable to move, with such an impact had Rocinante fallen with him. "God Bless me!," said Sancho, "did I not tell your worship to watch what you were doing, because they were only windmills? No one could have made any mistake about it unless he had something of the same kind in his head." "Silence, friend Sancho," replied Don Quixote. "The fortunes of war more than any other are liable to frequent fluctuations. Moreover I think, and it is the truth, that the same sage Frestn who carried off my study and books, has turned these giants into mills in order to rob me of the glory of vanquishing them, such is the enmity he bears me. But in the end his wicked arts will avail but little against my good sword." "God's will be done," said Sancho Panza, and helping him to rise got him again on Rocinante, whose shoulder was half dislocated. Then, discussing the adventure, they followed the road to Puerto Lpice, for there, said Don Quixote, they could not fail to find adventures in abundance and variety, as it was a well-travelled thoroughfare. For all that, he was much grieved at the loss of his lance, and said so to his squire. "Be that as God wills," said Sancho, "I believe it all as your worship says it. But straighten yourself a little, for you seem to be leaning to one side, maybe from the shaking you got when you fell." "That is the truth, said Don Quixote, "and if I make no complaint of the pain it is because knights-errant are not permitted to complain of any wound, even though their bowels be coming out through it."

Holmes leaned back in his chair, placed his finger-tips together, and closed his eyes, with an air of resignation.

When Dr. Mortimer had finished reading this singular narrative he pushed his spectacles up on his forehead and stared across at Mr. Sherlock Holmes. The latter yawned and tossed the end of his cigarette into the fire. Well? said he. I must thank you, said Sherlock Holmes, for calling my attention to a case which certainly presents some features of interest. I had observed some newspaper comment at the time, but I was exceedingly preoccupied by that little affair of the Vatican cameos, and in my anxiety to oblige the Pope I lost touch with several interesting English cases. This article, you say, contains all the public facts?

Universitatea Dunrea de Jos Galai Facultatea de Litere, Istorie i Teologie

Luciana Ursu English-Romanian 3rd YEAR

//2003//