NORDIANA MAT YAACOB_2116149 ENGL 150 ANALYTIC ESSAY Question 2: For all the talk of detecting, it is not the

plotting, or the intellectual work which are key to the success of the Holmes stories, but the very special character of Sherlock Holmes. Support or refute this claim, drawing on numerous details from the Doyle stories to support your argument. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had won the hearts of many crime fiction readers with his marvellous Sherlock Holmes stories. Over the past years, countless crime fiction enthusiasts have debated whether the plotting or the special character of Holmes is the key to the success of Holmes stories. I believe that the key to its success is Sherlock Holmes himself rather than the plotting. Thus, this essay will discuss some of the plotting errors in Holmes stories along with Holmes special characteristics; bohemian, inconsistent, trustworthy, picky, arrogant and true to his conscience. A number of Holmes stories present undecodable clues to the readers, for example in The Abbey Grange. In the middle of Sir Eustace Rackenstall murder investigation, Holmes discovers a new suspect apart from the Randall gang but he neither reveals it to Watson nor to Inspector Stanley Hopkins. Perhaps Doyle deliberately presented these undecodable clues to the readers probably because he was more confident with Holmes character rather than any decodable clues. This is further supported by Moretti who claims that Holmes as a superman needs unintelligible clues to prove his superiority.... If Conan Doyle keeps losing clues, then, its because part of him wants to lose them: they threaten Holmess legend. He must choose, and he chooses Holmes (5). There are a number of obvious plotting errors in Holmes stories, for example in The Speckled Band (McGregor, qtd. in Lewis). The fictional Indian swamp adder in this story is constructed rather far from reality. First, snakes do not have ears, so it is impossible for Roylott to use the low whistle to call the snake. Second, snakes cannot climb ropes, thus, Page Holmes claim that the bell rope is used as a bridge for the snake is unworkable. Third, snakes

NORDIANA MAT YAACOB_2116149 ENGL 150 ANALYTIC ESSAY cannot survive in an airtight safe. Therefore, the snake in The Speckled Band cannot have survived when it travels inside the ventilator. And fourth, no snake poison could have killed a strong man like Grimesby Roylott instantly (McGregor, qtd. in Lewis). These unrealistic details will totally affect the reliability of most of other stories but not Holmes stories. Readers are still interested to read this story because it features the special character which is Holmes. Unlike most creditable detectives, Sherlock Holmes is a bohemian in his lifestyle. He is an occasional cocaine user especially when he has no case to investigate. In A Scandal in Bohemia, Watson, his sidekick, depicts Holmes as someone ...who loathed every form of society with his whole Bohemian soul....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 (56). This cocaine abuse substitutes for the thrill he experiences when conducting investigations. As a result, Holmes stories provide readers with excitement as they can see Holmes as a Byronic hero who is capable of solving unusual crimes and also possess self destructive habits. This type of personality makes Holmes stories more appealing than other detective stories whose main characters are always stable. Holmes is always described by Watson, as someone who is knowledgeable, logical and observant but not as a person with emotions. This habit is evident in A Scandal in Bohemia where Watson mentions he was, I take it, 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. He never spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer (56). However, at the end of this story, Holmes shows inconsistency in his personality when he asks for Irene Adlers photo from the hereditary King of Bohemia, perhaps as a memento of the only woman that could outwit him (Sherlock Holmes). This inconsistency makes him more Page

NORDIANA MAT YAACOB_2116149 ENGL 150 ANALYTIC ESSAY interesting as readers could see the soft side of him despite the lack of emotions he prefers to show to other people. Holmes also appears as someone whom everyone can trust even a single woman as seen in The Speckled Band when Helen Stoner says to him, my heart is lightened already since I have confided my trouble to you (42). His ability to convince people effortlessly is probably because of his class and his great social skills. Holmes belongs to the upper middle class in the British social class system. Being in the middle class enables him to move up and down the classes mingling with all kinds of people. His clients come from different social classes. They represent all the three classes: a working class man, Inspector Stanley Hopkins in The Abbey Grange; a middle class woman, Helen Stoner in The Speckled Band, and an aristocrat, the Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein in A Scandal in Bohemia. Holmes interactions with people from different social classes are forms of descriptive residues that provide readers with a sense of reality making Holmes stories more realistic. Unlike most people who have to work for money, Watson explains that Holmes works for pleasure. Holmes has the luxury to do so probably because of his class. An upper middle class men including Holmes often receive allowance from their land-owning family. Holmes can also afford to be picky when it comes to choosing his cases. Watson mentions this in the introductory paragraph of The Speckled Band. On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. (40) Page

NORDIANA MAT YAACOB_2116149 ENGL 150 ANALYTIC ESSAY In this quotation, it is evident that Holmes has not conducted many cases during his eight years as a private detective. With approximately seventy cases in eight years, there are only approximately eight to nine cases each year. These cases are also strange cases unsolvable by other professionals. By accepting these odd cases, Holmes character attracts more readers as it is human nature to be particularly curious about unusual things or circumstances. Other than being able to connect well with people he just met, Holmes great social skills enable him to adopt personas from all walks of life. This is seen in A Scandal in Bohemia wherein Watson described Holmes as, ...a drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an inflamed face and a disreputable clothes, walk into the room. Accustomed as I was to my friends amazing powers in the use of disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it was indeed he (59). Holmes is a master of disguise. Even Watson, the person closest to him, has to examine him three times when he is in his walking suit. The influx of people to London during that time, had made the city became unknowable to its citizens. Holmess ability to disguise himself enables him to move freely across the town, making the unknowable city knowable to the readers which is one of the factors that made Holmes stories so popular. In The Abbey Grange, Holmes says, perhaps when a man has a special knowledge and special powers like my own it rather encourages him to seek a complex explanation when a simpler one is at hand (70). Readers might interpret Holmes statement as a sign of arrogance. However, readers frequently have to re-evaluate Holmes character since most of the time, his judgement is proven right. When this happens, readers will normally form a second opinion about him. Perhaps, he is not arrogant after all or he has the right to be arrogant since he is always right. Holmes as a character manages to challenge readers judgement about him making them become more driven towards the stories. Holmes Page

NORDIANA MAT YAACOB_2116149 ENGL 150 ANALYTIC ESSAY arrogance also makes him a person who is not easily satisfied with shallow explanation which leads him to solve unusual crimes. In addition, having a detective with strong character is what readers like to see in detective stories and readers get to see it in the Holmes stories. Holmes is brave enough to go against the legal force and follow his conscience. He is true to his conscience and his conscience allows him to sometimes bend the law as seen in The Abbey Grange. Once or twice in my career I feel that I have done more real harm by my discovery of the criminal than ever he had done by his crime. I have learned caution now, and I had rather play tricks with the law of England than with my own conscience (73). In real life, many people wish to be brave like Holmes, but not many people have the courage to go against the norms. Holmes bravery has earned the readers admiration and has spurred their interest to follow the stories. Holmes is a unique character that is Bohemian in his lifestyle, has unstable personality, has impeccable social skills, a master of disguise, picky in choosing cases as well as arrogant but brave enough to follow his conscience. These distinctive characteristics make him one of the most memorable characters in crime fiction. Although there are many good detective stories that were written during Doyles era, the stories of Sherlock Holmes gained more popularity compared to the others making it entitled to occupy the canon literature. However, occupying the canon literature does not only depend on its popularity during its glorious era but being able to survive across time. This is further supported by Moretti who mentions that the key to canonisation is not the extent of a books initial popularity but its steady survival from one generation to the next (2). Holmes stories are being republished from 1878 until now even though there are many crime fictions being written later.

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NORDIANA MAT YAACOB_2116149 ENGL 150 ANALYTIC ESSAY WORKS CITED

Doyle, Arthur Conan. "The Abbey Grange." Popular Literature and the Art of Crime. ENGL 150 S2 2010 Course Reader. 6577.

---. "The Speckled Band." Popular Literature and the Art of Crime. ENGL 150 S2 2010 Course Reader. 40-48.

---. "A Scandal in Bohemia." Popular Literature and the Art of Crime. ENGL 150 S2 2010 Course Reader. 5564.

Lewis, Steve. "The Speckled Band.." Blog. Mystery*File. N.p., 16 Apr. 2009. Web. 20 Sep. 2010. <http://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=1095>.

Moretti, Franco. "The Slaughter House of Literature." Popular Literature and the Art of Crime. ENGL 150 S2 2010 Course Reader. 111.

Sherlock Holmes. N.p., 29 Sep. 2010. Web. 30 Sep. 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherlock_Holmes>.

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