Comment on the way Conan Doyle uses the character Watson

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Sasha JonesThe Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle LOOKING AT THE SPECKLED BAND AND TWO OTHER STORIES COMMENT ON THE WAY CONAN DOYLE USES THE CHARACTER WATSON IN THE STORIES.The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes are murder mystery stories based around a detective called Sherlock Holmes and his assistant Dr Watson.Dr Watson appears in the stories as Sherlock Holmes' sidekick.  He is a well-educated gentleman.  Watson is very loyal to Holmes and is proud to be associated with him and his work. Watson is very intrigued by Holmes and his work and we, the reader, also become intrigued.  They first meet each other in the first Sherlock Holmes story "A Study In Scarlet" which was written in 1887, where Watson's "…respect for his powers of analysis increased wondrously".  He shows great admiration for Sherlock Holmes and this reflects that between the author, Conan Doyle, and Professor Bell.  Joseph Bell was a surgical lecturer who Conan Doyle used as a source of inspiration for Holmes character.  He shows his admiration for Holmes in the story 'The Adventure of the Speckled Band', he tells us that he "…had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid deductions, as swift intuitions, and yet always founded on a logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were submitted to him".Watson always followed Holmes' instructions.  He found it "difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes's requests for they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with such a quiet air of mastery".We see that Watson is a practising Doctor in 'The Adventures of Sherlock Homes'.  A patient called to see Watson in "The Man With A Twisted Lip" and "it was not the first time that she had spoken of her husband's trouble, to me as a doctor…".  We find Watson to be a believable character and we know we and the other
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characters can trust him because he is a 'doctor'.He is the narrator in all the Sherlock Holmes stories.  He tells the stories and this enables us to see through his eyes.  He can only tell us what he knows, therefore the reader only receives a limited viewpoint as we only see things from his point of view.  By restricting the viewpoint to only one character, in this case Dr Watson, Conan Doyle has intensified the experiences between him and the audience which enables them to gain an idea of how he is feeling and what he is thinking.  In the ...

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