Tim Vague 11F
COMPARE AND CONTRAST THE CHARACTERS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES AND WATSON. REFER TO SIX STORIES
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The six stories I have chosen to work with are “A Scandal in Bohemia” “The Red-headed League” “A Case of Identity” “The Boscombe Valley Mystery” “The Five Orange Pips” and “The Man with the Twisted Lip”. Each of these stories show many similarities and differences in the characters of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson, as together as a partnership they act as a foil for each other and they are able to solve each mystery. In Holmes explaining to Watson how things work, we understand them from Watson and this is shown in every story.
In “A Scandal in Bohemia” it is evident of the immense respect Holmes and Watson have for one another. We can see this when Watson is amazed by the extreme intelligence of Holmes, “The thing always seems to be so ridiculously simple that I could easily do myself, though at each successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled, until you explain your process” he says to Holmes. Watson is oblivious to the thought and concentration that goes into the explanation and reasoning of each mystery. Holmes also has respect for Watson, as we can see when he says “This is my friend and colleague Doctor Watson”. We can also see in this story that there are differences in their characters. For one, Watson is married and Holmes is not. The main difference though is that Holmes observes things where as Watson simply sees things. For example Holmes asks Watson how many stairs there are on a staircase he has seen hundreds of times, Watson doesn’t know the answer but Holmes does. He says “Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen”. He also says “Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, because I have both seen and observed”. This is one main contrast in their characters.
In “The Red-headed League” we can see that both Holmes and Watson have a sense of humour. It says “we both burst out into a roar of laughter” showing their sense of humour is similar and again is another example showing that they are good friends. We can also see from this story that Watson looks up to Holmes and admires him but Holmes doesn’t look up to Watson. Watson says “My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a very capable performer, but a composer of no ordinary merit” showing respect and admiration for Holmes. However throughout all the stories we see that Holmes sees Watson as a friend and colleague, but doesn’t really admire his work or look up to him. Another difference in their characters is that Holmes seems to be on a different level from Watson as we can see when Watson says “Here I had heard what he heard, I had seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that he saw clearly not only what had happened, but what was about to happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and grotesque”.
