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"Examine Conan Doyle's presentation of Dr Watson and his function in the Sherlock Holmes stories".

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Introduction

"Examine Conan Doyle's presentation of Dr Watson and his function in the Sherlock Holmes stories" Abbreviation Key RHL = The Red Headed League MWTL = The Man With The Twisted Lip SB = Speckled Band TFP = The Final Problem In the Sherlock Holmes, Conan Doyle creates a character called Dr Watson whom we learn about as we read through the stories. Dr Watson is in the Sherlock Holmes's stories as Holmes's companion. He is always there with Holmes and helps him when he is in trouble. He sometimes helps Holmes solve cases and is good at working things out. He is always there for Holmes and he makes the stories more interesting. Watson is a person who has a romantic, less practical imagination than Holmes. Watson has a poetic imagination and is good at describing things as Watson describes Holmes as "very thin, very wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down between his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his fingers..."(Pg 28 MWTL). The description is made before Watson realizes that it is Holmes and not a stranger. The description shows how Watson goes into great detail to describe something and how far his imagination takes him. He is in many stories a soldier of the old school and has deep and genuine feelings for Holmes as quotes "your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me"(pg1 RHL) ...read more.

Middle

We expect him to be a character like Holmes as they both are alike as they have the same taste in some things like Watson likes being involved in Holmes's cases as Watson quotes "your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me"(pg1 RHL) but Watson is not as good as Holmes in solving cases as Homes is more Intellectual and has a good imagination. Watson is always there with Holmes and helps him out. He is a believable character as when he describes something its like he was actually there and it makes you believe him. Watson and Holmes are a kind of double-act as they both rely in each other as (MWTL) Watson is first to investigate the Opium den and is surprised to see Holmes there in disguise. And then when Holmes needs to get away, Watson has a cab which is useful to Holmes for his getaway as Watson quotes "... I have a cab outside...(Holmes)...Then pray, send me home in it. You must safely trust him, fir he appears to be top limp to get into any mischief... if you will wait outside I will be with you in five minutes...". This shows how Watson is there for Holmes and Watson is a good man ass he listens to Holmes as he says (pg29 MWTL) " it was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes's requests...". ...read more.

Conclusion

In the Sherlock Holmes stories there is a lot of historical language used and sometimes they are hard to understand as nowadays people don't use Victorian words. Some of the words are used in Watson's and Holmes's descriptions . In RHL story words like ejaculated which is another word for exclaimed are used which are historical words, also jobs were called berths in Victorian times. And also there were things called a ledger which were like a record-book. The language was used because the story was set in Victorian times and it was set in Victorian London. In conclusion Conan Doyle has been successful in the creation of Watson as if Watson wasn't in the Holmes stories than the stories would have been different as different characters have different minds. The stories are always more interesting when there are good guys in them and Watson is a good guy also without Watson the Holmes stories would be immensely different. If Watson wasn't in the stories than they would have been less entertaining and unexciting as there wouldn't be the high-quality descriptions form Watson and the stories would have been dull. And if Watson wasn't in the stories than Conan Doyle could have made another character like Watson but named the character different. I think that Watson is an interesting character and if he wasn't there than the stories will not be the same as Holmes would not have an associate and wouldn't have help with him when he goes to unravel mysteries. The stories also would be less exciting. Shahid Abdus 11H ...read more.

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