Sherlock Holmes has a unique way of solving the crimes. He seems to spot things that others miss “Brown paper with a distinct smell of coffee.” No one apart from Holmes has yet noticed this, not even Watson. Holmes has excellent observation skills “You have been cruelly used said Holmes. The lady coloured deeply and covered her injured wrist.” Holmes is always looking for clues to unravel the mysteries. “… A portrait group of three ladies upon the mantelpiece. …Others are so exceedingly like you that there could be no doubt of the relationship” here Holmes had observed that the people in the portrait could be family members making this Miss Cushing the wrong Cushing family member.
In these short stories about Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle tries to get across the fact that Holmes is better at solving hard mystery crimes. Holmes came to hear about the cases many ways one of which is through the Police. When the Police get a case they cannot solve they go to Holmes for help. “..Our friend Lestrade. I had a note from him this morning.” Lestrade is a Police Inspector with Scotland Yard and needs help from Holmes with this case. Holmes only like’s cases which challenge his intellect “this case is very much in your line” this is contained in the note sent by Lestrade. Sometimes the cases come to Sherlock Holmes by past clients “it seems that a young lady has arrived in a considerable state of excitement.” Here the person involved has come straight to Holmes so he can solve the mystery crime.
The relationship between Holmes and Watson is strange. To begin with the readers are under the impression that it is a partnership but this quickly changed by a few hints “insists upon seeing me.” The person the client wishes to see is Holmes and not both Holmes and Watson together. The relationship is also unbalanced as you always hear Watson go on about our great Holmes is “I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid deduction, as swift as intuition.” Here Watson even said to himself “following Holmes” and that he admires Holmes as well. Again here “remarkable mental qualities of my friend Sherlock Holmes” Watson is relaying how much he looks up to Holmes.
Another relationship Sherlock Holmes has is one with the police. This is also an unfair relationship as Arthur Conan Doyle tried to get across that Holmes is better than the police “fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official detective force!” here Holmes is a bit concerned with people associating him with the normal police force and unworthy crimes. “I should prefer that you would not mention my name at all in connection with the case, as I choose to be associated only with those crimes which present some difficulty in their solution.” Here Holmes feels that this case was easy and he would rather people did not know he solved such a case and humiliate the police force.
What made Sherlock Holmes so successful was the fact that he did not work with the police force and the way the police and detectives actually came to Holmes for help also his characteristics that made Holmes attractive to the readers were his integrity, sensibility, rational decisiveness, lack of emotionalism and intellectual superiority which were measured and reported by Watson. The relationship between Holmes and Watson are similar to detectives today. Take Inspector Morse and the relationship he has with Lewis, it is obvious that Morse is in charge and Lewis is his side kick in a similar way to Watson. I think that Sherlock Holmes has a unique way of solving mystery crimes but if the stories were to be brought out today the crimes would need to be more intense and not so easy to solve.
By Tyler Littleboy
Historical
