During the Victorian era upper class women did not travel alone especially around London. If they did need to travel they would have been accompanied by a friend or relation, and therefore would risk being frowned upon by going to see Holmes alone. As Holmes’ clients are principally female he has had to protect himself from disreputable accusations by having Mrs Hudson, the housekeeper, around. ‘I am glad to see that Mrs Hudson has had the good sense to light the fire.’
Sherlock Holmes’ reputation is famous and in most of his cases the clients came to him. He did not go and try to find them. ‘I have heard of you, Mr Holmes’ This excerpt appears in both ‘The Five Orange Pips’ and ‘The Speckled Band’ and shows that Holmes did not go out to find his clients but relied on people hearing about his services by word of mouth. By not working for an official law-enforcing company for example the police force, he has the ability to choose to take only cases, which he is interested.
From the stories ‘The Speckled Band’ and ‘The Five Orange Pips’ we learn that Sherlock Holmes had many traits, which assisted him in solving his many cases. He pays great attention to detail, noticing things that others either don’t notice or don’t think are important. ‘I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm of you glove’ with this comment Holmes is showing that he sees the small things that other don’t. He can tell which things leave certain marks on clothes or property. ‘The left arm of you jacket is splattered with mud in no less than seven places... There is no vehicle save a dogcart, which throws up mud in that way.’ This shows that the roads at that time were muddy, as the mud was thrown up off the road. The dogcart was a horse drawn cart with two wheels and two seats back to back, which shows that the horse was at that time a popular mode of transport.
In all the stories Holmes and Watson travel by train to the crime scene. In ‘The Speckled Band’ the victim comes to see Holmes by train. In ‘The Speckled Band’ we know that the victim is reasonably wealthy. We also know that Holmes was of middle or upper class status. This implies that the train was popular with the higher social classes but was not used by the lower classes. This was probably because they found it to be too expensive.
Sherlock Holmes has a good memory and remembers most, if not all of his cases, ‘Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards.’ The fact that it warrants investigation by a detective implies that card games were taken very seriously at the time of Sherlock Holmes.
Sherlock Holmes does not have many friends and is therefore a lonely person. ‘‘…who could come tonight? Some friend of yours, perhaps?’ ‘Except for you I have none,’ he answered. ‘I do not encourage visitors.’’ He also has an unusual knowledge about a wide variety of subjects. ‘You have come to see me from the south-west I see… that clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toecaps is quite distinctive.’ Here Holmes is showing that he has a vast knowledge and knows about allsorts of things including which types of soil come from each region of Britain
Sherlock Holmes is well educated. We can tell this from his formal way of addressing people he does not know. He is polite and courteous, but without seeming to get too involved with any kind of relationship. He talks about education and reasoning as if he were an expert. This shows that he would have been well educated. At this time only the upper middle and higher classes were educated.
Sherlock Holmes smoked cocaine and tobacco, ‘self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco.’ At the time of Sherlock Holmes it was normal for the aristocracy of the time to take drugs, such as cocaine for recreational purposes. Sherlock Holmes was a member of the higher class and therefore it would have been normal for him to take such drugs to help him relax. This also caused him to have mood swings.
Sherlock Holmes gains self-satisfaction from the way that other people fail to decipher how he formed a conclusion or deduction. He will, however, tell them how he did come to his conclusion saving them the amount of time and effort he put in finding out the facts.
It can be concluded from ‘The Speckled Band’ and ‘The Five Orange Pips’ that Sherlock Holmes was a lonely person. He devoted himself selflessly to solving mysteries. He was well educated. He was very observant and he could deduce and conclude logically from his observations. He was polite to all people and treated women as equals. He gains satisfaction from his job, and does not expect to get any other reward for his work. At the time of Sherlock Holmes it was normal for members of the higher classes to take drugs. They travelled by train, the lower classes travelled by horse or on foot. At this time women were seen to be inferior by society.
Rohanne Hurst 11E2
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