"The Man with the Twisted Lip," "The Final Problem," and "The Empty House" all by Arthur Conan Doyle, give a full understanding of each story and try to give a good idea of why these stories are still as popular today as they were 100 years ago.

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                                                                       Friday 23rd October 2003

Wide Reading Assignment – Sherlock Holmes

This assignment is based on three Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle which are, “The Man with the Twisted Lip,” “The Final Problem,” and “The Empty House.” The aim is to give a full understanding of each story and to give a good idea of why these stories are still as popular today as they were 100 years ago. I will explain this by discussing some of the characters and taking into account the social and historical context.

Sherlock Holmes stories are all quite different in their own way because they explore different kinds of crime and characters. Such as in “The Man with the Twisted Lip,” where they are trying to solve a suspected murder and in “The Final Problem” they are trying to catch ‘Professor Moriarty’ for various crimes. These three stories do have some similarities, which are that Sherlock Holmes always solves the crimes and is always the main character. They also involve Dr. Watson, a doctor, who seems to be Holmes’ companion in solving these crimes.

Arthur Conan Doyle has created Holmes’ character very effectively as in that period in history crime was rife in London and the public were scared and thought the police force were not protecting their community as well as they should. So because Holmes didn’t work for the police force and always solved the crimes then he seemed to be like a hero to the public and maybe their fantasy because he kept people safe and they probably wanted so much for him to be real. The readers of Sherlock Holmes in Victorian England showed so much interest that when Doyle tried to end the stories of Sherlock Holmes by killing him in “The Final Problem” there was a public outcry and Doyle even received death threats because they wanted so much for him to carry on with this character that had caught their attention so vividly. In that time of history there were no televisions or much entertainment at all for the public so that is probably why they got so intrigued by this wonderful character that solved all the crimes.

I would describe Sherlock Holmes as a very pompous, confident and intelligent person. He also seems to be quite secretive about his plans such as when he persuades Dr. Watson to go on one of his missions, he doesn’t tell him where they are going or what is in store for him and this makes me feel quite anxious for Watson, such as in “The Man with the Twisted Lip” when he said “But I’m all in the dark” and Holmes answers “Of course you are. You’ll know all about it presently.” I think this is a very significant quality in all of the Sherlock Holmes stories because it gives a sense of mystery for the reader and makes it a lot more interesting. Holmes also has a dark-side to himself, which is displayed when he states:

“Had I been recognised in that den my life would not of been worth an hour’s purchase, for I have used it before now for my own purposes.”

This extract from “The Man with the Twisted Lip” gives me a sense of drug abuse, so the inspector may not be as good as everyone thinks. Conan Doyle only hints at drug use, maybe this is to put a little reality into his stories, so Holmes is human and does have his faults, but he tries to keep it very subtle so the readers can maybe ignore it if they like. Holmes also seems to look at Watson in different ways as most of the time he likes to think of himself as the one that knows everything and at other times he seeks ideas from Watson as this quotation shows:

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“Watson, and maybe you may see a spark where all is dark to me.”

Dr. Watson seems to be somewhat different to Holmes. I would describe him as being quite a shy and kind person. His kindness is shown at the beginning of “The Man with the Twisted Lip,” when his wife’s friend Kate Whitney goes to Watson and his wife for help to find her husband.

“We soothed and comforted her by such words that we could find.”

After being approached by this woman Watson goes out of his way to help her ...

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