“The Speckled Band” is one of Arthur Conan Doyle’s darkest stories. In this story, Sherlock Holmes solves the case of a woman that has been murdered in her bedroom, and is under pressure to prevent another one. In “The Speckled Band” we learn that Sherlock is a bit scared and nervous, strong, sarcastic, remorseless, loves his job and of course deductive. He is strong ‘He picked up the steel poker and with a sudden effort straightened it out again.’ You know he is sarcastic when he says to someone ‘You have done wisely’ when the person really hasn’t done wisely. You know he is scared and nervous when Watson says ‘I could, however, see his face was deadly pale and filled with loathing.’ He was quite remorseless too because of when he says ‘But I cannot say that it is likely to weigh very heavily upon my conscience’ and as always he was very deductive ‘In admiring the rapid reductions as swift as intuition and yet always founded on a logical basis.’
In “The Final Problem” is Professor Moriarty is on a hunt for Sherlock Holmes. Moriarty being a dangerous man scares Holmes and makes him flee; he eventually catches Holmes and fights him to the death. Both of them fall off the water fall and die. Moriarty is just as smart, strong and even more remorseless as Sherlock and throughout “The Final Problem” Sherlock knew he would have to confront him so he was his fear showed Sherlock Holmes fans knew something was going to happen to their beloved Sherlock Holmes.
The Sherlock Holmes stories are popular with middle class people because he is standing up for middle class people in his stories and detective stories were new to them at the time so it was exciting. Mostly middle class people read them because they went to work by train and they needed something to read on the journey there and back plus the stories were also published in magazines so a lot of people had access to them. Also, since Sherlock Holmes was a cocaine addict like most middle class people at the time, it appealed to them along with the fact that he was like the justice they were not receiving because he always got his man.
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Sherlock Holmes has many interesting and different characteristics, which he uses to solve the crimes, and mysteries that he gets involved with or gets asked to solve.
One characteristic that Sherlock Holmes has is being very observant. He doesn't just look at objects and tings he makes very detailed mental notes about them. He sees things that others wouldn't see because they don't look as closely as he does.
In the Red Headed League Holmes is trying to prove the point that he doesn't just look he observes to his sidekick Dr Watson. To do this he asked Watson how many steps there are on his staircase. Watson does not know the answer but Holmes does. This is a characteristic that Holmes uses to help him solve many of his mysteries
Another characteristic that Holmes possesses is his ability to work out what has happened and how it has happened. He managed to piece together the most insignificant pieces of evidence and information he collects from the scenes of crimes, and how people dress and act.
He even manages to work out somebody's life from what clothes they are wearing and what their hands are like. " Ha has at some time done manual labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a freeman, that he has been in china and that he has done some considerable amount of writing lately"
Holmes is helped in solving mysteries by a knowledge he has of obscure things, places and processes. One of these is his knowledge about the German paper making industry. After receiving a letter asking for help in a mystery Holmes observes the paper the note is written on and tells Watson exactly where the paper was made and who by. " The paper was made in Bohemia"
Being secretive is another one of Holmes's characteristics. He is able to keep anything secret from any body. This helps him in his investigations of crimes and mysteries because it means that he can set traps to catch criminals and the like without others knowing and the trap possibly being compromised.
Another one of Holmes's characteristics is that he is able to be clever, sensible and responsive at one time but at another time he is a drug user. Unlike most people he is able to keep these two very different lives separate.
He is then and anti-social character. This is summed up with a phrase from his dear friend Dr Watson "who loathed every sort of society".
Sherlock Holmes has a very complicated character, which can be broken down into the few characteristics that I have detailed. The characteristics all help in some way or another to solve the often-complicated mysteries that he is asked to solve.