Nonetheless, in the story, there are aspects to Irene Adler’s personality, which are similar to that of the other villains in the Sherlock Holmes stories. The principal comparison would be her typically masculine behaviour. For example, The King of Bohemia describes her having a “soul of steel”, which would go against the stereotypical view of women being emotional. He also states that she bares a mind “of the most resolute of men”. Later on in the story, Holmes disguises himself as an old man to try and trick Adler in order to steal the photograph. He asks Watson to light a squib so that when Adler sees the sparks, she will go to the place where she keeps her valuables. However, Holmes assumes that all women are soft and weak and explains that he knows she will do this because “all women do”. Despite this, Adler isn’t as typically masculine as the male characters in the Sherlock Holmes stories. Instead Doyle portrays her so that she simply doesn’t follow the stereotypes Sherlock and 19th century Victorians assumed about all women.
Aside from her distinctive male qualities, Holmes admires Adler’s intelligence and the fact that she was able to outsmart him. Not many other villains tend to outsmart Holmes, so this comes as a shock to Holmes. Even more so because she is female. Holmes is portrayed to value intelligence higher than class, which was a major part of Victorian society. Adler is also shown to share these views. An example that she doesn’t regard class highly is when she gives Holmes, who is disguised as a poor stable boy at the time, a sovereign. Holmes admires her very highly after this as he says he means to wear it on his watch-chain “in memory of the occasion”. This would suggest that this is the point where Doyle starts to change the role of the typical villain from Adler to the King of Bohemia.
As Adler’s qualities that Holmes appears to revere become more obvious, the role of the villain in the story starts to be questioned. The King of Bohemia’s arrogance and obsession with his reputation makes him become the most disliked character in the story. Doyle depicts the King as being very ostentatiously dressed which Watson describes as being “rich with a richness which, would in England, be looked upon as akin to bad taste”. This would be a method of showing people how upper class he was and how wealthy he was. Nevertheless, Holmes mocks him as Watson shows how Holmes “slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his gigantic client”. Another example of this would be how the King talk of how it was a pity Irene Adler wasn’t on his level. Holmes then replies by saying “From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a very different level to your Majesty”. He stills addresses him as “your Majesty” but says so mockingly. Holmes talks of how Adler is on a higher level regarding her intelligence whereas the King only cares about her class and nothing else.
Even though the King is the closest to a typical Sherlock Holmes villain, Holmes is still able to outsmart Adler to some degree as he does most villains. She doesn’t figure out who Holmes is to start with and only becomes aware “until after the alarm of fire”. This would then suggest that Holmes predicted correctly that every woman would save her most important possessions if there was an alarm of fire. Overall, however, Adler still outsmarts Holmes as she eventually works out that it is Holmes who was disguised as the old man all along. In most of the Sherlock Holmes stories, if the villain outsmarts Holmes, it is rarely at the end of the story. In Sherlock Holmes stories, order is restored and the villain is caught. Order is restored but Adler isn’t caught as she has outsmarted Holmes, which is very uncommon.
Doyle may have made this story particularly different to the others as Victorians had a very stereotypical opinion of all women at the time. The character of Adler is a way of Doyle perhaps attempting to change this opinion that many people had. She is depicted as being a strong character with high intelligence, which went against many assumptions people, had about women. Doyle also shows us how unimportant class is in comparison to intelligence and kindness. He shows us how class shouldn’t affect how we live, but unfortunately it does.
‘A Scandal in Bohemia’ has a very different structure, different characters and a different storyline to most of the other Sherlock Holmes stories. Not only is the villain a female, she is also not responsible for a serious crime, is admired by Holmes and is able to outsmart him with order still being restored.
