Sherlock Holmes

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses and analyzes the famous fictional detective created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes, and the belief, held by many critics, that the character of Holmes was based on an actual acquaintance of Doyle. Through an examination of some of Doyle's Sherlock Holmes mysteries, the method Holmes used to solve crimes, the antagonists in the stories and the character of Sherlock Holmes, the paper explains just why many critics believe that Doyle based the character of Sherlock Holmes on one of his true life doctor friends.

From the Paper:

"Sherlock Holmes, while not the first popular fictional detective (that honor surely goes to Poe's Arsene Lupin) was surely the character that has outlasted the Victorian times in which his adventures were first written by Arthur Conan Doyle. What makes the character still so viable, including the popular movies of the 1930s and 1940s with Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson, and the popular British television series featuring the late Jeremy Brett as Holmes; is that this is not "find the murderer" as in the stories of Dashiell Hammett and Ellery Queen and Agatha Christie (among others), but a series of deductive reasonings, focusing on facts the police overlooked or disregarded. In Holmes stories, including "The Blanched Soldier", and "The Sign of the Four", Holmes is quoted as saying "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." Unlike many modern mysteries there is neither a "red herring" nor what Alfred Hitchcock referred to as a "Maguffin"- a somewhat obvious but, in the end, misleading clue. There is seldom a twist or quirk in the Holmes stories. And, there is seldom even violence or confrontation between Holmes and "the guys who done it"."

More papers on Sherlock Holmes:

• Analytical Essay # 32570 : "Sherlock Holmes"
• Book Review # 114861 : "Victorian Detective Genre and Sherlock Holmes"
• Term Paper # 117550 : "Sherlock Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle"

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