Femininity in Sherlock Holmes

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how Arthur Conan Doyle's two stories "Scandal in Bohemia" and "The Adventure of the Yellow Face" are very interesting in their treatment of the female protagonists, as they reflect the condition and the image of women at the end of the nineteenth century.

From the Paper:

"In the other story, The Adventure of the Yellow Face, Holmes is again outwitted by a woman. This time Holmes fails deciphering the thinking of the woman who hides her little black girl from her old marriage from her husband. He wrongfully concludes after finding out the facts, that she actually hides her husband who is supposed to have been dead. Again, he is fails to read the woman's mind, who proves to have act much better than he supposes. Thus, both stories point to the way in which the nineteenth century men regarded cleverness in women as an absolute exception, and therefore, as Holmes terms it, any smart woman would be called "the woman": "He used to make merry over the cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Doyle, A. C. 2002, The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Random House, New York.
• Cortiel, J. 1999, Demand My Writing: Joanna Russ, Feminism, Science Fiction, Liverpool University Press, Liverpool.
• Munt. S. R. 1994, Murder by the Book? Feminism and the Crime Novel, Routledge, London.

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