Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes (Free Essay Example)

When readers think of mysterious detective stories, some may think of the story “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” written by Edgar Allen Poe, or some may think of “And Then There Were None” and “The ABC Murders,” both by Agatha Christie. Both Poe and Christie are famous for writing some of the most mysterious detective stories. Another detective character that readers may think of is Sherlock Holmes. A collection of short stories written about a detective who used deductive reasoning and, according to editors, “observation of the minutest details” (Dent). Written by Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle used different themes and scenarios within his stories to illustrate the main idea of how observation leads to knowledge, which can then lead to power. Sherlock Holmes even has some personal ideas from Doyles earlier life incorporated within.

From an alcoholic father splitting the family apart to going to medical school at the University of Edinburgh, Arthur Conan Doyle had many events that shaped his life and inspired his writing of Sherlock Holmes and the main ideas. Born May 22, 1859, in Edinburgh, Scotland, Arthur Conan Doyle was born into a highly respected family. According to Doyles Literary Estate, “Arthur’s mother was a lively and educated woman who loved reading.” She had a passion for books, and she particularly liked telling stories to her child, and she did so with great enthusiasm. Arthur had a much better relationship with his mother, and she became his joy as he grew older. On the contrary, Arthur’s father was a chronic alcoholic who was moderately successful as an artist who never accomplished anything of note apart from fathering a brilliant son. Doyles father had been dismissed from his job only to be sent to a nursing home that would specialize in his treatment of alcoholism. His father later developed epilepsy, which resulted in his confinement. In 1885, he tried to escape from his confinement; he became violent, so he was sent to a lunatic asylum. From there, he was sent to the infirmary, then to the mental institution, only to die in 1893. 

Additionally, at the age of nine, Arthur’s family paid for him to go to a Jesuit boarding school, where he stayed for seven years. The boarding school that Arthur ended up going to used the most brutal corporal punishment on its students, i.e., whipping or spanking. Along with the abuse that Arthur endured at Stonyhurst, he was also bullied by many of his classmates. That being said, Arthur went through a lot during his years at boarding school. During the years at boarding school, Arthur began to write back and forth with his mother. This habit continued through the rest of his time at boarding school as writing to his mother was his only source of happiness while attending, as he did not have friends and he was beaten.

Doyle eventually went on to graduate from Stonyhurst College in 1876. His parents thought that he would follow in the families’ footsteps and study art, but Arthur ended up pursuing medical school instead. He wanted to carry out his studies at the University of Edinburgh after meeting Dr. Waller, a lodger his mother had taken in. While in Edinburgh, he met the man he was most impressed by, who later became the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Joseph Bell. Dr. Bell was not only a master of observation and logic but also deduction and diagnoses. It seems that Dr. Bell may have even inspired the philosophical ideas of Sherlock Holmes. As the philosophical idea of Sherlock Holmes is that observation leads to knowledge which can then lead to power. Other themes that can be seen in Sherlock Holmes that are not related to his professor include revenge, murder, hypocrisy, gender, and female vulnerability.

As Sherlock Holmes is a book full of short stories, each short story has one or more specific themes or ideas, while some themes or ideas are shared within multiple stories. For instance, the theme of observation is seen if not mentioned in most if not all of the Sherlock Holmes short stories, but few stories show themes of deduction and vulnerability. Although, each of the short stories has its own plot. Therefore, there is no connection between stories other than the two protagonists, Doctor Watson and Sherlock Holmes himself.

As stated previously, the plots and themes of each story are somewhat different. In “The Red-headed League,” the plot is about a redhead named Jabez Wilson who comes to Sherlock for help with a job he has been working in, which he claims is “a mysterious business” (Conan Doyle Ch. 2). The people he worked for just disappeared without a trace, and Sherlock must figure out what happened. When Holmes comes to the conclusion that Wilson had been a victim of a ruse and that the organization Wilson worked for was a total sham that was run by a man who is not only a thief but also a murderer, smasher, and forger named John Clay. (Conan Doyle Ch. 2) By the end of the story, Sherlock closes the case after he catches John clay robbing the banks. The themes of this story are deduction and observation, as Sherlock uses his deductive reasoning and puts each piece together to figure out and stop John clays plans.

Following “The Red-headed League,” Doyle wrote, “In A Case of Identity.” The whole plot is based around Mary Sutherland, who has been tricked into keeping her inheritance under her mother and stepfather, James Windibank. Mary calls Sherlock after her husband, Hosmer Angel, goes missing on the day of their wedding, but once Sherlock is on the case, he figures out the man she was marrying was actually her stepfather. In reality, there was never any man named Hosmer Angel as it was all a part of Mr. Windibanks trap. Sherlock is quick to figure this out, though, because “the fact that the two men were never together, but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was suggestive” (Conan Doyle Ch. 3), and the description of Hosmer itself only sounds like a man in disguise. Hence the reason there is no trace of Hosmer after his disappearance. As Holmes uses his observational skills and logical thinking to connect the dots and come to the conclusion of the situation at hand. Readers can see that the central theme throughout this story is observation, which relates back to the main philosophical idea that observation leads to knowledge, which can then lead to power.

Lastly, the final story of Sherlock Holmes, titled The Adventure of the Copper Beeches, follows a woman named Violet Hunter, who, at the beginning of the story, tells Holmes that she has received a job as a governess. It pays well, but she must make alternations to her appearance in order to score the job. Overall, Holmes senses a catch to this situation or something bad that will happen to Violet. Long story short, Violet discovers that there is a woman who has been locked up by her family living on the estate and tells Sherlock and Watson, “the real person is imprisoned in this chamber. As to who this prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice Rucastle” (Conan Doyle Ch. 12) Turns out she has been locked up for the sake of keeping the fortunes and the estate, and the only reason Violet was hired was to take her place. The Adventure of the Copper Beeches has an overall theme of gender and female vulnerability. The victim in this story was young and innocent with delightful behaviors and mannerisms. The protagonist, Violet, is made to change herself to fit into the “standards” at the copper beeches.

As stated previously, the stories in Sherlock Holmes have their own plots, themes, and ideas. However, readers can see that the themes related back to the main philosophy that observation leads to knowledge which can then lead to power. There are plenty of examples of observation, logic, and deductive reasoning, all of which lead to Sherlock piecing the puzzles together accurately. Arthur Conan Doyle made Sherlock out to be the best detective in fiction, but when looking into the accuracy of Sherlock Holmes and the real world of criminal justice, how accurate was Arthur Conan Doyle in his works? Sherlock Holmes was based in London in around the year 1880. Multiple stories in Sherlock Holmes consisted of crimes such as murder and kidnapping. 

However, in real-time during the Victorian era in the 1800s, most crimes committed consisted of petty theft. In fact, murder rates in the United Kingdom were so low in the 1800s that they were rarely seen in the statistics, and even if so, murders never figured significantly. During the Victorian era, they had what were called sensational crimes. These crimes consisted mostly of the events of Jack the Ripper in autumn of 1888 and Street robberies happening from 1850 to around 1860 (Emsley). During the Victorian era, people did not know much about crimes, let alone how to solve them; the character of Sherlock Holmes became a role model for the criminal justice system. The stories of Sherlock Holmes were considered a breakthrough during the Victorian era. Not only did the stories help the United Kingdom understand the importance of a police force, but the United Kingdom eventually established a police force as well, which they called Detective policing (Emsley).

In conclusion, the events in Arthur Conan Doyles life all aided Doyle in the creation of Sherlock Holmes and the main themes within the stories. If it was not for the effects of his alcoholic father, being sent to boarding school, and pursuing medical school instead of the arts, who knows if Sherlock Holmes would have ever been written. These events in Doyles life not only helped him to become successful himself but his stories and ideas became a breakthrough for the others around him as well.