Sherlock Holmes

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was born on May 22, 1859 and died on July 7, 1930. He was a British writer, best known for his detective fiction featuring the character Sherlock Holmes. Doyle was originally a physician, in 1887 he published A Study in Scarlet, the first of four novels about Holmes and Dr. Watson. In addition, Doyle wrote over fifty short stories featuring the famous detective. The Sherlock Holmes stories are generally considered milestones in the field of crime fiction. Sherlock Holmes is undoubtedly the most famous detective of all time, created by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who had initially named the detective as Sherrinford Holmes.

Holmes made his first appearing in print in 1887 when he was introduced to the world in “A Study in Scarlet”, first published in “Beeton’s Christmas Annual”.

Inspiration for the character 
The Royal College of Surgeons commonly agreed that the character traits of Sherlock Holmes were inspired by Dr. Joseph Bell, one of the teachers at the medical school of Edinburgh University. Doyle was studying at the university to be a doctor; he met Bell in 1877, when he was seventeen years old and Bell was thirty-nine. The doctor left an indelible impression upon the young Arthur. A collection of letters between Arthur Conan Doyle and Dr. Bell was found in the University’s archives. Stephen Kerr, the college’s librarian, is responsible for these precious documents. Kerr reveals that one letter in particular offers conclusive proof that Bell was the real-life inspiration for Sherlock Holmes. Conan Doyle wrote to Bell in 1892: “It is most certainly to you that I owe Sherlock Holmes.”

Bell’s powers of diagnosis were very impressive, and he often used to demonstrate the importance of close observation in medical practice. He did this by selecting a stranger, and then deducing his or her occupation and recent activities by simply observing them. Stephen Kerr points out that this diagnostic ability is “a great attribute” for both a detective and a doctor to have, giving Conan Doyle a starting point for Holmes’s finely tuned powers of observation. This is confirmed in the author’s letter to Bell: “…round the centre of deduction and inference and observation which I have heard you inculcate I have tried to build up a man.”  Bell “quite enjoyed” being the real-life Holmes, according to Kerr. He tells of an occasion at a dinner party where a lady asked if he had read the Sherlock Holmes novels, and his answer was: “I AM Sherlock Holmes!” However, the letters between Conan Doyle and Bell also reveal that Bell’s influence was mostly inspirational. Kerr says that Bell often wrote to wrote to Conan Doyle with “suggestions for stories”, but Arthur had to put his foot down. Personally, I think that the character of Sherlock is one of the most complex and fascinating in literature. His personality traits are described to us by John Watson (his partner in crime, lol), that presents him as an automaton, a calculating machine with something positively inhuman in him. He loved above all things precision and concentration of thought. Watson often refers to his restlessness and his impatience, his nervousness and excitement, his natural curiosity, his habit of biting his nails when he is concerned, and the importance he carried in his pride, reputation, self-respect and somehow selfishness. 

Dr. Watson
John H. Watson, better known as Dr. Watson, is a fictional character in the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Watson is Sherlock Holmes' friend, assistant and sometime flatmate, and the first-person narrator of most of these stories. He is described as the typical Victorian-era gentleman, unlike the more eccentric Holmes.

He is astute, although he can never match his friend's deductive skills, which is why he’s often made fun of by Sherlock. He couldn't agree with those who rank modesty among the virtues. Sherlock Holmes and John Watson have been seen as the ultimate partners for as long as they have been in print. Their relationship is far deeper than anything that meets the eye; they mean more to each other than just a business partner or friend. Some have seen their relationship as anything from that of best friends, to homosexual lovers, or to heterosexual lovers as seen between a male Holmes and a female Watson, due to Watson’s kind of “submissive” behaviour towards the stronger figure of Sherlock. Whether these statements can be proven or not remains a facet controlled by the reader, but several other useful implications can be drawn from their relationship. No matter what Watson and Holmes mean to each other, both seem to follow certain trends throughout the story. Watson will always be inferior to Holmes. Through conversation and description of each other, both men continue to follow this trend. Even though sometimes Watson strays to make a comment or two about Holmes and his laziness or what not, he always comes back to praise him again. Holmes also makes comments to keep Watson in the inferior place that he currently holds. In "A Scandal in Bohemia," Holmes does not miss the chance to comment on Watson's gaining weight; this is a way to keep Watson feeling insecure about himself. Eventually, Watson expresses his aggression toward Holmes, possibly because of the way that he is continually treated. Watson ends up marrying Mary and establishing a firm medical practice, which leads to him staying away from Holmes for a long time. It appears that the tensions between them relax after Watson's marriage. Some would infer that close friendship can almost always be equated with homosexuality, while others would merely believe that Holmes and Watson were not as friendly as everyone thought.  Whatever implications are drawn from the story, it is still important that the Holmes and Watson’s relationship is evaluated for a more in-depth view of the tales.

Holmes’ drug use

Holmes occasionally uses addictive drugs, especially in the absence of stimulating cases because he basically considers boredom his worst enemy, danger keeps him alive. He uses cocaine, which he injects in a seven-percent solution with a syringe kept in a Morocco leather case. Although Holmes also dabbles in morphine, he expresses strong disapproval when he visits an opium den; we got to precise that both drugs were legal in late-19th-century England. As a physician, Watson strongly disapproves of his friend's cocaine habit, describing it as the detective's "only vice", and concerned about its effect on Holmes's mental health and intellect, that he affirms will get seriously damaged. In "The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter", Watson says that although he has "weaned" Holmes from drugs, he remains an addict whose habit is "not dead, but merely sleeping". Watson and Holmes use tobacco, smoking cigarettes, cigars, and pipes, and Holmes is an expert at identifying tobacco-ash residue. Although his chronicler does not consider Holmes' habitual use of a pipe (or his less frequent use of cigarettes and cigars) a vice per se, Watson occasionally criticises the detective for creating a "poisonous atmosphere" of tobacco smoke in their confined quarters.

Article by Azzurra Furnari