The most famous detective in the literary world came out from the pen of Arthur Conan Doyle and still remains a recognized favorite of the public. A recognizable character found its own characteristics, certain attributes that allow him not to get lost among other heroes and be familiar even to those who have not even met Conan Doyle's work. To this day, the adaptation of the numerous adventures of this detective in the form of films and series remains relevant. The characterization of Sherlock Holmes will help to present this character as he was conceived by his creator.
Brief information
Sherlock Holmes is the hero of detective stories and short stories by Arthur Conan Doyle. His image of an observant genius, able to unravel any business and solve even the most complex puzzle, is complemented by the image of a true friend - Dr. Watson, a simpler and more ordinary person. Arthur Conan Doyle devoted the thirty-one years of his life to the great detective (from 1886 to 1917), popularizing the genre of the detective novel and giving rise to many followers and fans. The characterization of Sherlock Holmes cannot be unambiguous, since even this character cannot be called unequivocal.
"Sherlock Holmes is a great man, and maybe one day, with great luck, he will also become understandable."
The image of Sherlock Holmes was formed at the turn of the era, at a time when the world in which Arthur Conan Doyle and his characters lived could only be described with one epithet - a contradictory one.
The detective can be identified immediately as a decadent, Victorian and neo-romantic hero. Why does the Sherlock Holmes characterization go to such extremes? Because each direction had a rather strong influence on the formation of the image, so remembered by readers.
Victorian Sherlock Holmes
The literary hero-gentleman is the prototype of the character of a real Victorian novel. But what is included in this definition?
Previously, it was believed that a gentleman is a man of noble origin, provided enough to live without working. Therefore, the classes of such persons were amateurish, and their qualities included the ability to improvise, the presence of a free mind and a love of experimentation.
Over time, the criteria became more and more blurred, and as a result, character traits, personality traits, and not material status, became more important for determining a gentleman . A gentleman is a model of nobility, a code of honor, gallantry and intelligence, equanimity under any circumstances.
So who is Sherlock Holmes? The characterization of the hero contains all these qualities, so he can very well be called a gentleman. In addition, he is well-off, and he investigates crimes solely for his own pleasure, to dispel boredom.
But still, he does not fully fit this image.
Decadence - aesthetics of the end of the century
Decadence is an extreme, this opposition to the former system. It was expressed in the contempt of the ordinary, was stormy, and not stiff, individual and creative, instead of normal and accepted. And who will argue that all this does not fit our hero? After all, Sherlock Holmes’s characteristic is just that - you can’t call him ordinary. And if something aroused interest in him, then everything else became unimportant: the time of day did not play a role in the schedule of the detective’s activity, all that remained was the desire to eliminate boredom and unravel another riddle.
Neo-romantic Sherlock Holmes
The characterization of a literary hero as a person self-sufficient and amateur, independent in actions and judgments - this character came to the forefront in neo-romanticism. These same features are characteristic of Mr. Holmes. Like neo-romantic heroes, he fights for justice in his microcosm, not trying to solve global ecumenical problems.
Family Values and Addiction
One of the reasons Sherlock Holmes cannot be reckoned with Victorian literature is that the hero does not advocate family values. Relations with the detective’s relatives are strained, only the elder brother Mycroft is mentioned for the whole cycle, who is more likely a stranger or an enemy than a friend, and there is a reference to his nephew (only once).
In addition, Holmes has a passion that is closer to decadence than to the stiff Victorian gentlemen - drugs, morphine and cocaine. In those days, when these substances still went along the sharp edge between medications and harmful to the body, detective’s preferences didn’t seem to be clearly harmful, but they left a bad impression, clearly separating the novels from family books.
Features of Conan Doyle's novels and the Holmes deductive method
Sherlock Holmes characterization places emphasis on his unique and inquiring mind. All the stories about the detective are the same thing: Arthur Conan Doyle does not relish the aesthetics of the murder, he does not consider it aesthetics, most of the attention is paid to reflection, the course of work, intelligence and psychology.
You can also notice that an amateur detective more often does not act according to the laws of England, but according to the laws of honor, by his own principles - he can let the criminal go if he believes that he was right in his actions. And this is not an isolated case. The villains in Holmes’s adventures cannot always be called such - they are always stories about love and betrayal, friends and enemies, and they are rarely committed for the sake of only one evil.