Sunday, March 15, 2020

Sherlock Holmes Essays

Sherlock Holmes Essays Sherlock Holmes Essay Sherlock Holmes Essay Essay Topic: The Hound of the Baskervilles Arthur Conan Doyle was born on May 22, 1859, in Edinburgh, Scotland. As a young man he seemed destined for a career in medicine. In 1876 he attended the University of Edinburgh Medical School. There he met Joseph Bell, whose deductive powers and dramatic flair he would later embody in the character of Sherlock Holmes. In the early 1880s he served as a medical officer on an Arctic whaling ship and ship’s surgeon on a voyage to West Africa.By the summer of 1882, he had settled in the town of Southsea in the south of England. In 1885 he received his medical degree. Even after he was a well-established writer, he continued to pursue his medical education, becoming an eye specialist. His medical practice was unsuccessful, leaving him plenty of free time to write. His first story was The Mystery of Sarassa Valley, published in October 1879 in Chamber’s Journal. He had trouble finding a publisher for his first Sherlock Holmes novel, A Study in Scarlet, which eventually appeared in Beeton’s Christmas Annual for 1887.It and its successor, the novel The Sign of Four, published in 1890, were not popular at first. In 1891 Conan Doyle agreed to supply the new magazine the Strand with a series of Sherlock Holmes short stories. A Scandal in Bohemia appeared in the magazine’s July 1891 issue and was a popular sensation. One of the reasons why Arthur Conan Doyles stories were so sought after is because of the use of forensic science and also Holmes never leaves a mystery unsolved; this made the people of the Victorian era warm to the character, believing that he could solve any case. The use of forensic science was new to Doyles audience, and gave them immense hope in Sherlock Holmes, so that when Doyle killed off the detective in 1893, there was a public outcry and Doyle received death threats warning him to keep the detective alive. Sherlock Holmes wasnt alone in his adventures though, he was accompanied by his ex-army officer sidekick, Dr. Watson, who had complete faith in his associate. Conan Doyle targeted his stories at the wealthy and the well educated because of the sophisticated language used. Horse drawn carriages were the means of transport used by the wealthy in the Sherlock Holmes stories, sometimes even by Holmes to arrive at the scene of the crime, which would always be a mansion or a grand estate. The grandeur of the homes of the wealthy added a sense of mystery and suspense, it also enabled Doyles target audience to empathise with the characters in his stories. In the Speckled Band Dr Roylott owns a grand estate called Stoke Moran, The building was of grey and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab. The description of stoke Moran emphasizes the magnitude of it, here Cannon Doyle uses a simile to create an image of a crab he compares its two wings, to the claws of a crab, it also tells us what type of person Dr. Roylott is and that he is not very friendly and welcoming. The detailed descriptions used are a kind of delaying tactic and creates suspense, this is a typical feature used in all detective literature.