Structuralism Criticism In Sherlock Holmes By Arthur Conan Doyle

“…and to listen with a mocking smile to the general chorus of misplaced congratulation.”(The adventure of the Devils foot)

“They tend to share certain key characteristics. They're manipulative, cold, and lack what we might call a moral compass--they know right from wrong but are not invested in that distinction. Their only concern with their ‘wrong’ behavior is getting caught, but because they are deceitful, callous and not subject to anxiety, they easily elude capture” (Spikol, 5). These sort of criminals were ones that the Chicago Police Department had never been introduced to before, causing them to change their entire perspective on cases once Holmes’ had passed. According to John Bartlow Martin, a writer for the “Harper’s Archive”, Holmes’ murder castle was filled with trapdoors, gas chambers, secret passageways, and even pits of acid used to get rid of bodies and other pieces of evidence. These were all things that the law enforcers had never even heard of in a story, much less seen or thought of in real life. It’s safe to say that Holmes drastically affected the police’s outlook on the cases in the near, and even far, future of criminals after his mystery; or at least part of his mystery had been

In chapter five, “When in Doubt, It’s from Shakespeare” talks about the reappearance of different well known figures in literature. Foster follows this by giving an idea that literature is made based on other literary stories. He states that one of the reasons why story borrowing occurs is because there is only one story and it’s the human experience. Book critics usually refer to the literary works and texts as ‘intertextually’. According to the author, intertextuality is sometimes used to challenge a reader. If the person reading the story can point out the similarities or repetitiveness in the text then the meaning will easily be revealed to them. In conclusion, being able to identify different meaning of literary text and analyze it gives

At the opening of this novel we meet Dr. Watson and Sherlock Holmes, whom has an unexpected visitor by the name of Dr. Mortimer, who introduces the detectives to a puzzling mystery of Baskerville

In “The Dying Detective,” it explained that Sherlock Holmes was literally dying from the prick of poison. To add, it explained that Mr. Culverton Smith was an expert on the poison that was injected into the ivory box; later we learned that Mr. Culverton Smith was indeed the one who injected it into the box in the first place. In “An Invitation to a Murder,” the crossbones on the prescription medication was believed to be a symbol of poison. Additionally, all of the supplies on the center of the table were items that would typically kill a person; yet, none of those belongings killed Mr. Abbott. Furthermore, both stories were premeditated murders. Mrs. Abbott knew that the twelve intelligent inspectors would prevent her from giving her husband the suspicious medication. Therefore, Mr. Abbott’s heart would stop beating and he would eventually die. On the other hand, Sherlock Holmes planned out every detail of the situation and what would happen. He knew that Dr. Watson would be concerned about Mr. Culverton Smith arriving and would like to stay. This created a witness for Mr. Culverton Smith confessing the crime he committed. Lastly, both of the passages had evidence that exemplified situational irony. Mrs. Abbott was dressed in black to grieve the death of herself and her disabled husband. Moreover, the investigators that were going to witness the murder, became the murderers. In the other story,

When questioning Holmes’s motives, one can first examine biological theories. Did crime run in his family? Did he have a bad childhood? Or maybe he was just born with a gene that would somehow trigger him to be a criminal eventually in his life. It’s very possible that he could have suffered an abusive childhood, causing him to grow up and seek a way to somehow enact ‘revenge’ for his own pains.

Let us begin with Holmes. Holmes lived in Chicago and owned a pharmacy. He had medical training and loved money and women (Larson 36-37). He was able to smooth talk and gave people a sense of happiness. Holmes could convince people of anything, which he used as a way to sell stories as to why the people he killed had just disappeared. He also used this in constructing his building/hotel. He barely paid a dime because he convinced workers that their job was unsatisfactory (Larson 67). The furniture companies would come looking for H. S. Campbell, the alias he used as the owner of the building, and he would tell them he was out on business (Larson 71-72). A man named Belknap, the uncle of one of Holmes’s three wives, described him as “warm and ingratiating, but also telegraph that some important element of humanness is missing”. For a long time this was known as “moral insanity” and later the term psychopath was used (Larson 87-88). Holmes himself was intrigued by Jack the Ripper (Larson 70).

Holmes had a very manipulative personality. He used jealousy to get people to do things he didn't want to get caught up in. The major case where he used this method was in the murder of Nannie Williams. At the time, Holmes was apparently married to her sister, Minnie Williams. (The Ogden standard) According to a “Murder Castle” worker, ” “He took particular pains to increase her jealousy to work her up to the point of putting Nannie out of the way.” (Clarke 226) The story goes that Minnie thought Nannie had stolen her husband. She “struck her sister with a small foot-stool”, killing her. (Clarke 227) When H.H. Holmes was accused of murdering Minnie, he blackmailed her by tipping off Robert Corbett, the private detective in favor of Holmes. Corbett then claimed to “have full proof that Nannie Williams was killed by her sister.” (The Dalles daily chronicle) Holmes even blackmailed a train car worker when the worker discovered he was handling a trunk with a dead body inside. Holmes threatened to tell police that the man had “placed the corpse in the trunk”, “hauled it here”, and helped Holmes in his work. (Clarke 225) Holmes’ use of jealousy and blackmail helped him cleverly control those around

Out of the three main forms of text, fiction, screen writing and plays, and poetry, poetry might be the most analyzed and critically thought out for of text. Poetry can be both simple or complex, it can be easy to understand or full of metaphors and symbols, on thing all poetry has in common is that it can be looked at using critical theories. A main theory that can be allied to most of poetry is structuralism. Structuralism is understanding concepts through their relation to other concepts (Alton, Structuralism, 1). Poetry is perfect for this because of the many metaphors and similes that poems can have. Stephen Dobyns’ poem Tomatoes. If a reader were to use the structuralism theory while reading this poem they might read it in a different way and not so literally.

Logic Watson! Give me logic Miss Walden!" Not only was this man rude but he was also bossy; just what I needed in my life. At least his friend 'Watson' is nice enough. I wish they would really make up their minds, was it psychology they wanted or was it philosophy? Clearing my throat I spoke, "How about I get you a both, Sherlock if you don't mind telling me what you need this book for it would be a lot easier to help find you a logical selection." Sherlock seemed surprised to find someone complying so quickly after just denouncing a whole branch of science, one I found some truth in. "Well you see, I'm a consulting detective, the only one in fact, and John and I have a case regarding a man with what I believe to be 'Mommy issues' going around kidnapping single mothers. Please be quick about all of this, we need this information now!" Sherlock described. All the while he's describing this all the pieces are coming together for me, Sherlock, the curly hair, Watson, consulting detective: Sherlock Holmes the main all over the papers lately with that silly hate of

In relation to dialogue and narration, Watson’s style of storytelling is more straightforward and adopts a suspenseful tone that suits the mystery genre well. Since Watson tends to only see things as they are, there are more blind spots in his sight compared to Holmes. Because he is more visual and tends to impart very little of his own style, it makes readers anxious to discover what Watson will encounter next and what Holmes will reveal. The Red-Headed League is a good case in point, in which Watson writes, “What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that

        If Holmes and Watson used modern technology, they would be able to use phones. When Holmes and Watson received the case, Holmes could not make it so Watson went alone only delivering letters back and forth. They would have both been able to ask and answer questions quite instantaneously. Because of not having phones they could have misinterpreted what the other said. Mistakes and blaming the innocent could have happened

   Professor John Lye of Brock University, California describes literary theory as: "a collection of related theoretical concepts and practices which are marked by a number of premises, although not all of the theoretical approaches share or agree on all of them."

Not only can the dialogue bring life to the story, but it can tell the story itself, as seen in many instances in which Holmes has wrapped up another mystery. Most cases are concluded with a recollection of events and revealing hints that only Holmes knew of, presented almost conversationally from Holmes to Watson. With his first-person account of the mystery, Doyle uses Holmes to clarify any remaining confusion or questions that linger in readers’ minds as the chapter ends. While it is repetitive after several cases, granting Holmes with such large chunks of dialogue eliminates the need for boring, lengthy straight-forward narration. A good example of the use of retelling in dialogue in place for narration can be found in The Red-Headed League. A combination of complex writing and sophisticated vocabulary also follow the genius detectives’ mysteries and help to represent his intelligence through Doyle’s skillful work. Each story is written with extensive vocabulary as well as depth, which also alludes/attributes to Holmes himself. Therefore, Doyle was careful to ensure that the professional nature of Holmes was also conveyed

Sherlock Holmes’s intelligence is demonstrated in both “The Red-Headed League” and “A Scandal in Bohemia”. During “A Scandal in Bohemia” he first demonstrates his intuitive thinking by figuring out that Count Kramm, the man introducing him on the case, is actually the King of Bohemia himself. This shows that he is able to make a quick determination about people’s lives just by having a brief conversation with them. This allows Holmes to solve mysteries that others cannot by simply looking at a suspect or location associated with the scenario. He uses this ability later in the story to find where the incriminating photo of the king with Adler is. He does this by creating a situation for himself where he will be able to get into Adler’s home. He then fakes a fire to see where Adler goes first so he can see where she keeps her most valuable possession, the photo. Holmes states “When a woman thinks that her house is on fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she values the most… Now it was clear to me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious to her then what we are questing for” (Doyle 19). This line of thinking shows that Holmes knows how to get people to inadvertently give him the information that he needs by putting them in the right situation and observing what they do. This skill