A Scandal in Bohemia

Literature’s most iconic sleuth, Sherlock Holmes, is a round, static character and is the protagonist of the story. Holmes’s reputation as a private detective has become international; the fact that the King of Bohemia requests his services testifies to Holmes’s standing as a renowned detective. He is an “observing machine” (61) who possesses extreme mental acuity and deductive reasoning powers. Watson also describes Holmes as one incapable of expressing emotions like love: “All emotions […] were abhorrent to his cold, precise but admirably balanced mind” (61). Work consumes Holmes, and he uses drugs to fuel his obsession. Holmes displays a penchant for making keen observations and predicting human behavior as well as employing subterfuge such as disguises to gain information. Watson specifically refers to Holmes’s affinity for reason and performance when he states: “The stage lost a fine actor, even as science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in crime” (70). Holmes’s dynamic versatility sets him apart from other fictional detectives of the 19th century. Holmes possesses both mental and physical prowess, and he is a man of action. Doyle also layers Holmes’s character with dualistic traits. Holmes is intellectually confident and capable, yet he engages in detrimental behaviors, such as using drugs.