To err : detecting flaws and short-comings in Sherlock Holmes

Abstract

The figure of Sherlock Holmes is in many people’s minds synonymous to the figure of the detective. And not only a detective, but ‘The Great Detective’, whose acumen, attention to detail and quick, almost supra-human mind give him the ability to solve seemingly impossible crimes, and to see solutions where others remain in the dark. Early portrayals in popular culture have him as an unbeatable foe to his enemies; he even cheated death, coming back from his watery grave and outwitting his own author, to face more puzzles and solved them all. This is not, however, strictly true. The image built of the infallible detective, and its perpetuation throughout the Holmes brand in various media is not, however, accurate when compared to the original work written by Conan Doyle. While Holmes, even in the corpus, remains the paragon of acumen he is fabled to be, he does not always resolve the situation immediately, nor does he always resolve it to a success. Within the original 56 short stories and 4 novels penned for various magazines across the English speaking world of the time, Holmes committed a number of mistakes that are not normally associated with the ‘Great Detective’ at all, which affect both his cases and his relations with the other characters in the texts. These errors, mistakes and social foibles will be the focus of this dissertation. The character of the ‘Great Detective’ will be analysed within the entire corpus of 60 texts and his mistakes will be categorised, and commented upon, in order to help view the Holmes character as a more multifaceted figure of English Literature.