Abstract - Analysis Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle

Abstract - Analysis Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle

Study in Scarlet, written by Conan Doyle in 1887 , is recognized as the first novel in which the character of Sherlock Holmes, the detective story icon appears . In this work, the detective knows his faithful companion and friend , John H. Watson , MD by the University of London. This last , back from Afghanistan, where he had worked as a military doctor during the war, is in search of a place to live . Through a friend, who tells him he knows someone in the same situation , Holmes knows . These two gentlemen decide to share the apartment 221b Baker Street .

There Watson begins to know his partner, his love of violin, to snuff pipe and resolution of complicated cases .

The events of the novel take place in the last quarter of the nineteenth century in England. In its structure , the novel is divided into two distinct parts .

The first is titled " Memories Reprint John H. Watson , MD and retired officer of the Medical Corps " and is narrated in first person by Watson , who describes the first mystery in which Holmes continued investigations . The case in question arises from the discovery of a body in an abandoned house in Brixton , with the word RACHE written in letters of blood on the wall home.

The second part is entitled " Land of the Saints " and jumps in space and time to position two decades ago in the United States, Salt Lake City, the land of the Mormons. There a murder, which is executed by Danites in the territory occurs . It is told in the third person by an omniscient narrator. In the last chapter of this part is returned to the initial story told by Watson and the solution of the case is counted. Here comes into play the relation of the two parts of the book, which at first seem autonomous and therefore not binding each other. The motive for the crime turns out to be essentially revenge for a lost love.

From the first encounter , Arthur Conan Doyle Holmes shows us observer, devoted to science and the search for discoveries that may revolutionize forensics . In a chemistry lab where he works , appears for the first time and then be the famous Sherlock Holmes does so with a test tube in hand, tangible proof of what I have discovered : a reagent is precipitated only by the hemoglobin and would discover blood stains in criminal cases . Scientific research and forensic medicine are disciplines with which the author chooses to enter Holmes , two branches of knowledge which , together, will found a unique type of character .

In order to further delineating this detective, the narrator tells that Sherlock Holmes had published an article in a magazine, which was trying to bring out how much an observant man might learn by examining fair and consistent in everything around him . For Watson, the science of deduction which concerned the text , it was not "practical " but rather theoretical , based on the assumptions of a man in the solitude of his study. Through this text and its contents , Watson learns that Sherlock Holmes is a " consulting detective " that guides often police investigation at the request of the officers of Scotland Yard, Lestrade and Gregson .

This time, Gregson sent a note to Holmes asking his advice about a recent murder and , if possible , a visit to the place where he had found dead Drebber Enoch , from Cleveland , Ohio , United States.

While renowned Scotland Yard detectives are lost in the case without reaching discover the motive for the crime and the identity of the perpetrator , Sherlock Holmes needed only three days to solve the mystery and catch the criminal in your own home , just Gregson and Lestrade when they are present.

Holmes searches around the house where the corpse, the crime scene , then pulls from his pocket a tape measure and a magnifying glass was found. With that brief overview and data derived from observations , findings, and measurements , Holmes determines that :

a) has committed murder ;

b ) the murderer is a man ;

c ) characteristics : tall, young , red-faced , long nails and small feet ;

d ) coarse shoes square toe boots and smokes cigars Trichinopoly ;

e) the man up to his victim uninhabited house in a rental car ;

f ) death is caused by poisoning.

The investigation continues . Send a telegram, interview the officer who discovered the body , placed an ad in a newspaper to lure the likely murderer and instructs young homeless street to find a driver in particular.

Then comes his erroneous theory Gregson and Lestrade with it later with fresh news of the death of their only suspect , Joseph Stangerson . With this new crime , the similarities begin to be significant and help in solving the enigma.

But this only sees Holmes. While Scotland Yard detectives no longer refer extraordinary case , Sherlock not to prove their mistake. "It is a mistake to confuse the strangeness with mystery. The most common crime is often the most mysterious because it presents no new or special features that help us to make inferences. ( ... ) These peculiarities , far from the case back difficult actually been simplified , "said Holmes.

It is precisely on the basis of these details ( the written bloody word , strokes that characterize the ash found on the floor, the ring found with the body , fingerprints at the entrance of the house, the smell between her lips the victim , pills found next to the second body, etc. . ) detective Conan Doyle manages to decipher the mystery .

Thus, compared to the official disoriented, Sherlock Holmes catch the criminal : Jefferson Hope. But who is this man? What is your relationship with the deceased ? Why the two deaths occur ? Are they interrelated ? How Sherlock Holmes discovers the truth of this particular episode ?

The deaths of a father and a daughter , happened long ago , are the triggers for these crimes. The murderer , Hope decides to be " judge, jury and executioner " and punish , thus the guilty.

Study in Scarlet demonstrated in each of its steps , facing the constant surprise of Watson and the clear ineffectiveness of Gregson and Lestrade , Holmes supremacy . He says the key to his system lies in its ability to reason backwards , ie analytically. This aspect reminds the famous detective Poe, Dupin , in turn , the use of Sherlock Holmes -Watson duo also brings to mind this character and his partner , who is referred to the stories.

Borges points out that Dupin is the archetype , model, and that the subject of two different friends together involved in an investigation is a topic that

Conan Doyle continues in his stories . The creator of Holmes himself tells how his most famous creature emerged :

" Detective Poe, Dupin , master had been since my childhood one of my heroes . But I could bring something new of my own ? I thought of my old teacher Joe Bell , in your face of an eagle in his singular behavior, in his enigmatic way to discover details. If you became a detective , surely reduce the fascinating but disorganized research topic to something very like the exact science. well, I would try that this occurred. Whether it was possible in the real life , why could not I make it just as plausible in fiction ? " .

In the same line but different, something " of my own " says Conan Doyle and decidedly that seems to refer to his detective. In this sense, Sherlock Holmes would not agree with the findings of Borges. In fact, he declares to Watson that " Dupin was a very basic type " and that while possessed analytical genius , "in no way was the phenomenon that seemed to imagine Poe ." Holmes is unique, not a follower of no one recognizes , his own method , which consists of " a chain of logical sequences without missing link without any flaw " - is , for him, which makes a difference , and this is what case after case trying to prove .

The basis of the effectiveness of the detective story and the intricate research that holds the detective lies in the way chosen to tell the story . Conan Doyle gives voice to Watson, this character that he is curious in respect of each of the discoveries of his partner, and has the steps of Holmes without knowing or to reveal their senses. But even in this area continues the tradition of the genre, A Study in Scarlet , the author further complicates the narrative structure because police story adds a particular flavor : the adventure story . The second part begins with a man and a girl lost in the desert , about to die of thirst , randomly saved by a group of Mormon pilgrims.

In this origin , in that rescue occurs on lands and distant times the key to the mystery that analyzes the detective figure . That's the twist holding Conan Doyle : the adventure story , the sequence of events experienced by the man and that child throughout the years, explain the two deaths . Of course , that connection can only make Sherlock Holmes. The chosen mode of narrating this story aims precisely feed reader disorientation and complicate finding possible links between the various signs of each party. Without missing link, without fail , thought the detective succeeds in the feat of solving a crime , only thanks to his skills , is finally almost perfect.

Source : Ed Station

The Loreley Jaber

Buenos Aires , 2009