Sherlock Holmes: Fact or Fiction? (My Essay)

[nozarinvestigative]

Sherlock Holmes: Fact or Fiction

Alex Nozar

 

Arguably, the most iconic character in the entire world is the British detective Sherlock Holmes. He’s appeared in 56 short stories and 4 novels, all of them penned by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Then there are the numerous books, plays, films, radio dramas, and video games based off of this famed sleuth. The Sherlock Holmes stories shaped the mystery genre. Think about symbols you usually associate with mystery or detectives. You probably think of a clay pipe, or a deerstalker hat. You might even think of a silhouette of Holmes himself.

Sherlock Holmes not only shaped crime solving in fiction, but in real life as well. Detectives are now using more lateral thinking to solve a case. Lateral thinking is using a creative approach to solving a problem. Detectives look at clues and consider them as they are, but rarely do they take them at face value. Sometimes, the solution to a problem isn’t the most obvious of choices, and detectives look for this, all because of Sherlock Holmes.

“You see, but you do not observe”, Sherlock Holmes is famous for telling his partner, Doctor John Watson. Watson can clearly see the issue or his surroundings, but he does not completely understand them. He does not notice everything that goes on. Forensic scientists and detectives are trained to view the whole picture, not just a small piece of the corner.

The character of Holmes is so brilliant and so developed, that people all over the world believe he once lived. In fact, in a survey done in 2008 by UKTV Gold, 58% of the participants believed Holmes actually lived. That’s more than half, and this is just in Britain. This many people can’t be wrong, right? Sherlock Holmes had to have existed.

How can Holmes exist, you might ask? He was a creation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This may not be true. In fact, it isn’t. Holmes lived and solved cases, just like the cases in our beloved tales.

Conan Doyle is said to have based his famous detective on a professor from his college, Professor Joseph Bell. Bell had a lot in common with Holmes. He physically looked like him, tall and thin, with a hawk like nose and a thin face. They even shared a passion for deductive reasoning. This type of thinking was heavily taught by Professor Bell.

Anybody who reads the Sherlock Holmes stories can tell you that Holmes was a master of disguise and costume. It was probably this talent that gave us Professor Bell. Bell really is Sherlock Holmes. But why would Holmes wish to pass off as a mathematics professor at some college? This question is rather easy to answer. Holmes had a large intellect. His mind was always moving, always deducing, always thinking. The best way to satisfy his mind’s thirst for data and information would be to teach at a university. As a bonus, Holmes would be able to pass off his knowledge to the next generation, so that they might employ his methods in their everyday lives, thus creating hundreds of Holmeses wandering the planet. It was this college where Bell met Conan Doyle.

Who tells the stories of Holmes? Most of the time, it’s John Watson, a doctor from the army. Though, there are a few third person stories and a couple tales narrated by Holmes. However, a majority of the stories are told by Watson. Conan Doyle does this for a good reason: to keep the reader from witnessing Holmes’s thought process. This keeps the reader in suspense, and blows them away when he concludes the case. But have you seen pictures of Conan Doyle? He looks eerily similar to how Watson is portrayed in the earlier films and TV shows.

 

So, what am I trying to say? Conan Doyle is actually Watson. That’s right. The fictional writer of the Sherlock Holmes stories is in fact the real writer of the books. Conan Doyle was an actual doctor. He went to medical school and got his degree. Now, some may say that he was only drawing from his own life to write the character of Watson, but that wouldn’t make sense.

Now, let me ask you. If Sherlock Holmes never existed, where did Conan Doyle get his fascinating thought processes for the character? If Conan Doyle created Holmes, that would mean he was just as clever as the detective, right? So if that were true, why was Conan Doyle never consulted for a crime to be solved? Why didn’t he ever become a detective? He certainly could have made some money doing it! The answer is simple: Holmes wasn’t a creation. Holmes was real, and Conan Doyle really was Watson. Conan Doyle used the name “Watson” as a pseudonym, so that he would only be connected to Holmes as the author of his adventures. Perhaps he didn’t want to be hounded by fans, inquiring whether or not they could meet Sherlock Holmes. 22b Baker Street is indeed a made up address. Why? It’s simple. “Watson” didn’t want anyone pestering him and Sherlock in the privacy of their own home. With the popularity Holmes gained after Conan Doyle published his first work, A Study in Scarlet, Sherlock must have been wary of the public eye. A man of his caliber would be incredibly famous, and he was.

Some years after the first story was published, Conan Doyle was getting sick of the Sherlock Holmes tales. He decided that he would kill Holmes off and be rid of him forever. Then he could move on to more serious work. He went with Holmes to the Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland, knowing that this would be the last case he ever went on with the detective. They were tracking Professor James Moriarty, Holmes’s arch nemesis. They found Moriarty at the top of the falls. There was a brawl between Holmes and Moriarty, ending with them both plunging to their deaths.

This worked out perfectly for Conan Doyle. He wouldn’t have to worry about the tales anymore. He could move on to better things. He held no funeral for Holmes, as that would attract attention from the public. Soon, he began drawing ideas for a kind of horror story. He realized this tale would be the perfect Holmes story to ever be told. This story was of course, The Hound of the Baskervilles. This is probably he only fictional story written about Holmes by Conan Doyle.

Soon, Holmes revealed to Conan Doyle that he wasn’t dead. He had managed to survive the plunge from the falls. I won’t reveal how he did it, you’ll have to read The Adventure of the Empty House for the explanation.

This allowed for thirty four more cases to be solved. Afterward, both of them most likely retired from solving crimes. Of course, Sherlock Holmes solved over seventy cases with Watson, so it really can’t be clear when they both retired. It would have to have been around 1930, the year Conan Doyle passed away of a heart attack. Did he die? Was he pulling a Sherlock Holmes on us? He was a medical doctor. He did have access to medicines that could bring on the physical effects of a heart attack, but wouldn’t be fatal. Perhaps he faked his death so that he could escape London and move somewhere that would give him peace and quiet after numerous years of solving crimes.

Sherlock Holmes really walked among us in Victorian era England. “You see, but you do not observe.” The evidence is there before us. We can see it. But we do not fully comprehend it. The fact that he really existed is, well, elementary.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(I am truly thankful for The Complete Sherlock Holmes published by Barnes and Noble. The introduction by Christopher and Barbara Roden really helped with my research. Also, I am grateful to the internet, for helping me clear up some points in my essay, and for the two pictures above. For more information on Sherlock Holmes and Doctor John Watson, I recommend the books penned by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I would also recommend the numerous movies, especially the ones with Robert Downey JR. as Holmes. I hope you enrich your lives with these fascinating stories. They will stay with you always!)

[Carol the Dabbler]

OK, so you're proposing that Holmes wasn't merely based on Bell, he actually was Bell (or Bell actually was Holmes), and similarly for Watson and Conan Doyle. That would indeed have been a nice cover. And at this late date, who can say? It's an interesting thought to chew on.

 

(By the way it looks like your fingers had a mind of their own at one point, where Bell is described as a mathematics professor -- like Moriarty! -- instead of a medical professor.)

[nozarinvestigative]

Yeah. That's exactly what i was proposing.

 

and sorry about that. I got the two of them mixed up.

 

I hope you believe my crazy ramblings though.

[Carol the Dabbler]

"Believe" might be too strong a word, but yeah, I think it's all quite plausible.

 

You know the old saying, "Great minds run in the same channel"? Some of the forum's other Conan Doyle buffs may have been thinking similar logical thoughts, and may be able to propose a few corollaries.

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

Actually, Doyle did help the Scottish police solve more then one crime. He and Bell also tried to solve the case of a murdered follow student, one of the first women to be allowed into the medical college. Sadly, it was one of the few cases Doyle looked into that was never solved.

[Shangas]

http://scheong.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/come-watson-come-the-game-is-afoot-the-elementary-fame-of-sherlock-holmes/

 

An article from my blog I thought you fellows might be interested in reading about. It seemed pertinent to the subject at hand.