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Saho King
Professor Lynda Haas
Writing 39B
30 April 2014
Critical Reading Response Essay (Literature Review)
The mystery genre came into prominence during the late Victorian Era with the
increasing popularity of the Sherlock Holmes stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle
revolutionized the genre by combining the inspiration he drew from Poe and other writers before
him with aspects of adventure, intelligence, and emotion. Doyle is often credited for establishing
certain popular conventions in the detective story genre, including that for the detective
character. The Sign of Four was Doyles second novel starring the now iconic Sherlock Holmes.
This novella follows Holmes and Watson as they embark on an adventure to uncover the mystery
surrounding the disappearance of Miss Morstans father. As the investigation unfolds, they
discover a complicated past of bloodshed and betrayal over an Agra treasure. Throughout the
story, more and more of Holmes characteristics are revealed and many of the traits discovered
have now become the fundamental building blocks for the detective character. Most scholars will
agree on the necessity of the detective to possess a godlike genius and keen powers of
observation and deduction. These qualities unavoidably make Holmes an eccentric outsider.
In the Doyle chapter of his scholarly novel An Introduction to the Detective Story,
Leroy Panek claims that one of the major areas of attraction in Holmes is his split personality.
He describes the paradox where the detective is a rational drug addict, a sloppy precision, and a
lazy athlete at the same time that he is an expert without working at it and is able to snap out of
lassitude into action (Panek 93). Naturally, the readers are drawn to a character who is
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accomplished without effort, but who also has a side that is surprisingly human and relatable.
This characteristic is further illustrated in The Sign of Four as Holmes snaps out of his
depression and dependency on cocaine as soon as he gets an investigation request from Miss
Morstan and quickly goes back to laziness and drugs once the crime is solved. During the period
of investigation, Holmes acts like a completely different person full of energy and vigor, and he
tells Watson that he cannot sleep or relax because the problem is consuming me (Doyle 1375).
For the detective, a life without brain-work or a case to concentrate on is a dull routine of
existence (Doyle 183) and not worth living at all. The detective profession basically requires
Holmes to dedicate his life to solving other peoples problems and leaves him with no significant
personal life outside of his work. Kirby Farrell, author of Heroism, Culture, and Dread in The
Sign of Four, argues that Holmes lives vicariously through his clients and their experiences, so
without any cases to work on, his life is dull and lacks mental stimulation. While both scholars
acknowledge the fact that boredom, resulting from Holmes being a genius, plays a part in his
drug use and need for mental exaltation, Farrell goes a step further to attribute it to the inevitable
isolation due to his knowledge. In his scholarly text, Farrell claims that the process of
investigation produces power, yet it also entails alienation which in turn discloses the fearful
smallness of mankind and leads to despair and the compensation of drugs (Farrell, 48). The
literary scholar argues that because Holmes possesses a godlike power in his knowledge, he is
unable to relate to anyone and is an outsider.
As a matter of fact, many scholars agree with Farrells idea that Holmes is an outsider,
ambiguously above the law, in danger of obsession and despair, (Farrell 40) while Watson is
considered the norm in the Victorian Era. In the Doyles series, Watson is portrayed as the
average, Victorian middle-class man with qualities of a gentleman, while Holmes is described as
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the intelligent, yet eccentric man who operates outside of the expected. John McBratney argues
that Holmess divigation from the normemphasizes his resistance to conventional notions of
type and the disciplinarity it maps (McBratney 161). For example, at the end of The Sign of
Four, Watson makes the decision to marry Miss. Morstan and follow a more conventional life
plan. Holmes, on the other hand, tells his friend that he would never marry because love is an
emotional thing, andis opposite the true cold reason which I place above all things (Doyle
2163). Holmes preference for logic and reason makes him less inclined to follow the accepted,
orthodox path of the Victorian Era. McBratney goes on to say that Holmes has unique qualities
that makes him the only man who can save the system from those who wish to exploit, scuttle,
or invade it. He may seem beyond the system; indeed, it has been argued that Holmes is the
outsider who makes the population inside the social system secure (McBratney 162).
McBratney seems to view being an outsider in a more positive light than Farrell, but they both
agree that Holmes can do what he does and be good at it because he is the other and is above the
law. Maria Konnikova also inadvertently supports the claim of Holmes being an outsider in her
novel, Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes, by splitting the human mind systems
into the Watson system and the Holmes system. She writes that the Watson system is the natural
thought process of most people that is operated by lazy thought habits, while the latter system
is aspirational (Konnikova, 18) and much more thoughtful and reflective. She goes on to say
that to thinking in the Holmes system is a difficult task and would bring the average person to
exhaustion (Konnikova 21). Holmes mental capacity and ability is a major factor in making
Holmes an outsider.
In the beginning of The Sign of Four, Holmes states that the three necessary
characteristics of an ideal detective are the power of observation and that of deduction and
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knowledge (Doyle 214). After the popularization of the detective fiction genre by Doyle, these
three qualities became a convention for the detective character. In his scholarly text, Panek
writes that most of the stories showthat he observes better than anyone else (Panek 91). His
keen powers of observation is demonstrated many times throughout The Sign of Four as he
investigates the murder of Thaddeus Sholto. For example, Holmes is able to conclude some
characteristics of the assailants and the murder weapon, and the point of entry. Unlike the police
force at the time, Holmes placed significant importance on the crime scene and cautiously
examined every minute detail that would have otherwise been overlooked by others. His skills in
observation is something that earns the respect and admiration from not only Watson and his
clients, but from Officer Jones as well. Some scholars say that his genius was almost godlike. In
the Beginnings chapter, Panek claims that the readers in the early nineteenth century saw the
police detective in literature and life as a lower-class creature who was either incompetent or
corrupt and as a result, they increasingly sawthe genius as the hero (Panek 9). During the
Victorian Era, when Doyle developed the character of Sherlock Holmes, people were so fed up
by the ineffectiveness of the police force that they welcomed the idea of a genius detective. The
readers often found comfort in Holmes because he never failed to solve a crime, no matter how
impossible it might have seemed. With his encyclopedic knowledge and keen powers of
observation, Holmes quickly proves himself to be a reliable and powerful crime-solver. Dove
argues that when reading detective stories, there are certain things that the readers have come to
expect, such as the invincibility of the detective and the assurance of solution (Dove 29).
Holmes does not disappoint.
While Holmes is said to possess a godlike intelligence and power, he is also very
eccentric and mysterious. The detective has a number of hobbies that seemed to have little
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relevance to crime-solving. He is a violinist, chemist, and botanist among other things. While he
is a genius, Holmes enjoys the company of Watson and teaches him his techniques in solving
mysteries. Dove states that the pleasure a reader gets from the detective novel is not that of
listening to a story but of watching a magic trick, which the magician immediately explains
(Dove 3) and the professorial quality of Holmes described by Panek in the Doyle chapter
makes this possible. Sherlock Holmes is widely believed to be modeled after Doyles mentor,
Dr. Joseph Bell and one of the derived qualities is the detectives tendency to lecture and teach
other characters, especially Watson. In the Sign of Four and the short stories, Holmes can be
seen giving a step by step explanation of his discoveries and deductions to Watson. Watson is the
perfect representation of the audience because he embodies the average, middle-class man. Since
most of Doyles short stories about Holmes is written from Watsons perspective, the readers are
not aware of Holmes thought processes and their strong compulsion(s) to see how the story
turns out (Dove 18) are only satisfied through the detectives explanations to Watson. Another
benefit for using the second person narrative is that it keeps an air of mystery around Holmes.
Doyle is very careful to reveal as little as possible about the detective and his background. The
readers only know as much as Watson knows. While Holmes is the main character, the focus is
kept away from him and Doyle makes certain that the main plot of the story is the account of
the investigation and resolution (Dove 10), which Dove argues is one of the four essential
conventions of the detective genre.
With the popularization of the detective genre in the Victorian Era, certain qualities of the
genre developed that became expected and necessary. In The Sign of Four, Doyle solidifies the
character of Sherlock Holmes which essentially becomes the conventional model for future
detectives. Some of the main characteristics of the detective character include a split-personality,
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keen powers of observation, and a genius mind. These traits make Holmes an outsider and a stark
contrast to the average man portrayed by Watson. The literary scholars are mostly in agreement
about the conventions of the detective character with only minor differences. These qualities
continue to make the character interesting and in turn the story still captivating even after two
hundred years.


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Work Cited
Conan Doyle, Arthur. The Sign of the Four. Seattle: Amazon Digital Services, 2013. Kindle
eBook. Online.
Panek, Leroy. An Introduction to the Detective Story. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State
University Popular Press, 1987. Print.
Farrell, Kirby. Heroism, Culture, and Dread in The Sign of Four. Studies in the Novel 16:1
(1984): 32-51. JSTOR. Web. 01/15/2014.
Dove, George N. The Reader and the Detective Story. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State
University Popular Press, 1997. Print.
McBratney, John. Racial and Criminal Types: Indian Ethnography and Sir Arthur Conan
Doyles The Sign of Four. Victorian Literature and Culture 33:1 (2005): 149-167.
JSTOR. Web. 01/15/2014.
Konnikova, Maria. Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes. New York: Viking, 2013.
Print.