Sherlock Holmes’ character: appearance, habits, knowledge.

Sherlock Holmes had a real life prototype- Joseph Bell. Conan Doyle met Dr. Bell in 1877 at the University of Edinburgh Medical School. Conan Doyle was studying to be a doctor and Bell was one of his professors. Bell was thirty-nine years old when Conan Doyle first attended one of his lectures. In addition to being a brilliant doctor, Bell was also an amateur poet, a sportsman and a bird-watcher. By the end of Conan Doyle's second year Bell had selected him to serve as an assistant in his ward. This gave Conan Doyle the opportunity to view Dr. Bell's remarkable ability to quickly deduce a great deal about a patient.

Watson describes Holmes as "bohemian" in habits and lifestyle (Bohemianism is a lifestyle typical for people dealing with music, arts and literature). According to Watson, Holmes is an eccentric, with no regard for modern standards of tidiness or good order.

Holmes is tall and thin-he himself claims to be 6ft tall-but his friend Watson claims he is over 6ft. He has black hair and grey eyes, thin lips and 'a hawk-like' nose. Holmes has a strident voice. Although Holmes has never excercised for the fun of it, he is always fit and ready for the action that takes place in the stories, and is ready to see off his attackers with either boxing or Baritsu-a form of martial art. He is also proficient at single-stick and fencing.

Holmes stays up late and gets up just as late. He is a smoker, and when a great depression sweeps over him, he has been known unfortunately to indulge in Cocaine-injecting himself with a 7% solution. Watson has tried on many an occasion to stop Holmes from continuing with this dangerous habit-and once suspected (wrongly) that Holmes had moved on to Opium. Holmes is scrupulously clean and is always dressed neatly-seldom wearing a Deer-Stalker cap. Holmes is known for his energetic approach to solving the cases which are presented before him by the many people, from many walks of life-from the lowest to the highest in the land, but when he is not involved in a case-he can become lethargic-and slip into the depression mentioned earlier. Holmes is a music lover-going to various concerts and Operas, and of course he himself is a Violinist, prefering German music (according to the Chambers Dictionary of Literary Characters Holmes even had a Stradivarius violin). Holmes seems to be an un-loving person at first glance- but he is not. He cares deeply about his friends and is concerned for Watson-especially when Watson's wife dies. As for women - Holmes could never get over one in particular - Irene Adler. She would always be 'the woman' to him.

In The Musgrave Ritual, Watson describes Holmes thus:

Although in his methods of thought he was the neatest and most methodical of mankind ... [he] keeps his cigars in the coal-scuttle, his tobacco in the toe end of a Persian slipper, and his unanswered correspondence transfixed by a jack-knife into the very centre of his wooden mantelpiece ... He had a horror of destroying documents.... Thus month after month his papers accumulated, until every corner of the room was stacked with bundles of manuscript which were on no account to be burned, and which could not be put away save by their owner.

Sherlock Holmes was a very well educated person. He was even a member the Royal Society of Chemistry(and also in real life!). But see how Dr. Watson describes Sherlock Holmes abilities in "A Study in Scarlet":

Knowledge of Literature – nil.

Knowledge of Philosophy – nil.

Knowledge of Astronomy – nil.

Knowledge of Politics – Feeble.

Knowledge of Botany – Variable. Well up in belladonna, opium and poisons generally. Knows nothing of practical gardening.

Knowledge of Geology – Practical, but limited. Tells at a glance different soils from each other. After walks, has shown me splashes upon his trousers, and told me by their colour and consistence in what part of London he had received them.

Knowledge of Chemistry – Profound.

Knowledge of Anatomy – Accurate, but unsystematic.

Knowledge of Sensational Literature – Immense. He appears to know every detail of every horror perpetrated in the century.

Plays the violin well.

Is an expert singlestick player, boxer and swordsman.

Has a good practical knowledge of British law.

Date: 2015-02-16; view: 3625