Stereotypes In Detective Fiction

1405 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: An essay about sherlock holmes

The genre of Detective Fiction not only gives the reader an intellectual challenge, but also brings up significant stereotypes in society. Detective Fiction allows the reader to explore a new realm of mystery while also being guided by the detective to uncover the suspects and clues. Underneath the mysteries lays a deeper look into the structure of society. In the novels, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, and The Big Sleep, there are multiple cultural narratives through which the novel recognizes. One of which is women and femininity in society. Throughout history, women have often been under the supervision of men and considered to be at a lower standard. Women were thought of as quiet, helpless, and dependent …show more content…

Mona Grant is honest and does not allow other people to control her. Most of the women in the Hardboiled Tradition are insecure and need men to make them feel wanted and accepted. Women also often use their sexually and appearence to attract men. However, Mona is different. Mona wears a silver wig to disguise herself for her husband, not because he makes her, but because she loves him. Most women have a nice appearance with a cruel heart but Mona has a rather unique appearance and a purely good heart. Similarly, Mona does not let the men in her life control her. It was her choice to hide away in order to protect Eddie Mars, her husband. She believes Eddie did not kill anyone; therefore, she follows this instinct and tries to protect him. She also does not let Marlowe persuade her to go with him; she stands her ground and stays independent. Loyalty is another characteristic that Mona pertains to. When Marlowe is in trouble, Mona helps him to escape. Later, she tricks Canino into thinking Marlowe is dead, which then allows Marlowe to kill Canino. She is brave enough to deceive a man in order to help someone she knows is a good person. Also, she is not helpless and helps men, rather than men helping her. Mona Grant symbolizes a feminine power that challenges the hierarchy of male and female

Show More
Related

  • Gender Roles In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    1323 Words  | 3 Pages

    Frankenstein is a novel about the creation of an unknown evil by one man, Victor Frankenstein. The unusual nature of the monster’s birth in addition to his humane experiences serve as a counterpoint to describe the importance of the roles of women in British society. Along with being companions of men, women play a central role in contributing to the stability of the prevailing social order. In Mary Shelley’s gothic fiction, Frankenstein, the motif of gender roles depicts the envisioned position that men hold over women; society views women as insignificant to men.

    Read More

  • Susan Glaspell's Trifles and A Jury of Her Peers

    1077 Words  | 3 Pages

    The empowerment of women is the major factor in the two pieces written by Susan Glaspell. The male detectives couldn’t figure out what may have happened, but when the women try to bring all the pieces together, they are thrown aside and not substantive. Glaspell shows how the women acted as if they were detectives, much more than the men by being contributing to the fact that they solve the case, showing they were just as valuable as the men, and actually much more.

    Read More

  • Are We all Simply Serial Killers or Are Serial Killers Different from the Rest of Us?

    2023 Words  | 5 Pages

    Vronsky, Peter. Female Serial Killers: How and Why Women Become Monsters. New York: Berkley, 2007. Print.

    Read More

  • Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon

    1101 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...r is much more difficult and requires extensive analysis. Female characters in American detective novels, stereotypically, exude the same blatant sexuality, helplessness and naivete and are therefore forced to exploit the only strengths they have in order to not be overwhelmed by the more forceful male characters. As can be seen in The Maltese Falcon the three female characters strive to maintain their power by any means necessary. Ironically, the character that exhibits the most masculine qualities and is the least sexual is the most successful. This proves that masculinity is equivalent to power and therefore women are powerless on many levels. The role of women is fairly constant in hard-boiled novels, and the struggle for power and control is an ever present theme.

    Read More

  • The Impact Of Women In A Scandal In Bohemia

    1103 Words  | 3 Pages

    As part of the Sherlock Holmes series, the short story, “A Scandal in Bohemia,” written by Arthur Conan Doyle, introduces the Victorian concept , “The New Woman.” The term “New Woman” describes noncomformist females as smart, educated, independent, and self-reliant. These women decided that they did not want to get entrapped into the stereotypical “Angel of the House.” The New Woman concept did not only apply to middle class women, but factory and office workers. These women put off marriage to make themselves an individual. The New Woman concept made a major impact in social changes that redefined gender roles, consolidating women’s rights, and overcoming masculine supremacy. This new woman also appeared in literature that involved crime

    Read More

  • Sherlock Holmes: A Marxist Deconstruction

    2104 Words  | 5 Pages

    Mysteries have always held great fascination for the human mind, not least because of the aura that surrounds them and the realm of the Unknown into which they delve. Coupled with the human propensity of being particularly curious about aspects which elude the average mind, the layer of intrigue that glosses over such puzzles makes for a heady combination of the literary and the popular. In the canon of detective fiction worldwide, no detective has tickled the curious reader’s imagination and held it in thrall as much as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. The 221-B, Baker Street, London ‘amateur’ detective combines a rare blend of intellectual prowess and sharp wit to crack a series of baffling riddles.

    Read More

  • The Psychology Behind the Serial Killer

    3236 Words  | 7 Pages

    Pearson, P. (1998). When she was bad: How and why women get away with murder. New York: Penguin Putnam, Inc.

    Read More

  • Compare The Speckled Band, The Red Headed League and Silver Blaze as Examples of Detective Fiction

    1436 Words  | 3 Pages

    The birth of classic detective fiction was originated just in the mid nineteenth century, and was producing its own genre. Classical detective fiction follows a set of rules called the ‘Ten commandments of detective fiction’. The genre is so popular it can bee seen by the number of sales in any good book stores. Many of these books have been created a long time ago and there is still a demand for these types of books. The popularity is still ongoing because it provides constant entertainment, and also the reader can also have a role of detective trying to solve the crime/case committed. Classical detective fiction has a formula, the detective story starts with a seemingly irresolvable mystery, typically a murder, features the astute, often unconventional detective, a wrongly accused suspect to whom the circumstantial evidence points, and concludes with a startling or unexpected solution to the mystery, during which the detective explains how he or she solved the mystery. Formula that includes certain elements such as, a closed location to keep the number of suspects down, red hearings spread around the stories to keep the reader entertained yet interacted.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Susanne Beacker's Monster Culture

    1176 Words  | 3 Pages

    While examining nineteenth-century female monster, Susanne Beacker reveals that she remains a mere idea, a “voiceless textual object” in women’s gothic texts whose happy endings close to the retribution and exorcism of the monstrous woman and the entrapment of the heroine in the patriarchal system (72). In this context, DeLamotte contends that: Like the Good Other Woman, the Evil Other Woman often spends much of her life hidden away in the castle, secret room, or whatever, a fact suggesting that even a virtuous woman’s lot is the same she would have merited had she been the worst of criminals. The heroine’s discovery of such Other Women is in the one case an encounter with women’s oppression-their confinement as wives, mothers, and daughters-and in the other with a related repression: the confinement of a Hidden Woman inside those genteel writers and readers who, in the idealization of the heroine’s virtues, displace their own rebellious

    Read More

  • Dorcas Lester

    1564 Words  | 4 Pages

    The short stories of Dorcas Dene, Detective: Her Adventures, took an unconventional turn to where women stood compared to men and empowered women to be something more than just a housewife. Fiction often depicts real human characteristics and ideals. However, Dorcas's short stories didn't follow that route. The science of human behavior can be found in literature and shares the aspects of the lives of human beings because through literature, readers come to see the universals of human experience (Ryan 412). Fiction, in this view, provides accurate depictions or representations of mental characteristics (Ryan 412).

    Read More

  • Stereotypes In the Media

    483 Words  | 1 Pages

    Stereotypes In the Media Stereotypes play an important role in today's society and particularly in propaganda. According to the Webster's Dictionary, stereotyping is defined as a fixed conventional notion or conception of an individual or group of people, held by a number of people. Stereotypes can be basic or complex generalizations which people apply to individuals or groups based on their appearance, behaviour and beliefs. Stereotypes are found everywhere in the world. Though our world seems to be improving in many ways, it seems almost impossible to liberate it from stereotypes.

    Read More

  • The Evolution of the Role of Women in British and American Literature

    1818 Words  | 4 Pages

    “Girls wear jeans and cut their hair short and wear shirts and boots because it is okay to be a boy; for a girl it is like promotion. But for a boy to look like a girl is degrading, according to you, because secretly you believe that being a girl is degrading” (McEwan 55-56). Throughout the history of literature women have been viewed as inferior to men, but as time has progressed the idealistic views of how women perceive themselves has changed. In earlier literature women took the role of being the “housewife” or the household caretaker for the family while the men provided for the family. Women were hardly mentioned in the workforce and always held a spot under their husband’s wing. Women were viewed as a calm and caring character in many stories, poems, and novels in the early time period of literature. During the early time period of literature, women who opposed the common role were often times put to shame or viewed as rebels. As literature progresses through the decades and centuries, very little, but noticeable change begins to appear in perspective to the common role of women. Women were more often seen as a main character in a story setting as the literary period advanced. Around the nineteenth century women were beginning to break away from the social norms of society. Society had created a subservient role for women, which did not allow women to stand up for what they believe in. As the role of women in literature evolves, so does their views on the workforce environment and their own independence. Throughout the history of the world, British, and American literature, women have evolved to become more independent, self-reliant, and have learned to emphasize their self-worth.

    Read More

  • Edgar Allen Poe, Father of Modern Detective Fiction

    928 Words  | 2 Pages

    Pos-Ho. Critical survey of mystery and Detective Fiction. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey Salem Press, 1988. pgs 1332-1337

    Read More

  • Perception And Social Standing In Agatha Christie's The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd

    849 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was first published in 1926, and is one of many of Christie’s Hercule Poirot Mystery novels. In this novel, we obtain a deeper understanding of the impact social standings has and the influence it has on how people perceive you. The mystery takes place in an era where social class was extremely divided, and it is shown throughout the novel how a character’s social class can hinder or help. Even when the characters are faced with a crime, and the person who did it is unknown, social class still plays a magnificent role in unraveling the explanation of who would have committed something as dreadful as murdering a man. The Murder of Roger

    Read More

  • Successfully Breaking the Rules of Detective Fiction in Agatha Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and Ruth Rendell’s A Judgement in Stone

    1968 Words  | 4 Pages

    “Mystery fiction is a game with rules, an intellectual competition between writer and reader. To keep the game honest, both writer and reader must be playing by the same rules” (Miller). Some of the conventional rules of detective fiction are listed in S. S. Van Dine’s “Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories” and Ronald Knox’s “10 Commandments of Detective Fiction.” However, some of the ‘rules’ Knox and Van Dine list do not extend to Ruth Rendell’s A Judgement in Stone and Agatha Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. Despite Rendell and Christie not conforming to these ‘rules’ of detective fiction put forth by Van Dine and Knox, their novels challenge the reader, create thrilling suspense, and while unorthodox are extremely successful.

    Read More

More about Stereotypes In Detective Fiction

Open Document