Every great story has a villain and a trickster. Occasionally these two meet and create a dynamic super-villain. It is the trickster traits created by William Hynes and Lewis Hyde that explain the motivation behind their actions. Hynes breaks his traits down into six categories while Hyde maintains only one. Hynes believes tricksters are defined by an ambiguous and anomalous nature, actions of deceit and trickery, shape-shifting, situation inversion, bricoleur, and imitation of the gods. Hyde maintains that all tricksters are motivated by a hunger, be it food or otherwise. When thinking of these traits the many incarnations of James Moriarty come to mind but none quite resonate with each of them like that played by Andrew Scott in BBC’s series Sherlock. In this recent adaption, Moriarty is driven by an insatiable need to best Sherlock Holmes through a series of clever competitions crafted by Moriarty himself. Moriarty is able to become a true trickster buy using his drive to best Sherlock Holmes and publicly disgrace him through powers of situation inversion, shape-shifting, bricoleur, and an anomalous nature that become so convincing the public, along with the hero are never sure what his next step will be.
Hynes theory of ambiguity and anomaly characterizes Moriarty because every move he makes has a flair for the dramatic, acting on the outs of social and cultural norms, and promoting only his own agenda. Moriarty is unafraid to kill, mame, and torture others emotionally and physically to fulfill his desire of beating Sherlock Holmes. Acting as a “criminal consultant” Moriarty is responsible for most of the crimes in the series as either a sponsor, informant, or mastermind. Moriarty is a psychopath with dark tendencies appearing...
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...he personified “dark side’ of Sherlock Holmes; whereas Holmes created the job “consulting detective” Moriarty became a “consulting criminal.” While tricksters most commonly are devilish jokers, Moriarty plays the crucial role of motivating the hero. He pushes Holmes to solve the mysterious and in his pursuit for reason. Moriarty is a true trickster in the way he plays his games and sets his traps. To Moriarty, everything is a game and every move has a reason.
Works Cited
Hyde, Lewis. Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth, and Art. 1997. Web.
Hynes, William. Trickster Makes the World . Web.
Crossley- Holland, Kevin. The Norse Myths. New York: Pantheon, 1980. Print.
Martin, Richard P. Myths of the Ancient Greeks. New York: New American Library, 2003. Print.
Moffat, Steven, dir. "The Great Game, The Reichenbach Fall ." Sherlock. BBC: 25 July 2010. Television.
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Very much like Iago, Moriarty takes on varying personalities to gain an advantage against his opponent. To Sherlock Holmes, he is Moriarty; the intellectually challenging and dangerous criminal that seeks to eliminate his competition. For Molly Hooper, the trusted pathologist...
There is one immensely popular figure in Victorian literature that uses scientific deduction to solve criminal mysteries, and his curiosity to solve mysteries has become his obsession. However, he is so cool and distant from his own emotions that he does not care if the obsession leads to his destruction, as long as he solves the mystery to appease his voracious mind first. The only thing that truly excites him in a passionate way, the one thing that causes any emotion within his cool demeanor, is his curiosity, which is his addiction, for solving mysteries. He is the hero of the story The Sign of Four, and his name, of course, is Sherlock Holmes.
“As we speak of Trickster today, you must try to blow life into the image, to imagine Trickster as life energy, to allow Trickster to step out of the verbal photograph we create . . . . Because trickster stories still have power: the power to bring us to laughter, the power to baffle us, the power to make us wonder and think and, like Trickster, just keep going on” (Bright).
For my example of a trickster I am using The Joker from the popular movie franchise by Christopher Noland “Batman Begins”. I will be using the second movie in the franchise “The Dark Knight” for my example of The Joker portrayed by actor Heath Ledger. The Joker is part of the criminal element that is part of the chief city represented in the world of Batman. Although he takes part in criminal acts within this city he was once a soldier in the armed forces and suffers from PTSD as well as other mental health problems stemming from his service. Through this dichotomy we can see that he was once an agent of justice and now acts as though he is a criminal but states himself within the movie that he is only “an agent of chaos”.
Universally, a trickster is someone who is underestimated. They don’t have as much strength, or power, or are younger. But they are often much cleverer, and are able to trick people with their wits. They are able to be either gender, and are even able to go outside gender norms, such as a male dressing as a female. They are neither good nor bad, and though they do bad things are often seen as doing it for the good. Take, for instance, the story Coyote, Iktome, and the Rock. Coyote gives his blanket to the rock, showing good. However, he tries to take it back, and even steals it back, showing bad. But it’s shown to be acceptable, in a way, because the weather is causing Coyote harm, and he needs the blanket for warmth. There are aspects
The criminal profiler Thomas Cronin identifies Holmes as a very unique criminal as he states that criminals are smart, but they are not discipline enough to finish college and the fact that he finished medical school, makes him even more unique. Holmes was able to hide his dark nature as he had an important facilitator which was his career and charm that brought him plenty of victims.
The trickster character is often use in African American Comedy. The definition of a trickster is a person who plays tricks who also is a deceiver, cheat and a fraud. In literature, a trickster is a supernatural figure appearing in various guises and typically engaging in mischievous activities. Tricksters usually succeed by outsmarting or out thinking their opponents. The trickster figure originated in African American culture, through African folklore. When Africans were force to come to the New World for slavery, they brought over stories and tales with them. As black slaves gained literacy and began to write about their experiences, they incorporated figures from oral tradition into their written creations.
Even thought there is not a commonly agreed single definition for a trickster, Hydes and Hynes find common ground in saying that a trickster is someone who deceits, tricks , takes advantage of situations and certainly-among other things, disobeys normal rules. A trickster breaks the rules more often maliciously, as Loki for example; however, at the end usually the tricks end up having positive effects. Hynes mentions six characteristics most often found in the trickster. Even though not all of them are always present, in the film “Identity Thief” (2013) Diana (Melissa McCarthy) shows a few of these traits explained by Hynes.
...o enhance the personality and behaviors of another. By describing Sherlock as a cold, calculative, crime solving machine leading us to outwardly see an icy exterior, but to expand upon that with the use of introducing a dynamic that reflects the internal operations of his mind. Be that he had no real emotional attachment to the people he interacted with, other than Watson it seems, he developed a perceived relationship through his adoration of specific traits through conan doyles use of the subcharacters. Showing that Sherlock not only seemed a complicated cold man, but one who has the ability to admire people for their intellectual capabilities, not their crimes. Conan Doyles use of sub characters to expand upon and make the readers infer their own thoughts about who the character that they are reading about truly is. Not just the descriptions given by the author.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle writes a short story about how innocence gets victimized by a royal subject. When a royal figure clashes with someone who is not equal in social class, he will do anything to hide his mistake. This is when the King hires Sherlock Holmes. Arthur Conan Doyle based Holmes off of a man named Dr. Joseph Bell, who was a friend of his in medical school. When Doyle saw that medical practice was not a success, he began writing Holmes stories for money. The public became infatuated with not only the stories, but mainly Sherlock Holmes. When Doyle wanted to write in more respectable genres (Duncan 3), he made one enormous mistake.
In the novel, Sherlock Holmes The Hound of the Baskervilles, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are given a case that is paranormal. They decide to split up and Dr. Watson is given the task to stay by Sir Henry’s side while looking for clues. They cross paths against and Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson meet to discuss this case as a murder. They find major clues against Mr. Stapleton leading to his death. The novel explores the theme of not being ruled by fear through characters dealing with the apparent supernatural myth coming to life.
Sherlock Holmes, a name most people would know if they were to hear it, has come to greatly influence the modern world of mysteries. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had no idea a character he started to write about for the first time in 1887 would still be carried alive by other TV and movie producers in 2014. Doyle also never new that Holmes would become such a popular character or result in a name mostly everybody would know. Even if there was a person who did not know who or what Sherlock Holmes was, they are certain to have at least heard his name before. “Doyle turned his principal character into a household word” (Haining 7). Doyle started a legacy that lives on forever. Sherlock Holmes personality and looks may change with every generation he is in, but his main characteristics remain the same. Sherlock Holmes’ style of deduction, great sense of observation and strange personality in Arthur Doyle’s stories influenced how TV and movie producers would portray Holmes in their version of Doyle’s mysteries in shows such as Elementary and Sherlock.