Sherlock Holmes Research Paper

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Sherlock Holmes has a peculiar and eccentric way of solving the mysteries that are brought to his attention by the somewhat incompetent Scotland Yard. Unlike the Yard, Holmes does not take the crime scene at face value. Rather, Sherlock Holmes uses his outstanding observational skills and immense background knowledge of sciences that he rigorously studies in his alone time. The first occasion that Holmes shows his superior crime-solving skills is when Lestrade and Gregson, two members of the Scotland Yard, are already present at the scene of Joseph Strangerson’s death when Watson and Holmes arrive. After looking around, Lestrade makes what he finds to be an extremely important discovery. Painted on the wall with blood was the word “RACHE”, …show more content…

After examining the crime scene, Holmes briskly came to the conclusion that Strangerson was murdered. He came to this result by first inspecting the foot prints on the floor. With these, he could paint a picture of the killer in his head: a six foot tall, middle aged man with small feet for his height. Then, after smelling the victim’s mouth and looking at his shocked facial expression, he could tell that the man was murdered,” Holmes explains. (Pg 257) Then, once finding the wedding ring in the room where Enoch Drebber was murdered, Holmes understood the reasoning for the crime. “Clearly the murderer had used it to remind his victim of some dead or absent women.” (Pg 257) This act of revenge also makes the writing on the wall make even more sense than before. With this in mind, Holmes retrieves the details of Drebber’s previous marriage, in which he learns about Jefferson Hope. With the knowledge that Hope was a cab driver in London, he could piece together that the mysterious cab in the street on the night Strangerson died was Hope’s. Holmes uses miniscule particulars that would go unnoticed by others to come to important

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