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The Contrast Between Sherlock Holmes And John Watson
Personalities of sherlock
Personalities of sherlock
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Recommended: The Contrast Between Sherlock Holmes And John Watson
Vibha Janakiraman
Ms. Niedert
LA II
10 November 2017
Paradoxical Personalities and Paradoxical People Is it true that people of strongly opposing personalities are those who work together best? Sherlock and Watson from The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle are a perfect match to test this theory on. Sherlock Holmes is the main character of the murder mystery, a highly observant detective who is always 10 steps ahead of everyone else. His assistant, Dr. John Watson, is like a student to him, and is the narrator of our story. It is well known that these two work very well together, and have differing personalities. However, are they really opposites, or are there more similarities to the two than what meets the eye? There
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Portrayed as a work-oriented introvert, this main character isn’t one to devote any time to emotions. “I am afraid Watson, that most of your conclusions are erroneous...I meant, to be frank, that nothing in your fallacies guided towards the truth,” (5) he says harshly as he disproves all of Watson’s theories. This brushing off Watson occurs repeatedly throughout the book. Watson, being the narrator, often explains how he doesn’t take Sherlock’s rudeness lightly. Another example of this is Sherlock’s response to Laura Lyons’ situation with Stapleton. After she explains her love for him, and how he lied to her with Beryl, Sherlock simply says, “I entirely believe you madam...the sending of this letter was suggested to you by Stapleton?” and continues on with the case. (239) Watson, however, shows numerous signs of his capacity to care. Even after just meeting the Barrymores a few weeks before, when Frankland suggested turning Selden into the police Watson says, “My heart sunk for the Barrymores,” implying that he feels compassion for them. (194) He also shows his ability to have emotions when he says, “I was still rather raw over the deception which had been practised upon me, but the warmth of Holmes’s praise drove my anger from my mind.” (206) These emotions of Watson may not be over the top or dramatic, but are standard in our world today, and aren’t familiar to Sherlock. Does this mean that they are opposites in this field? Although Watson may not be as serious about his profession as Sherlock, and Sherlock might not be as compassionate for others, it can be seen that they are both passionate. Sherlock’s life is centered solely around what he does, Watson’s around other people, but the level of dedication they both show is
How does Conan Doyle present the character of Watson in the Sherlock Holmes stories? Conan Doyle was born on May 22, 1859, in Edinburgh and was educated at Stony Hurst College and the University of Edinburgh. From 1882 to 1890 he practiced medicine in Southsea, England. His first novel, A Study in Scarlet, the first of 60 stories featuring Sherlock Holmes, appeared in 1887. this helped boost the start of the crime genre.
In the movie Holmes, in the beginning, was much more prideful and rude to Watson and people in general, but later on, Holmes was a lot nicer and somewhat humble at least compared to the book. This difference made the viewer feel less liking of the character of Holmes and it almost seemed that the director tried to save Holmes’s character by making him nicer at the ending. The difference had a big impact on the feeling of the movie because it felt that he was so stuck up he was rather unapproachable. ...
Another convention of the detective story is that the detective will have a confidant through whom he can explain his reasoning to the reader. Holmes has a confidant, Watson, who is the stereotypical gentle doctor who is plain and uninteresting so as not to draw attention away from Holmes. “I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his professional investigations'; this implies that Watson lead an uninteresting life, without many interesting hobbies or pastimes.
I'm sure you have not only heard, but also used the famous phrase "opposites attract. " The statement stands true not only in physics and chemistry, but also in relationships and friendships. We tend to be attracted to people with personalities that differ from ours, so life would be more interesting, and desire the opposite of what we have. A perfect example of this, is Sula and Nel, best friends from Toni Morrison's novel, "Sula", where the conventional ideas of good and evil are turned upside down. The two girls are like opposite sides of a magnet, strongly attracted toward one another and useless when split apart.
There are several types of relational messages found in the film. For instance if your compare them of who is more empathic of the two them the answer would be Watson he is able to read and respond to peoples nonverbal cues(M. Coulson, 2004). Sherlock is cold and with drawn from people and the world around him. Watson on the other hand is engaged in the world around him and open to understanding others feelings and experiencing a persons situation. This also shows that between the two of them that John is the stronger of the two at communication Watson also shows a great deal of commitment towards keeping and improving his interpersonal relationships(Adler, Proctor, 2012). While Sherlock is the complete opposite he doesn't care whether or not he works on his commitment and is more concerned with his own personal agenda.
For Sherlock Holmes, his partner in crime is Dr. John H. Watson. Not only is he a trusted friend, but also he is Holmes’ associate and the first person narrator of the Sherlock tales. The stories of Sherlock Holmes are a collection of short stories and fictional novels created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. These stories are based on a famous and most notorious detective all throughout London, Sherlock Holmes. Along his side, Dr. Watson narrates his and Holmes’ detective cases and reveals Sherlock’s abilities and knowledge of solving cases and fighting deadly crimes. For the duration of the stories, Watson and Holmes share a particular relationship where Holmes verbally dominates Watson, “You see, but you do not observe. The distinction is very clear” (Doyle 241). When he isn’t insulting Dr. Watson he talks about how much he relies on his partner, “I am lost without my Boswell” (Doyle 243).
Watson’s actor angrily expresses Watson’s character of being disapproving of Holmes’ use of drugs. Sherlock Holmes’ actor stares off to somewhere, while sounding calm and delivers his line of drugs being the only thing that makes existence not dull. The tone when delivering the dialogue was rather monologue and stern, which somewhat complements his stoicness. At this point, the movie has strayed from the direction of the book. Holmes then hands Watson a letter to read which has instructions of what to do and the time to do it. Watson listens to Holmes’ deduction of who crafted the letter, all his speculations ranged from penmanship and paper quality, to
Over time the reader can tell that Watson and Holmes are alike but very different which makes them great partners. From the start Watson is seen as smart but Holmes is seen as a genius. After finding the mysterious walking stick Watson tells Holmes what he observes and Holmes replies with “Really Watson,you excel yourself,”said Holmes(Doyle 2).Sherlock Holmes is seen as the type of man that thinks he is higher than anyone else. Although Holmes blatantly tells Watson that he is a “conductor of light,Some people without possessing genius have a remarkable power of stimulating it (Doyle 3).Holmes is seen as to be a man of action. Your instinct is always to do something energetic.
An examination of Sherlock Holmes' abilities and techniques. allied to his personal characteristics, enable him to solve crimes. There are many reasons to explain why Sherlock Holmes is one of the world's most famous fictional detectives. However, the main reason for This is that not only are the stories complex, but the actual character of Sherlock Holmes has extreme depth, with some subtle. elements of his character only becoming apparent when he is in certain situations.
Likewise, changes have been made on the level of the character in pursuance of the strong bond between Holmes and Watson. For instance, due to plot change some character have been removed, but John H. Watson and Sherlock Holmes the heart of the whole story indeed are kept. For instance, Sherlock Holmes is portrayed as Watson describes him in the “he was as sensitive to flattery on the score of his art as any girl could be of her beauty” (Doyle 38). Also, Holmes calls himself a “consulting detective” just like the title he gave himself in the novel. Indeed, Holmes as one of the main characters of the story needs to show similar characteristics of the original Holmes, or else the show would have lost its meaning. Although Holmes’ deductive skills are shown pretty clearly in the show, his expertise in cigars are not mentioned as in the book the detective says he “‘can distinguish at a glance the ash of any known brand either of cigar or tobacco’” (Doyle 37). Yet the writers of the show, might reveal Holmes’ expertise later on in the show since they have the 60 different
...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.
In the Sherlock episode “A Study in Pink” the first time John joins Sherlock on a case Detective Lestrade’s partner, Sally Donovan warns him to stay away from Sherlock. She has a theory that one day Sherlock will start committing crimes because, “One day just showing up [to a crime scene] won’t be enough. One day we’ll be standing around a body and Sherlock Holmes will be the one who put it there.” She believes he is a psychopath and lacks trust in him, yet John choses to continue to spend time with him anyway. Not long after this conversation, a strange call and a private car usher John to meet Sherlock’s “archenemy” who is Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock’s older, very powerful brother. He asks John to spy on Sherlock and share information in exchange for a large sum of money but John refuses, even though he has only known Sherlock for 2 days. To further prove that John stands up for Sherlock,
The great part of Irene Adler outsmarting Holmes is that it is very ironic, and goes against the beginning of the story. The very first paragraph of the first story in this collection, A Scandal in Bohemia, includes the following line: "He was, I take it, the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen."(405 Pickering). Part of Sherlock Holmes's attraction, both for Watson as his narrator and for the readers, is the guy's superbly disciplined mind. Conan Doyle emphasizes Holmes's magnificent brain in many ways: he uses Watson's admiration to reinforce the reader's own. Which is why the story being told from Watsons point of view gives it a completely different feel. He gives Holmes lots of foils, including foolish officers and the criminals he's hunting. And perhaps the best trick of all, Holmes frequently gets to show off his smarts by wowing
In the Sherlock Holme’s stories Eastern and American influence were seen as dangerous and this is shown in “The Man With the Twisted Lip,” when Watson arrives at the drug house and says, “As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe for me and supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth” (114). The importance of this is Watson describes a sallow, jaundiced look of the Malaysian attendant. The negative connotation Watson uses to describe the Malaysian attendant is directly associated with his race and ethnicity. Furthermore, some of Doyle’s descriptions of foreign characters imply a xenophobic attitude that non-europeans are inferior and often act out of the English norms. For instance, in “The Noble Bachelor,” the noblemen describes his American wife, Miss Doran as, “what we call in England a tomboy, with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of traditions. She is impetuous - volcanic, I was about to say. She is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her resolutions” (4). In the plot of the Noble Bachelor, Miss Doran runs off on the day of her wedding, causing distress and conflict to the aristocratic groom, Lord Robert St. Simon. In most of the Sherlock Holmes stories, Holmes remains unbiased when conducting an investigation, however the actual conflicts that Doyle wrote
Holmes was a haughty intellectual with a bumbling sidekick (Weinman). One thing Sherlock Holmes is greatly known for is his style. Not just what he would wear, more than that. Holmes had a certain style to the process of solving crimes. He had a way of using his smarts rather than physical strength to fight his battles (Weinman). Holmes says in A Study in Scarlet, “The science of deduction and analysis is one which can only be acquired by long and patient study” (Doyle 16). His skills were second nature to him just like how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich is second nature to anyone (Doyle 18). Holmes is able to come to a deduction within seconds. When he first met h...