The most famous detective story in the literary worldleft from the pen of Arthur Conan Doyle and still remains the recognized favorite of the public. A recognizable character has acquired its own characteristics, certain attributes that allow it not to get lost among other heroes and to be familiar even to those who have never even met Conan Doyle. To this day, remain relevant film adaptation of the many adventures of this detective in the form of movies and TV shows. Characteristics of Sherlock Holmes will help to present this character the way he was conceived by his creator.
Sherlock Holmes - the hero of detective stories andstories by Arthur Conan Doyle. His image of an observant genius, capable of unraveling any business and solving even the most difficult puzzle, is complemented by the image of a faithful friend - Dr. Watson, a more simple and ordinary person. Arthur Conan Doyle devoted the thirty-one year of his life to the great detective story (from 1886 to 1917), popularizing the genre of the detective novel and creating many followers and admirers. The characteristic of Sherlock Holmes cannot be unambiguous, since even this character himself cannot be called unambiguous.
The image of Sherlock Holmes was formed at the turn of the epoch, at a time when the world in which Arthur Conan Doyle and his characters lived could only be identified by one epithet - the controversial one.
Detective can be immediately identified as decadent,Victorian and neo-romantic hero. Why does the characteristic of Sherlock Holmes reach such extremes? Because each direction had a fairly strong influence on the formation of the image, so remembered by the readers.
The literary hero gentleman is the prototype of the character of this Victorian novel. But what is included in this definition?
It was previously believed that a gentleman is a mannoble origin, secured enough to live without working. Therefore, the activities of such persons were of an amateur nature, and their qualities included the ability to improvise, the presence of a free mind and a love for experiments.
Over time, the criteria were increasingly eroded, andAs a result, his character, personality traits, and not his material condition became more important for determining a gentleman. A gentleman is a model of nobility, a code of honor, gallantry and intelligence, equanimity in any circumstances.
So who is Sherlock Holmes?Characteristics of the hero contains all these qualities, so he may well be called a gentleman. In addition, he is sufficiently secured, and is engaged in investigating crimes solely for his own pleasure, in order to allay boredom.
Still, he does not fully fit this image.
Decadence is extreme, this is oppositionstill build. It was expressed in the contempt of the ordinary, it was stormy, not prim, individual and creative, instead of normal and accepted. And who will argue that all this does not fit our hero? The characteristic of Sherlock Holmes is precisely that - not to call him ordinary. And if something aroused interest in him, then everything else became unimportant: the time of day did not play a role in the detective's activity schedule, all that was important was the desire to destroy boredom, to unravel the next riddle.
Characteristics of a literary hero as a personself-sufficient and amateur, independent in deeds and judgments - such a character came to the fore in neo-romanticism. These features are also characteristic of Mr. Holmes. Just like the neoromantic heroes, he fights for justice in his microcosm, not seeking to solve global universal problems.
One of the reasons why Sherlock Holmes cannotattributed to the Victorian literature, is that in the hero there is no propaganda of family values. Relationships with relatives at the detective strained, for the entire cycle, only the elder brother Mycroft is mentioned, who is rather a stranger or an enemy than a friend, and there is a reference to his nephew (only once).
Holmes also has a passion that is closer todecadence than prim gentlemen of Victorianism — drugs, morphine, and cocaine. In those days, when these substances still walked along the sharp edge between medication drugs and harmful to the body, the detective addiction did not seem to be definitely harmful, but they left a bad mark, clearly separating the story from the family books.
The characteristic of Sherlock Holmes focuses onhis unique and inquiring mind. The same is true of all the stories about the detective: Arthur Conan Doyle does not savor the aesthetics of murder, he does not consider him aesthetic, most of the attention is paid to thinking, the way things are, intellectuality and psychology.
You may also notice that amateur detective more oftenacts not according to the laws of England, but according to the laws of honor, his own principles - he can let go of the criminal if he believes that he was right in his actions. And this is not an isolated case. The villains in the adventures of Holmes can not always even be called such - they are always stories of love and betrayal, friends and enemies, and they are rarely committed for the sake of only one evil.
