221B Baker Street
Ling-Li (Lily) Yen
Professor Harrison
Writing 39B/ Draft 1
27 July 2014
The hidden pattern: Sherlock Holmes' formula and its success
During the late Victorian era, Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes novels were able to become well known and prominent due to its compacted and predictable framework which accommodates the popular trend at the time. Surprisingly, the most enticing and thrilling detective story, Sherlock Holmes, is based on one consistent structure that every reader knows the plot before opening the cover. In order to compose a modest detective story that can entice the majority of the reader, literary critics George Doves states that four qualities are required: the “main character is a detective, main plot is investigation, mystery seems impossible to solve, and mystery is always solved” (10). This uniform structure not only creates expected main plots before readers open the book but also minimize the stress from perplex mysteries. Because the expected structure makes the reader easy to follow the context, the reader does not require special knowledge or ability to read intense mystery stories. By knowing the overall structure, the reader will not feel stressed while they read unsolved murder cases because he or she knows the detective will surely have solutions in the end (Dove 13). The predictable structure transforms a complicated idea or mystery into an enjoyable entertainment for the readers without consuming a lot of time or energy. As Dove concludes, “most critics agree that the apparent paradox is resolved by the limited structure of the genre, which adds interest to the play activity by imposing some rules upon it” (5). In other words, lacking these predictable structures is similar to watching a baseball game without knowing the rules; the rules make fans able to enjoy the intensity and excitement of the story instead of trying to understand the background or get familiar with different characters. In The Sign of The Four, the story includes the four qualities of detective genre, which consulting detective Sherlock Holmes is the main characters and the main plot is to investigate the missing treasure of Mary Marston. Yet, the case seems impossible to solve because people who are related to the treasure have all passed away or have been murdered in the story. Nevertheless, Holmes uses the reasonable and logical science of deduction to solve the case with the confirmation from Jonathan Small, the criminal who commits the crime. Although the story is complicated and has many characters, the reader is able to follow along easily throughout the novel.
In order to complete an intriguing and intricate mystery case in a small amount of pages, Doyle took the four detective genre qualities and further designed a uniform “formula” for the Sherlock Holmes’ novella. Literary critics T.J. Binyon analyzes and concludes the consistent outline for all Holmes’ stories, “the opening scene is at Baker Street, and a client arrives. Holmes deduces things about the client from an object or the person him or herself. Then, the problem will be outlined. After the client is gone, Holmes and Watson discuss the case, which will followed by intense investigation. On the other hand, Holmes solves the mystery, and explains to Watson at Baker Street.” In addition, one of the main special qualities that detective genre has is being transitory. The reason Holmes’ story is able to be fast-paced yet intricate is the limited and predictable formatting because the reader knows the main plots and structure before reading the first page (22). Literary critic Panek expresses that being heavily influenced by Victorian ideas regarding reality, Doyle chose to avoid the element of metaphysics in his writing in order to fit the preference of the readers (Panek 80). Avoiding tedious and dreary details, story will be fast-paced and the plot will not be over-complicated
Based on the four qualities of detective genre, scholars Delamater and Prigozy not only propose the consistent outline throughout the novels but also further analyze the design of double plot in the Holmes series. Delamater and Prigozy write, “The plot is double because the story is first narrated as it appears to the bewildered bystanders who observe the crime and are to some extent threatened by it but who cannot arrive at its solution” (1). Due to this specific design, as T.J. Binyon’s Murder Will Out points out, an ordinary bystander turns Holmes’ bizarre and unusual experience into a convincing and enjoyable story. Instead of wasting time and pages to introduce a different narrator in every story, Doyle uses one characterless narrator to tell the story, and this important yet ordinary bystander is Dr. Watson (9). Before the reader opens the book, he or she already knows the entire book will be led from Dr. Watson’s perspective. In A Scandal in Bohemia, when Dr. Watson has moved out from the Baker Street, the story still is told by him, not Sherlock Holmes himself. Story purposely brings Dr. Watson back to the Baker Street, indicating how significant this narrator is.
The rapid changes in society during the age of industrial revolution and Conan Doyle’s uniform structure in his detective novels, Sherlock Holmes, predominantly partake the birth of the most successful detective story, which establishes the guideline for future detective genre. Industrial Revolution not only caused increased population in the city but also generated advanced technological devices, which created more environment and tools for people to commit crimes. Due to new understanding toward time, distance, tools and space, curiosity among British started to grow. Once they became curious, they would eagerly explore the new and unknown world. As a result, people turn their interests toward detective novels and also seek justice among society, which P.D. James noted, “Detective stories help reassure us in the belief that the universe, underneath it all, is rational. They’re small celebrations of order and reason in an increasingly disordered world” (Newsweek October 20, 1986).
On the other hand, the workplace became an arena for competition and companies hire cheap labors instead of skilled handicrafts (17). Gunning expresses, “The speed of such industrial transformation made it appear magical, occluding the unskilled labor regulated by the factory system to perform repetitive and limited tasks” (16). Workers no longer compete with their skillful ability; they compete with long working hour and with their physical durability. Consequently, people sacrifice their leisure, which means sitting for hours reading tedious classical literary became difficult to them. In addition, due to longer working hours for middle and lower classes, the majority of readers did not have leisure time to read long and dreary classical novels. As a result, short and fast-paced stories became the new trend over night. For example, The Sign of the Four only has around 100 pages, which is suitable for people who do not have time to read a long story in one setting. In conclusion, people seek for novels that are transitory, easy to read, most importantly, attract their interests.
Works Cited
Conan Doyle, Arthur. The Sign of the Four. Seattle: Amazon Digital Services, 2013. Kindle eBook. Online.
Delamater, Jerome and Ruth Prigozy, eds. Theory and Practice of Classic Detective Fiction. New York: Praeger, 1997. Print.
Dove, George N. The Reader and the Detective Story. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular
Press, 1997. Print.
Gunning, Tom. Leo, Charney., and R. Schwartz, Vanessa, eds. "Tracing the Individual Body: Photography, Detectives, and
Early Cinema." Cinema and the Invention of Modern Life. Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: University of
California Press, 1995. . Print.
Panek, Leroy. An Introduction to the Detective Story. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press,
1987. Print.