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Jenny-My Tran
Writing 39B
Professor Haas
August 29
th
2014
Literature Review

Holmess Eccentricities

In many story writes, whether it is books or movies, Sherlock Holmes is always displayed
as a man of knowledge. Holmes was a fictional character developed by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
in order to be the main focus to his stories. As the stories include mysteries, I have developed a
theory that Holmes, himself, is a mystery of its own. Although Holmes may be a man who is
seen with great intelligence, as he catches his criminals, he has many eccentricities that benefit
him throughout his cases. Holmess eccentricities are observed through many writers such as
Arthur Conan Doyle, Jerome Delamater, T.J. Binyon, Ruth Prigozy and Maria Konnikova, who
all come to the agreement that Holmes has an unconventional touch to his methods for solving
his cases.
Holmes was infamous for solving crimes with using unordinary methods. In Theory and
Practice of Classic Detective Fiction, Delamater and Prigozy bring up points such as; the way
Holmes solves his cases. Delamater and Prigozy explain that Holmes has the most accurate
reasoning. Both scholars understood that Holmes used a method for his understandings and was
almost always correct about his correlation of events. Holmes was brilliant; and he understood
how to open his mind and use every aspect and was seen as the scientific method. As people
often know, the scientific method involves a series of reasoning that could be seen when Holmes
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analyzes throughout many scenes. In the quote that reads, His deductive style of reasoning
follows the belief that once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however
improbable, must be true (Delamater, Prigozy 22), agrees that Holmess crime solving skills
does not involve discrimination or ignorance, but instead the natural use of his intelligence. In
Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes, Konnikova explains how Holmes will
investigate all lines of inquiry eliminating them one by one until the one that remains, however
improbable, must be the truth (Konnikova 15). Holmes method concludes that the clue least
expected, should almost always be the answer to his cases. By saying this, both authors agree
that Holmes used elimination methods to catch his criminals. Unlike other investigators, Holmes
still left his eliminated possibilities and made it his prime subject. This created an eccentricity for
Holmes because other investigators would have ruled out possible choices and dismissed the
cases.
Another unique quality of Holmes was that he was an avid cocaine addict. Although
Holmes was brilliant in solving cases, to stimulate his mind, he had to use unnatural substances
such as morphine or cocaine. In, The Sign of Four, written by Conan Doyle, Watson says that
hes concerned over Holmess cocaine addiction and that he indulges when mental stimulation
is absent. (Doyle 109). This is another mystery within the book because unlike other detectives,
Sherlock engages in substances to help solve his case. Doyle created Holmes to have this
addiction in order to prove to readers that Holmes was not like other detectives. Delamater and
Prigozy state that he used cocaine in order to slip out of intellectual boredom (Delamater,
Prigozy 22). By using cocaine, Holmes was always using his mind and keeping it out of a
slumber. Also as stated in Binyons excerpt, Excerpt from Murder Will Out: The Detective in
Fiction, he states who alleviates the deadly boredom of existence with injections of cocaine
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and morphine...(10) With that being said, Sherlock was different from other detectives because
he chose to use different methods to solve his crimes. While all scholarly writers agree that
cocaine was used as a stimulant, Holmes proved their ideas correct by show casing his
intelligence while solving his cases. Holmess addiction pointed him out from other detectives
because of his eccentric addicton.
Holmess eccentricities did not only come from his mind, but also from where he was
located, London. In Binyons excerpt, Excerpt from Murder Will Out: The Detective in Fiction,
he states, His normal habitat is the streets and alleys of London, of which he has an
encyclopedic knowledge (9) meaning that Holmess location helps him solve his cases because
he has such a wide range of knowledge on the area. Unlike other detectives, Holmess tactics in
his area allowed him to solve his cases. He had people helping him as well as close contact to the
police. In the story, The Sign of Four, Doyle includes in characters called, Baker Street Irregulars
in order to help Holmes in investigating the streets. Doyle writes, They can go everywhere, see
everything, overhear every one (1286). By saying this, unlike other detectives, Doyle points out
that Holmes had a team of small children that helped him find clues in order to solve his case.
Without Holmes being in London, both authors agree that Holmes skills had a part to do with his
location. With the familiarity of area and occupants, Holmes found a way to use those
components in order to benefit his observations.
In conclusion, Holmess stories contained mysteries within the text, but also contained
unsolved questions about the way Holmes operated. His eccentricities came hand in hand with
his work and allowed him to solve his mysteries efficiently. Without his open mind, cocaine
addiction, and knowledge of his area, he would not be any different from other detectives. These
qualities point Holmes out and make him the only consulting detective in the world. Holmes is
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excellent at what he does because he is not conformed like other detectives. Writers have come
to the conclusion that Holmess qualities stood out and made him eccentric because he was very
optimistic about situations and did not need anyones help to analyze his unsolved mysteries but
instead used his own tactics at finding the criminals.






















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Works Cited
Binyon, T.J. "Murder Will Out": The Detective in Fiction. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1989. Print.
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.
Konnikova, Maria. Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes. New York: Viking, 2013.
Print.