Mazariegos 1

Jilver Mazariegos
Writing 37
Professor Has
7 December, 2014
Literature Review: Holmes relationship with the Reader
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, an intelligent and prolific writer who created the iconic
character Sherlock Holmes who represents the classical phase of the detective genres
development, a time where the genre became popular with readers and when the convention of
the genre were established. The genre was heavily depicted on the police infrastructure as being
a corrupt and disorganized system that created tension between the middle class and the police.
These tensions kept arising because the police structure was disorganized to the point where
information was kept from crime scenes or destroyed and people were able to easily bribe
officers. Many Victorian folks feared for their safety and for social order and couldn't find any
other faction besides the police force to trust. These circumstances were explained by a literary
scholar Panek who argued that the prime reasons in which the detective genre bloomed where
attributed from the police incompetence that correlated into the audience unable to rely on the
police and needed someone to trust, someone to take the place of the police. This created the
perfect opportunity for Doyle to create his protagonist detective, Holmes. Because of the social
circumstances, Doyle created the Holmes character that connected to the audience by reassuring
the audience that Holmes is the ideal detective.
Holmes success as a detective was attributed due to the tension between the police and
the public. This tension was brought because of the police force incompetence with solving cases
and assuring the safety of the public which is argued by Panek when mentioning elements that

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Doyle used for his novels, " In his early works, official policemen display all sorts of truculent
ignorance and wrong-headedness"(Panek 87 ). This simple description conveys the mistrust of
the police during this time period which in turn Doyle created a character to appeal to the
audience Holmes. And because of this, Doyle soon shaped the genius to their own down-to-earth
values. Thus the developing concept of the genius joined with a modest concern about the police,
and both appealed to a readership" (Panek 19). This was important as the public could not trust
the police or any detective, Holmes instead used his genius and his faults to grab the readers trust
as his persona is characterized both as an intellectual detective and a man much like the
Victorian people. This detective character that Doyle created also had the characteristics that was
missing from the police, an intellectual man who was full of conviction, determination, who was
painstaking, diligent, yet was a man who had issues and faults. These attributes were polar
opposites of the police force, and it worked, his genius as a detective appealed to the reader, the
reader began having a connection with Holmes in which they were reassured that Holmes was
the detective who was capable of deducing and solving cases efficiently. This connection to the
audience popularized the detective genre simply because Holmes was the fictional character in
which the audience would want to see him in there realistic world, in which the police force was
incapable of producing. This is supported by Panek when he mentions the reasons Doyle was
able to appeal of the middle class was because, "If readers in the early nineteenth century saw the
police detective in literature and life as a lower-class creature who was either incompetent or
corrupt, they increasingly saw, in literature if not in life, the genius as the hero." (Panek 9). The
fact that the police incompetence existed especially during a time where one of the most
infamous crimes was committed by Jack the Ripper conveys the fears that the middle class
people had not within a fictional world but within their reality, and it goes to show that despite

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Holmes being a fictional character, is without a doubt the reason why the middle class had to rely
on the literature character Holmes.
Likewise, the popularity of Holmes was also attributed because of the cases that Holmes
undertook during most of his stories. In hound of the Baskerville, Arguably Doyle's greatest
detective story of Holmes, Holmes embarks in a journey to one of the greatest mysteries of all
time, the death of a wealthy country man Sir Charles by a beast, a hound. In which the argument
of reason versus supernatural was fought as the legend of Sir Charles death was brutal and
indescribable. Holmes decided to take this case as Holmes want to reassure the family that the
explanation for Sir Charles death is improbable and can be reasonably explained and to show
that he was capable to solving any case no matter how absurd it may be. During Holmes
investigation of the case, Holmes observes that a mysteries person was following Mortimer,
Holmes decides to look for clues nearby and enter "into a district office where he was warmly
greeted by the manager. 'Ah Wilson, I see you have not forgotten the little case in which I had
the good fortune to help you?'"( Doyle 117). This fellow was a nearby city folk who owned a
store and was one of Sherlock's former patients. This character who is only mentioned once
throughout the novel is essentially an important factor simply because he was assisted by
Holmes in a case. Most of Holmes cases, for the most part, essentially pertain to the average
middle class man, in which Holmes is glad to help this city folk. In Doyle's stories both the
powerful and the humble seek Holmes help, Holmes "gets away from the crime among
aristocrats" and focuses on the middle class problems (Panek 1). Holmes popularity was derived
also on his intake of a case pertaining to his audience and in turn creates an opening comfort
feeling between the reader and Holmes.

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The detective genre bloomed during a period of police incompetence where the Victorian
people couldn't really on solving cases. Nevertheless, these conflicts opened the path for Doyle's
books to become popular among the Victorian people. The detective that Doyle created
connected the audience through the historical context that was undertaking during its time
reassuring them that Holmes is the ideal detective who undertakes the cases of the middle class
and further assures them the reliance of a proper detective. Now the genre continues to thrive in
popularity in many ways similar to Doyle maybe not through the original police incompetence,
but simply because Doyle created Holmes as a symbol of a detective close to perfection that
definitely appeals to modern audiences today as it did in the past.
Works Cited
Panek, Leroy Lad. "Read An Introduction to the Detective Story". Doyle (1987): 88-89. Web. 26
Nov. 2014.
Panek, Leroy Lad. "Beginnings." An Introduction to the Detective Story(1987): 1-11. Web. 9
Dec. 2014.
Doyle, Conan. Hound of the Baskerville. Higher Read:LLC,2013. Kindle file.