Sherlock Holmes and the State System

[wdjacca]

In "The Return of Sherlock Holmes", Sherlock Holmes is compared to an "official detective" in the story "The Adventure of the Empty House".

“I confess that you had one small surprise for me,” said Holmes. “I did not anticipate that you would yourself make use of this empty house and this convenient front window. I had imagined you as operating from the street, where my friend, Lestrade and his merry men were awaiting you. With that exception, all has gone as I expected.”

Colonel Moran turned to the official detective.

“You may or may not have just cause for arresting me,” said he, “but at least there can be no reason why I should submit to the gibes of this person. If I am in the hands of the law, let things be done in a legal way.”

“Well, that’s reasonable enough,” said Lestrade. “Nothing further you have to say, Mr. Holmes, before we go?”

This shows that while Sherlock Holmes' works were similar, if not identical, to those of detectives, but the society does not see the same. To the readers' POV, Sherlock Holmes is a official detective.

[wdjacca]

In "the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", Sherlock Holmes specifically mentioned that he would be breaking the law, in order to achieve his purpose for the case he was working on in "Scandal in Bohemia".

“You don’t mind breaking the law?”

[wdjacca]

In The Hound of the Baskervilles, Sherlock Holmes calls himself a detective, seemingly holding the same powers as a police detective.

"That's lucky for him—in fact, it's lucky for all of you, since you are all on the wrong side of the law in this matter. I am not sure that as a conscientious detective my first duty is not to arrest the whole household. Watson's reports are most incriminating documents."

Sherlock Holmes also seems to be a vigilante, who fights back evil with evil, regardless of whether he is breaking the law or not.

"It is a great day for me, sir—one of the red-letter days of my life," he cried with many chuckles. "I have brought off a double event. I mean to teach them in these parts that law is law, and that there is a man here who does not fear to invoke it. I have established a right of way through the centre of old Middleton's park, slap across it, sir, within a hundred yards of his own front door. What do you think of that? We'll teach these magnates that they cannot ride roughshod over the rights of the commoners, confound them! And I've closed the wood where the Fernworthy folk used to picnic. These infernal people seem to think that there are no rights of property, and that they can swarm where they like with their papers and their bottles. Both cases decided, Dr. Watson, and both in my favour. I haven't had such a day since I had Sir John Morland for trespass, because he shot in his own warren."

These two quotes make contradicting suggestions, because one suggests that Sherlock Holmes is a proper detective within the state system, and hold the same powers as a ordinary policeman, while the other suggests that Holmes is outside of the state system, and is simply working in the dark against the dark.

[ebeshero]

Look up the chronology of the publications here. The Hound of the Baskervilles was published comparatively late, after Conan Doyle had sort of "killed off" Holmes--and his fans wanted him to come back. Did Conan Doyle change Holmes' character after he brought him back?

• Add these separate texts to your Zotero--and get info on when they were first published.