Sherlock Holmes and the Case of Social Class
Just by looking at Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s name it is obvious that not only did he live in a country and time period where a class system was strictly adhered to, he also reaped the benefits afforded an individual who belonged to the ruling class. If he had not been born into the upper class of English society, there is a high probability that the world would have never known characters such as Sherlock Holmes and Doctor John Watson. English society in the time period that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote his greatest works of literature was most definitely broken into a social class system. Within the pages of Doyle’s literary masterpieces, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, there are many examples that show that his characters and storylines…show more content… Doyle was writing to an audience that needed to seek comfort in the social structure they knew in order to marvel at the amazing intellect and situations they were exposed to as they journeyed through the world of Sherlock Holmes. While readers found comfort in the pompous, aristocratic thoughts and beliefs of Sherlock’s partner, Watson, Doyle was free to voice his dislikes of the class system of his day through the thoughts and actions of Sherlock Holmes. In the stories “A Scandal in Bohemia”, “The Red Headed League”, and “The Final Problem”, social class distinctions are most definitely woven into the fabric of each story, but only for the purpose to allow Mr. Holmes to shatter the predominate beliefs of the day. Doyle allowed Holmes to completely ignore the accepted class system and concern himself with the facts of the case he was working, rather than the social status of person presenting it. Through Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was able to trivialize the accepted social system which valued the opinions and concerns of men born to the highest class of society, as he pointed a spotlight at the intelligence and very