Sherlock Holmes Evidence

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What is the importance of evidence in detective fiction in comparison to testimony? Is the notion that criminals have a particular set of physical and behavioral characteristics valid? Can social norms be acquired to give a false illusion of innocence? Throughout Doyle’s stories, Sherlock Holmes uses both testimony and physical evidence to solve crimes however in Copper Beeches we can read how Holmes allows evidence to prevail in order to decipher the problem. Similarly, in the Rue Morgue, Dupin combines the testimonies he read in the newspaper with the evidence he found at the crime scene to resolve the murder mystery. The purpose of this paper will be to describe the way Doyle and Poe use testimony and evidence in their stories and determine…show more content…
Hunter’s behalf about her reservations of being a governess at Copper Beeches for Jephro Rucastle although the pay is three times as much as an average governess salary; Holmes reassures Violet Hunter by telling her that if she finds any danger at her new job as a governess in the Copper Beeches, she should send him a telegram and that he would go help her. Not too long after this conversation, Ms. Hunter writes Sherlock Holmes about a situation that is making her uneasy at her new job. I must note, that before starting her new job, Ms. Hunter was had agreed to follow certain request (such as wearing an electric blue dressed and sitting in front of a window) but she was apprehensive about cutting her hair; it was these requests that raised suspicions of the behavior of Jephro Rucastle. Once she meets with Holmes and Watson at the Black Swan Hotel, she basically tells them that she has discovered that Mr. Rucastle’s request for her to wear an electric blue dress and sit with her back towards the window was in order to fool a man that was standing outside of the window. Then Ms. Hunter proceeds to explain that after this incident and being warned about the dog, she found strands of hair that were not her own but that were the same particular color as her hair. In addition she tells them about the secret wing in the house. With all this evidence, Holmes and Watson start to find the Rucastles’ behavior highly suspicious. I argue…show more content…
Rucastle’s personality is what makes him suspicious to Holmes: “We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning man. We can do nothing until seven o’clock. At that hour we shall be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the mystery.” (Doyle 10) In Cesare Lombroso’s explanation, the behavior that arises from the primitive man, that he says criminals have, conflicts with the rules of modern society. So, I would say that Mr. Rucastle’s behavior fits Lombroso’s explanation because Jephro Rucastle’s behavior definitely goes against the social norm of early 19th century. Under Lombroso’s ideology, the behavior of the murder is exemplary of a criminal that is primitive or subhuman, which is suiting as we later find out because the murderer is an Ourang- Outang; unless Poe’s intention was to make a mockery of the
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