The Man with the twisted lip is an unusual story from Conan Doyle, in this story when Holmes goes to visit the jail, you would expect him to produce some detective stuff, like magnifying glass, but instead he pulls out a bath sponge. He is a highly respected detective, so why did he do that? It was humour and off the wall. This is now looking at it in a new angle. Sherlock Holmes is very astute and is able to read a situation well. He puts himself above the law, on occasions, which concerns us even when villains such as Dr Grimsbey Roylott in “The Speckled Band” have been on the receiving end.
“…I am no doubt indirectly responsible for [his] death, and I cannot say that it is likely to weigh very heavily upon my conscience.” However, we must record the fact that Holmes has a clear sense of public duty, which he sets out, most clearly in ‘The Final Problem’. “…I could not rest, Watson, I could not sit quietly in my chair, if I thought that such a man as Professor Moriarty were walking the streets of London unchallenged.”
Holmes is essentially a controlled, private man as can be seen from his conversation with Dr. Roylott on the latter’s visit to Baker street in ‘The Speckled Band’ ; the fact that he straightens out the poker only after the villainous Doctors has gone says much about the lack of show in his character. He does enjoy showing off his skills on occasion, however, notably in his ‘mind-reading’ of Watson at the start of the “Cardboard Box” but most of the time his ability is simply there, and is employed as a means of dispelling boredom.
In the Speckled Band it involves some particularly nasty criminal activity; many of the stories do not, and are much more concerned with social justice and order. In the final problem, Moriarty + Holmes fall to their death into a waterfall. We expect that they are both dead. If Holmes isn’t dead then why hasn’t he tried to contact his best friend, Dr Watson? But if he does then will Moriarty’s spies know that he has a very close relationship with Watson and torture him until they find out where Holmes is. Holmes must keep a low record if he is alive.
In the Sherlock Holmes story’s there are real relationships and real emotions. Holmes doesn’t want Watson to get hurt, so in some stories Holmes goes off alone to try and work out the crime. I think that the Sherlock Holmes stories aren’t all typical of the Murder Mystery Genre. They all have a lot of mystery in them but the all don’t have a murder.
