Sherlock Holmes Character Analysis

Sherlock Holmes is a private detective who has been contracted by Wilhelm von Ormstein, King of Bohemia, to confiscate photographic evidence of the King’s previous affair with a woman named Irene Adler. The King has sought out Holmes and his assistant Dr. John Watson due to their reputation for solving difficult and delicate cases throughout Europe. To address the King’s issue, Holmes and Watson don various disguises, gathering information about Irene’s life. Eventually, while disguised as a clergyman, Sherlock tricks Irene into letting him into her home and he discovers where she is hiding the photographs. While he plans to return the next day to steal them, Adler outwits him—she is gone by the time he returns, leaving him a letter that promises never to ruin the King’s life, but keeping the photographs for herself. Above all, Sherlock values intelligence and cunning, and rarely finds another individual whose mental faculties match his own. Even his closest friend Watson can only marvel at his deductions: when the two men are reunited after quite some time apart, Sherlock is able to deduce a number of minute details of Watson’s life within the first few seconds of seeing him. Adler, however, is the only woman he would ever consider his intellectual equal, and he seems to think of her wistfully and almost romantically. Sherlock’s rare intelligence is a boon to his detective work, but it sets him apart from those around him, and his lack of social connection keeps him almost completely isolated. He is also eccentric, eschewing most human interactions and choosing instead to isolate himself in his home at 221B Baker Street, consumed either by cocaine use or a mystery to solve.