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Allusions
Key Examples in The Red-Headed League
Foil
Explanation and Analysis—Detective Jones:
Though Detective Jones is a minor character in “The Red-Headed League,” he serves as a subtle foil to Holmes in the story, meaning that his presence in the story (and his juxtaposition with the protagonist) reveals important qualities of Holmes’s character. Specifically, Jones represents the kind of overly confident yet incompetent detectives to whom Holmes is superior.
The following passage—in which Jones speaks about Holmes with the bank owner Merryweather—captures this difference between Jones and Holmes:
“You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir,” said the police agent loftily. “He has his own little methods, which are, if he won’t mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him.”
Related Themes:
