A Scandal in Bohemia

“It was not that he felt any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise, but admirably balanced mind.”

Watson’s description of the relationship between Adler and Holmes emphasizes how Holmes’s personality is incompatible with emotions such as love. Preoccupied with intellect, Holmes is unable to express emotive sentiments. Adler’s unique ability to intellectually challenge Holmes and affect his emotions makes her an adversary worthy of his admiration.

“He was, I take it, the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but, as a lover, he would have placed himself in a false position.”

Watson underscores Holmes’s emotional limitations by comparing him to a machine. Although Watson admires Holmes’s abilities to reason and observe, his admiration is grounded in a realistic view of the sleuth. Unlike the recently married Watson, Holmes is not capable of having romantic relationships because his genius supersedes his emotions. Doyle often employs metaphors to characterize Holmes and other key characters.

“I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.”

While conversing with Watson about the King of Bohemia’s letter to Holmes, the detective points out that he cannot infer the nature of the intended visit since he has no information. Ironically, Holmes has already deduced the provenance and identity of the visitor by carefully analyzing the letter itself.

“It may have an influence upon European history.”

The King of Bohemia turns to Holmes to retrieve a photograph that could threaten his upcoming marriage to the Princess of Scandinavia. The King emphasizes the political implications of Adler’s threat to use the photograph as extortionl. The weight of the King’s request displays Holmes’s international esteem and further characterizes Holmes as a renowned private detective.

“Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice she has been waylaid. There has been no result.”

The King of Bohemia describes the great lengths he has gone to retrieve the incriminating photograph from Adler. His hiring burglars shows that he has no issues with operating outside the law. This excerpt also characterizes Adler as cunning because she is able to evade the King’s hired men.

“And she will do it. I know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not go—none.”

The King of Bohemia mischaracterizes Adler as a cold, exacting woman. He bestows the “highest” compliment by comparing her to a man, which underscores the gender roles of the period. Adler’s ability to upend how men perceive her develops the theme of The Subversion of Victorian England Gender Stereotypes.

“So accustomed was I to his invariable success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to enter into my head.”

Watson waits for Holmes to return from Briony Lodge. Although Watson has every confidence in his friend’s abilities, he foreshadows Holmes’s inevitable failure. This excerpt highlights that even Watson underestimates Adler’s capabilities.

“There is a wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of them, and you will know all that there is to know.”

After dressing up as a groom to ascertain more about Adler at her Briony Lodge residence, Holmes discusses the social bond between stable workers. Holmes frequently adopts costumes and habits of disparate, more marginalized members of society as a way to coax information and traverse different social spheres.

“This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the matter […] What was the relation between them, and what the object of his repeated visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress?”

Doyle employs hypophora to show Holmes’s “incisive reasoning” (67). Holmes frequently asks questions that he quickly answers, demonstrating that he alone is capable of drawing accurate conclusions. However, Holmes does not posture; his intent is not to show off his intelligence or belittle the narrator the way his predecessor, Monsieur C. Auguste Dupin, does in Poe’s stories.

“It was the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just now.”

Holmes describes how he was asked to be a witness to the marriage of Godfrey Norton and Adler. Dressed as a stable worker to spy on Adler, Holmes found himself in the middle of their rushed marriage ceremony. Doyle uses humor and situational irony to make the Sherlock Holmes stories entertaining and lively.

“‘You don’t mind breaking the law?’

‘Not in the least.’”

Like all of the characters in the story, Watson does not take issue with potentially breaking the law. However, Watson’s loyalty to Holmes is what motivates him. This exchange also characterizes Watson as Holmes’s sole confidant and “sidekick.”

“The stage lost a fine actor, even as science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in crime.”

False identity and disguise is a key motif present in many Sherlock Holmes stories. Holmes often dresses up in disguises to ascertain facts and gather clues. To Watson, a great crime specialist must combine elements of both performance and science. Holmes’s unique combination of these traits is what makes him a successful and admirable private detective.

“‘What a woman—oh, what a woman!’ cried the King of Bohemia, when we had all three read this epistle. ‘Did I not tell you how quick and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?’”

The King of Bohemia laments that he is unable to marry the formidable Adler. In this excerpt, he echoes prior sentiments that Adler is worthy of admiration yet regrettably not of his “station.” The King delineates the class boundaries that separate him as royalty from Adler, a retired opera singer. The irony in the King’s lamentation is that Adler has proven to be quite above his level; she can outwit any male adversary regardless of their class status.