Amavizca 1 Rebecca Amavizca Professor Lynda Haas Writing 37 2 February14 March 2014 A Mystery within a Mystery: The Police

Force in the Mystery Genre The mystery genre has widely attracted a massive audience to its gripping and twisted plots. Mystery and crime stories are among the most popular forms of fiction today, and the popularity of the genre is no mystery to millions of readers worldwide (Mystery Time Line). An excerpt from The Theory and Practice of Classic Detective Fiction states that The unique formal pattern of the detective story genre lies in its double and duplicitous plot. The plot is double because the story is first narrated as it appears to the bewildered bystanders who observe the crime and are to some extent threatened by it but who cannot arrive at its solution. (Delamater, Jerome and Ruth Prigozy 1). Along with the important conventions of plot, mysteries also include conventions such as a brilliant lead detective, and an incompetent and unskilled police detective. The representation of the police is illustrated in Besides this, the mystery genre also has other important conventions, such as a lead detective, a strange case, a crime scene and a criminal. However, a story with representation of the police force or a police officer adds even more to the mystery genre. Specifically, the popular and influential literature of Sir Conan Doyles helped establish this foundation. His second short story, , The Sign of the Four exposes the role and function of the police, specifically through Athelney Jones, the lead police officerdetective. Published in the Lippincott's Monthly Magazine in 1890,. The novel The Sign of the Four was published in 1890 in the widely claimed Lipincoth magazine.
Comment [RA2]: Introduction was revised in order to sound clearer and to add a smoother sentence structure. Comment [RA3]: Corrected faulty information to sound like a better and more credible writer. Comment [RA1]: Revised opening sentence to avoid making my own claims and quote expert source instead. Attempt to sound like a credible writer.

Amavizca 2 The Sign of the Four begins with Holmes and Watson accompanying their new client, Miss Morstan, on her visit At the beginning of the story, Sherlock Holmes is approached by Mary Morstan inquiring about the mysterious pearls she has been receiving over the past 6 years and a strange letter. Holmes, along with his partner Watson, is interested in investigating this matter further. Together they join Miss Morstan on her visit to meet Thaddeus the mysterious sender, Thaddeus Sholto. Sholto, who reveals much of the mystery that connects his father Major Sholto and her Marys father Major Morstan with the mysterious Agra treasure. On their visit to meet Thaddeuss twin Bartholomew, to split the treasure, the foury find the brother murdered and the treasure stolen. Sherlock Holmes and Watson, afteAfter a r long investigationmeeting Jones at the crime scene, Holmes allows the hopeless police detective to join the police and togetherir pursuit ofe the thief Jonathan Small and his companion. Although the treasure is lost, Small is captured and retells After Smalls capture, Holmes and the others find the treasure gone. The story ends with Jonathan Small illustrating the full story of the sign of the four. Even though Jones takes all the credit for the case, Holmes is content with the joy having solved the mystery. The faulty police force detective convention is developed within this story through the character Athelney Jones, who underlines common police characteristics for the mystery genre, such as lacking knowledge, jumping to conclusions, and carrying out justice. This convention is essential to how people read The Sign of the Four and experience the mystery genre because the police convention establishes the importance of an unsophisticated and unintelligent police force in order to add to the greatness of the hero, or main character, such as Sherlock Holmes. The convention of the inept police officer first established by Conan Doyle in the classical stage of genre development became an important convention throughout the mystery stories that followed
Comment [RA5]: Made sure to add summary for clarification and detail to avoid vagueness. Comment [RA4]: Revision included shortening summary of The Sign of the Four.

Amavizca 3 because this character's lack of sophistication and intelligence is a necessary contrast to highlight the superior talents of the hero detective, such as Holmes.
Comment [RA6]: Fixed up my thesis to reflect comprehensible ideas. Also added that the conventions were established in the classical stage which is significant info to have because the essay is focused on genre analysis.

Through the use of bias diction, Conan Doyle exposes the intended role of Jones. In Chapter 6 in The Sign of the Four, police detective Athelney Jones enters the crime scene and immediately assumes that Thaddeus Sholto is the person guilty of murdering his twin brother. Jones pompously suggests he has These flashes [that] come upon me at timesSholto was, on his own confession, with his brother last night. The brother died in a fit, on which Sholto walked off with the treasureThaddeus is evidently in a most disturbed state of mind. His appearance iswell, not attractive. You see that I am weaving my web round Thaddeus. The net begins to close upon him (41). Athelney Joness word choice exposes his unknowledgeable and ignorant persona. He uses diction such as evidently as if implying that the answer to the murder is clearly and obviously done by the brother, however, Jones has not done any deduction and is merely guessing while ateemptingattempting to sound correct. Jones lacks the common knowledge to efficiently solve the case on his own. Furthermore, Jones says that Sholtos appearance is not attractive. Jones not only lacks knowledge but also jumps to conclusions by presuming that because of his sickly physical appearance, Sholto looks guilty, therefore Jones assumes that Sholto must unmistakably be the criminal. Joness type of deduction is quite contrary to Holmess, who would never have concluded such things on the basis of mere speculation. For instance, while Jones was speculating the obvious, Holmes observed the minute details in the scene, such as the poisonous thorn, the tiny footprints, and the bloody rope and was able to deduce that the exact criminal was Small. Understanding that the police, as demonstrated by Athelney Jones, ultimately assists in framing the storys focus of the main character Holmes,

Comment [RA7]: Added a topic sentence for solid paragraph structure.

Comment [RA8]: My first body paragraph needed some comparison between Jones and Holmes. After analyzing the methods of Jones, I added that of Holmes to contrast between the two to improve my analysis.

Amavizca 4 readers will have a better experience of the mystery genre because the reader will is thus be drawn to the genius and logical step by step deduction of Sherlock Holmes while subduing the importance of the police detective who are is solely incapable of solving a crime. In the same passage, Conan Doyle utilizes imagery in order to symbolize the police detectives assurance of justice. This is illustrated in a contradicting manner by the way Watson physically portrays Jones as opposed to the pretentious way Jones views himself. As Jones enters the crime scene, Watson describes him as a very stout, portly man in a gray suit [striding] heavily into the roomred-faced, burly and plethoric (40). According to the narrators perspective, Jones is a very short and round man that is not very composed but still attempts to walk around confidently. In contrast, Jones views himself as a predator. He shows this by depicting himself as a spider closing in on his prey, the supposed criminal. This illustration symbolizes Jones as a police officer who is always able and ready, like a spider waiting on his web to catch food, to enforce justice. Moreover, Conan Doyle portrays Jones in this manner to reveal that, just like Jones, a spider does not care what it catches, as long as it catches something. Conan Doyle emphasizes this representation to symbolize the police detective at being good at one thing: putting anyone suspicious in prison. Therefore, the way Jones views himself as a predator is significant because it emphasizes how the police detective simply wants to overpower and accuse a suspicious person because he rather enforce justice and the law than take the time to capture the correct criminal. Thus, Joness character is significant because it further underlines how erroneous and way off track the police tend to be in order to frame the plot to stress the brilliant observation and deduction skills of Sherlock Holmes. In the end, this allows the reader to note misleading attempts to solve the mystery and have an enjoyable experience trying to

Amavizca 5 solve the case on his or her own. It also shines more light on the protagonist Holmes, the only character shrewd enough to unravel a mystery. In the same passage, Conan Doyle utilizes imagery in order to symbolize the polices assurance of justice. Jones depicts himself as a spider closing in on his prey, the supposed criminal. This illustration symbolizes Jones as the police force who is always able and ready, like a spider waiting on his web to catch food, to enforce justice. Conan Doyle emphasizes this to represent the police at being good at one thing: putting those suspicious in prison. Joness character therefore is significant because it further underlines how incorrect and way off track the police tend to be, thus framing the plot to center on the work and methods of Sherlock Holmes. In the end, this allows the reader to note misleading attempts to solve the mystery and have an enjoyable experience trying to solve the case on his or her own. It also shines more light on the protagonist Holmes, the only character smart enough to unravel a mystery. The role of the police force, although lack knowledge, jump to conclusions, and carry out justice, ultimately brings the focus back to the legendary Sherlock Holmes.detective has thus become a reoccurring convention in more modern texts. Even after Conan Doyles Silver Blaze and The Red-Headed League, other stories were impacted by the police convention Police detective Athelney Jones is a clear representation of how Conan Doyle consistently uses these character features to portray his other officers, not only in The Sign of the Four but in his other short stories such as Silver Blaze and The Red-Headed League. Conan Doyle established the fundamental qualities of the police force, but throughout the ages the qualities have become more diverse.For example, Agatha Christies 20th century characters, Inspector Japp, who frequently finds himself a step behind the great detective Hercule Poirot, and Captain Hastings. Both are often commiserate on their confusion and inability to keep up with Poirot on
Comment [RA9]: This paragraph previously lacked strong analysis. To revise it I added more analysis by contrasting how Jones is physically described to how Jones views himself. This improved my overall analysis.

Amavizca 6 cases (Inspector Japp, 2014). Hence, Japp and Hastings are modeled after Conan Doyles incompetent officers such as Jones or Lestrade, while Poirot is more like Holmes. One crime fiction article further notes that Police are almost a burden to the Private investigator of Hard boiled fiction and is much like the police in the Early Crime Fiction who were unable to achieve justicePolice are either stupid or bound by system they are in and hence need the assistance of the PI. The article notes that Hard-boiled fiction is simply Crime fiction written during the 1920s but still used the same formula, while Early Crime Fiction, that of Edgar Allen Poes era, also had the police looking into insignificant things to deeply not knowing what to observe. Furthermore, the article explains that Contemporary Crime Fiction presents believable nonstereotyped characters. The police, therefor, make mistakes, as they are only human [sic] (An Overview of Crime Fiction). Although varied, the genre convention of the police still plays a key part in modern-day mystery texts, all thanks to Conan DoyleSo because of the literary genius of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, impacts of the conventional police detective still remain in present day.
Comment [RA10]: Revised my conclusion by tying the original police detective convention to the 21st century conventions its influenced. Before I was lacking this requirement for the essay, so now my conclusion is more solid.

Works Cited "An Overview of Crime Fiction." HSC Crime Fiction Gold. N.p., 2007. Web. 02 Feb. 2014. <http://heavymetaltime.webs.com/thecrimefictiongenre.htm>. Delamater, Jerome and Ruth Prigozy, eds. Theory and Practice of Classic Detective Fiction. New York: Praeger, 1997.

Amavizca 7 "Inspector Japp." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 02 Dec. 2014. Web. 13 Feb. 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inspector_Japp>. "Mystery Time Line." Mystery Time Line. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Feb. 2014. <http://www.mysterynet.com/timeline/>.