Masaryk University

Faculty of Education

Department of English Language

and Literature

Gender Aspects in Sherlock Holmes

Bachelor Thesis

Brno 2015

Supervisor: Author:
Mgr. Jaroslav Izavčuk Adam Kyncl
I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently,
using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.

_________________
 Acknowledgement
I would like to thank my supervisor Mgr. Jaroslav Izavčuk, for his helpful guidance, my supporting
family and my cousins for helping me keeping my cool.
Abstract

This thesis deals with gender aspects in Sherlock Holmes books. It also points out at how they
were changed in modern adaptations and shows to how much extent the original
characters behaviours and attitudes were modified.

Keywords

Gender, Aspect, Behaviour, Attitude, Trait, Original adaptation, Modern Adaptation

Anotace

Práce se zabýva genderovými aspekty v knihách o Sherlocku Holmesovi. Také poukazuje na jejich
změnu v moderních adaptacích a do jaké míry jsou jejích postoje a chování odlišné

Klíčová slova

Gender, aspect, chování, postoj, vlastnost, původní adaptace, moderní adaptace

Table of contents :

1. Introduction …………………………………………………….……………….....2
1.1. Defining gender aspects.......................................................................................3
1.2 Gender issues in Victorian England....................................................................8

2. Life of A.C. Doyle - creation of gender aspects for Sherlock Holmes books........11
2.1. Early years, youth and marriage.......................................................................11
2.2. Middle age and first literary success.................................................................13
2.3 Resenting Sherlock Holmes and later life......................................................... 14
2.4.The concept of Sherlock Holmes Characters....................................................15

3. Gender aspects of main characters..........................................................................17

3.1. Sherlock Holmes................................................................................................18
3.2. John Watson.......................................................................................................25
3.3. Irene Adler..........................................................................................................27
3.4. James Moriarty..................................................................................................28
3.5. Summary.............................................................................................................29

4. Gender aspects in the modern adaptations..............................................................30

4.1. Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock Holmes : A Game of Shadows.............................30
4.2. Sherlock - TV series............................................................................................35
4.3. Elementary...........................................................................................................41

5. Conclusion...................................................................................................................45

List of references..........................................................................................................46

1
 1. Introduction

Gender equality has lately become a burning issue. Women all over the world want more equality
in all aspects of their life. With the foundation based on Virginia Woolf and Joan Kelly, women
begun to realize they are as equal as men, when it comes to behaviour and intellect. And since I am
a fan of Sherlock universe, and there has been recently a boom with TV adaptations and films,
gender of some characters has been altered and made so they represent aspects from this time.
Even though Sherlock is an imaginary product of Arthur Conan Doyle, many people take him as a
real, existing person. Many works, books and essays have been written studying the behaviour or
psychology of Sherlock Holmes. But what about the gender aspects in Sherlock Holmes? Is there
some connection between individuals near Arthur Conan Doyle or are they imaginary? Do they
represent the typical men and women in Victorian England or does Arthur Conan Doyle sees for
example women as something more in his books? What are the gender changes in the modern
adaptations? Are they even noticeable? These are just few of the questions I want to answer.
The author briefly illustrates and describes how the typical men and women in late Victorian
period looked like and searches for any connections between them and life of A.C. Doyle. By
examining and studying books the author also identifies if A.C. Doyle was somehow influenced by
his mother, siblings or any other people in his life. The bachelor thesis will then analyse the most
important characters such as Sherlock Holmes, John Watson, Irene Adler and James Moriarty. Other
minor characters will be mentioned, but it is these four, that will get most attention, since it is them
who experience greater gender alternation.
Researched material will be supported by the books and articles about people and events that have
affected A.C. Doyle by creating these characters. Other used literature will be studies about gender
with various theories on this topic. The anticipated conclusion will be that A.C. Doyle used some
events from his personal life that inspired the creation of character in Sherlock Holmes books. The
findings of the research will also serve as an in-depth look whether people influencing A.C. Doyle
were transformed as characters modelled after them and to how much extend do modern
adaptations represent the original characters.

2
 The thesis is divided into three major parts. The first one consists of the life of Arthur Conan
Doyle. Here his important moments connected to his life like education and ambitions are closely
observed in order to establish major aspects that lead to the creation of Sherlock Holmes franchise.
The outcome of this section should be setting the main aspects that led to further developing the
characters of the franchise. It also explains what a gender aspect is and how it changed during ages.
This chapter also focuses on Victorian era, since it was the beginning of transformation for society
with the upcoming concept of classes and gender stratification occurred in some areas, which
caused for instance the boom of spiritualism and how it influenced women in that time.

The second part consists of describing the typical gender aspects of the main characters in the
books. Here the main focus is on Sherlock Holmes, Watson, Irene Adler, Moriarty and few minor
characters. This section serves as an in-depth look at the behaviour caused by various factors such
social status or class, inspected in the first part. Furthermore, it also examines the position of
women in contrast to men's and how it is reflected in the works of A.C. Doyle. There is also a
description of the roles which reflect their position in the book, as well as the attitude which is
influenced by the gender aspects typical for Victorian England.

The last part deals with gender aspects modification in Sherlock Holmes adaptations. The author
observes similarities and differences previously mentioned and tries to combine them to describe
most important gender changes in various Sherlock Holmes modern series adaptations. These
include movies starring Robert Downey Jr., British TV series Sherlock and American series
Elementary. The main goal of this part is to compare the original aspects with the new ones
presented in these version and see if the spirit of them is kept or if the idea of them was eliminated
just for having the characters more appealing to viewers.

3
 1.1 Defining gender aspects

Before we start to identify the main attributes of the characters, we need to define what is a gender
aspect and how to recognize him to fully realize the way of how they make the characters unique
and appealing or disappearing to a reader. I will mention few theories and how they are associated
with the creation of Sherlock Holmes universe. The main source of understanding these aspects are
the books written by Judith Butler called Gender Trouble and Second Sex by de Beauvoir. These
two authors present a rather similar view on this matter and their own opinion. We need to
understand this, in order to later specify the transformation of values in Victorian era and more
importantly, in the modern era because Sherlock Holmes adaptation carry certain values that might
not have been seen in the original books.
The concept of gender aspects is an old known theme, but it is only now its importance grown due
to rise of the feministic movements in many countries. If we look in the past, we can easily tell that
the beginning of gender categorization was established in ancient time with the development of
patriarchism and matriarchism. These two terms were the first that involved men and women and
distributed their roles in society. In my thesis, I deal with gender looked at in Victorian era and
modern era, because the view on women changed quite significantly during these periods.
When we say gender aspect, many of us somehow know what it means and how it affects males
and females. The problem is how to define them, because there is not a "correct" definition for this
term. Some could say it is the way one behaves because he has certain traits and learned patterns.
Others can say for example that females behave silly because it is in their nature.
In Gender Trouble (Butler, 1990) it is written:
"Although social scientists refer to gender as a “factor“ or a “dimension“ of an analysis, it is also
applied to embodied person as a “mark“ of biological, linguistic or cultural difference. In these
latter cases, gender can be understood as a signification that an already sexually differentiated
body assumes, but even then that signification exists only in relationship and not individual
attribute."
What Butler wants to say is that gender is a combination of various factors that shape the person
and how he behaves and acts. The important term is the behaviour. Since the moment we are born,
we develop our behaviour by mimicking others, often unconsciously. It is a train that shapes how
we act and what our actions are and the women/men gender is irrelevant. Often we will find
ourselves behaving illogically for others, but logical for us, because it has been encoded during our
life how to approach certain situations.
4
Butler also tackles a problem involving identity and determinism. To her, each of us is unique, but
we are limited by sex, gender and sexuality. This is a great lead that helps us understand the
circumstances for the creation of Sherlock Holmes characters. A.C. Doyle was hindered by them,
but living in Victorian England, he started to realize his characters could have different behaviour
than any other characters before and thus being able to produce new, original concept to form them.
As for the determinism, this means that we are predestined by various factors, that shaped our
being on this planet and we can not do anything about it. Determinism theory played a big part in
establishing the roles in the society, because it made the men the dominant sex and women were
seen as something less.
Sometimes connected to determinism is the term free will. What this term suggests is that people
have their life in their hands but are not able to fully exploit it, due to determinism. It would be not
possible in Victorian England for example to attend a séance or a party without being in certain
class. During much of history of our world, determinism was more respected than free will and
even now in modern era, we do not fully exploit its gift.

Yet, some authors like (Yanagisako and Collier, 1990), see sex and gender as rather different terms.
Sex for them is distinction in biological differences while as gender means social, cultural and
psychological motivations.
I see their point of view as probably the best explanation for these terms. If we look at Sherlock
Holmes books and more specifically Irene Adler for example, she is of course a female sex, but her
gender could be seen as something else. She is a part of society, somewhere between middle and
upper class, with good education and intellect on the level near of that of Sherlock Holmes. Women
as they are presented in Sherlock Holmes will be looked at in the next chapters, but it is interesting
to see that gender is able to morph from the values in Victorian England into values presented in TV
series Elementary for example, which is completely off with its representation of Sherlock Holmes,
because it is set in the modern day and to add to this, Watson and Moriarty are being portrayed by a
female sex. The gender however could still very well be male, because of the typical characteristics
connected to it.

5
 But to see other point of view, we can look at de Beauvoir and her book Second Sex written in
1949. Her work was the catalyst for the feminist movement, due to description of how women were
treated throughout the history. What she states is:
"Female body is marked within masculinist discourse, whereby the masculine body, in its
conflation with the universal, remains unmarked."
This was clearly a big influence on how the women were seen during the history. She sees woman
as a gender being capable of something more than it was throughout the history. Yet, due to lack of
more women writers, leaders and thinkers, the female gender was played down and the male
dominance was celebrated.
One of her very important quotes is: "One is not born a woman. But, rather becomes one."
This was a very bold statement at the time the book was published and it started a radical
establishing of feminist movement. If we look at history (and not so distant) we realize that women
had no rights, had arranged weddings, so they could not take part in deciding whom to marry. And
here is the connection to Butler and determinism. The female sex did not mind this, because they
were convinced that this is their destiny, while men had the power to change the world.
It might seem not important to mention these quotes and roles of women, but the fact is, that from
this we can see how much of an influence the male gender had over the course of history as well as
literary area. If we realize this, we will later see especially in the modern adaptations, that the
biggest change in Sherlock Holmes characters behaviour was in female roles, which causes a
adjustement sometimes to their core attributes, completely changing their personalities.
A good example to see this in work and clarify why women wanted more respect, was the Second
World War. The problem women had was that they managed after a long time to be equal with men.
While they were fighting in war, women were working in factories, civil services etc. Yet after the
war ended, the celebrated gender was the male. The female got some acknowledgement, but not in
the scale of men's. This is another step to realize, how female sex was pushed back for no reason
throughout the history. They never had the chance to prove they are as capable as men and when
they did, their contribution was overlooked. It is no wonder that the feminist movement was
established to improve the status of women around the world, because they clearly deserved it.

6
There have been few women throughout history that were recognized by strong leadership and
modernistic visions. It was for example Catherine the Great, Maria Theresia and Queen Victoria.
All these females proved that women have equal, if not better, sense in understanding how
leadership worked and what needs to be done in order to have their kingdoms prosper. If we look
back at the gender theories, we realize that they probably wanted to show not only others they are
successful in leading countries, but wanted to prove to themselves, they are not the second, less
important gender, thus break out of predeterminism.
If we stay in England and look at a work that presented female view in literary genre, we can
observe the gender aspects in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Although I will not explain in
detail the plot and fallout it had, let me say that Austen was one of the first women writers that
looked at this gender issue, but what more, from a women's point of view. It is certainly interesting
to see what this book caused to women readers and how the realization how much do these upper to
middle class women have in common.

To summarize this chapter, we learned that gender aspects follow certain patterns. Everyone one of
us is unique, as was mentioned in Butler, and we have to realize, we are not limited by being males
or females, but rather how we accept being it. Especially now, in modern era, we have much more
possibilities how to live our life due to free will. The only limitation is our thinking of how to
embrace it.
It is important to know that A.C. Doyle was influenced by some of these aspects, which shaped
him and thus shaped his creation of Sherlock Holmes universe. Another crucial fact is that he lived
in Victorian England, which by that time, underwent changes that A.C. Doyle cleverly used for his
concept of Sherlock Holmes universe. We can even somehow deduce, that Doyle partially thought
of possible adaptations in the future, so he implemented various characters with specific traits.Iif
we look at the modern adaptations, we see that some of them keep the original gender aspects and
some totally miss it.

7
1.2 Gender issues in Victorian England

To stay relevant to the topic we can look in a particular period in England, which was recognized
by strong leadership by a woman, who proved more than capable of being equal to male kings. The
main source here is the book Working women in Victorian Britain by Arthur J, Munby and Hannah
Cullwick. The second source is Anthony Burgess and his book English literature. To start off, we
need some explanation how was the Victorian era characterized. (Burgess, 1974) states:
"In many ways, it was an age of progress – railway building, steamships, and reforms of all kinds.
But it was also an age of doubt. There was too much poverty, too much injustice, too much ugliness
and too little certainty about faith or morals. Thus it became also an age of crusaders and
reformers and theorists. The strict morality, the holiness of family life, owned a good deal to the
example of queen Victoria herself, and her indirect influence over literature as well as social life,
was considerable."

From this we can tell, that the society in England started to change. With free market economy, the
rich became richer and the poor poorer. Thus something called "class" emerged. What this term
means is that people are compartmentalized in certain groups like lover, middle, upper, urban, rural
etc. With this certain limitation were applied and the distinction carried various privileges like
attending parties, séances etc.
Other very important part are the reformers and theorists. With these types of roles they took upon
themselves comes a new, more rational acceptance of not being pre-determined. Most women back
than were employed as servants in houses, working for the wife of some rich businessman. These
girls often accepted it, secretly hoping one day to have as good life as their mistress. Some of them
however, had the opportunity to became spiritually active, and serve as medium for various
séances, which will be looked upon in later chapters.

The question now is how all this influenced A.C. Doyle by creating Sherlock Holmes. As we can
already see, the change that brought queen Victoria played a crucial role, because Doyle was clearly
influenced by these new distinctions between societies and it also made him realize that in order to
become rather successful he needed to bring characters that would fit in all the classes to fully
expand and find readers which can relate to the various roles in the books.

8
But let us go back and look at the main attributes of male and female gender in Victorian Era and
deduce how they influenced Doyle and Sherlock Holmes universe. (Munby, 1979) says :
“The effort of an adult middle class men to maintain their position of power within the society as
a whole and the “little kingdoms“ of their own households, as well as in regard to their own
sexuality, seems to have created a kind of “psychological backlash“ within their own personalities.
They combined excessive fears of pollution, disloyalty, and disorder from subordinates with a
desperate search for a moral order which would help to control all three, as well as the immoral
forces of the market.“

Although this definition might not seem important, but actually is. Firstly, Doyle was a middle
class man, which gave him certain privileges in Victorian England. Secondly, he very well knew
that being a writer at that time is a risky move, which might not have paid off. But thanks to his
education in medicine, he had quite stable pay as a house doctor. More importantly, the term
“psychological backlash“ comes in play which caused that Doyle split his character between
Sherlock Holmes and Watson. He needed characters, which readers (aka market) would like,
because they can relate to them. Doyle being a middle class, portrayed Sherlock and Watson to the
same position, however Sherlock is so much different than any other character that it is sometimes
hard to say in which class he belongs to.
The immoral force in this case is Moriarty, who belongs to the upper class. It is not certain if Doyle
resented this gentry or why he created him this way, but maybe the audience would be fed up with
too many people being in the same class. Common opinion on this matter is that Doyle wanted to
prove that even middle class men like Sherlock and Watson can compete with upper one,
represented by Moriarty. The male gender is however still very much dominant.
Nonetheless Munby suggests that one way to control middle class man and make his dominance
little smaller is marriage. It is interesting to see that Doyle truly married Watson. The reason for that
might be, he wanted to experience what it would look like and how it would change Watson's
behaviour towards Holmes.

9
Since we have mentioned the typical features of middle class men, we should mention the position
of women in this society. This topic concerning women will be closely examined in the next
chapter, but we need to establish some core values, that will serve as a foundation to further
research.
As we saw in the previous part, middle class men had the most power when it came to providing
money to the family. This thus means material wealth that was the product of their effort. When it
comes to women, (Munby 1979) says:
“The middle class women represented emotions, the Heart, or sometimes Soul, seat of morality
and tenderness. Women performed these function as keepers of the Hearth in Home, and here we
find a body/house connection which figured widely in the Victorian view.“

With this statement we can deduce, that position of middle class women was in home, taking care
of family. If we can assemble some kind of hierarchy, then men were at the top, while beneath them
were the wives, children and lastly servants. Yet while the men were at work, the women became
the leaders of the household.
If we now look at one specific character from Sherlock Holmes, we realize something is not as it
should be. It is Mrs Hudson, landlady of Sherlock Holmes. She serves more as a servant in this
case, but it is interesting to see that Sherlock, even if she is mentioned only briefly, is being quite
respectful to her. In the modern adaptation however, she is portrayed in more rebellious character,
often complaining about Sherlock and his way of life. Especially in the series Sherlock we see how
much does character of Mrs Hudson change from a caring landlady who is not involved in the story
at all to someone who is bold enough to say something about the behaviour and actions of Sherlock
as well as having a background story to her.

The conclusion of this part is thus that Victorian England presented new ideas and established class
society, which later served A.C. We discovered that there was quite a difference in positions of male
and female gender due to these class divisions and perspective of men being the dominant one
whilst women were at home, taking care of children and giving work to servants.

10
 2. Life of A.C. Doyle - creation of gender aspects for Sherlock Holmes books

2.1. Early years

Arthur Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh on the 22nd May 1859. He was born into a family,
where the mother was Irish and father British. According to Arthur Conan Doyle – A brief
biographical study (Roden 2003) his mother always told him stories before bed about heroic deeds
of knights, which later led to marriage with his first wife. His father had artistic talents, but lacked
the drive to embrace them. This led to his alcoholism and soon after, he begun to have epileptic
seizures and died in 1983.
He was one of ten children. His education was quite Spartan at the school as well at home. Doyle
himself behaved very rebellious at that time. He got into fights, but because of compulsory reading,
he got into books written by Dickens.
From this part we can deduce the first two important facts: His mother and Spartan education. As
for the mother, though she had this many children, she proved to be quite strong and competent to
care of the family, while her husband proved to be incompetent to provide money. This might well
be the first role model for strong women, who can take care of herself and be able compete with
male characters, which dominated most literature by that time. This might very well be the moment,
which Doyle remembered that played a great part in creating the character of Irene Adler, who, like
his mother, proved to be strong, independent and intelligent woman.
The second important fact was the Spartan education. This term means very strict education with
cruel punishments. It is derived from ancient Sparta, where young children were forced to be
warriors throughout the whole life. In Victoria England the term described strict teaching methods
where a lot of compulsory reading had to be accomplished in order to be educated and respected.
As for Sherlock Holmes, this character also possesses quite rebellious temper, although not so much
shown in the books but rather in modern adaptations. Doyle then went to school at Edinburgh and
he was also taught at home until he was nine years old. More important time came, when he
attended Jesuit school at Hodder.
According to The Arthur Conan Doyle Collection (Bequest, 2013), those years spent here were not
the best, although Arthur was better than average student there. One key fact that influenced his
works were the Jesuits. They are known for strict rules and discipline, which Arthur did not like.
This right here is the first indication of one particular gender aspect and that is not respecting the
authorities. In Victorian England, not respecting them meant you will probably not be respected by
others.
11
 After attending schools in Hodder and Lancaster, Doyle ended in Austria. Here, to his surprise,
Jesuits were far more humane and kind. This type of education transformed Doyle into more calm
and positively thinking man and he begun to feel sense for law and order. It was at this time, he
firstly realized his motivation to write something, but he did not know what yet. After one year in
Austria, he went to Paris for few weeks, before heading home.
He returned back to Edinburgh to study medicine at University for five years. Here he obtained
medical degree but also met people whom he used as role models for his books. In the book
Memories and adventures of A.C. Doyle (Doyle, 2012) he describes a person named Joseph Bell,
who somehow left a mark on Doyle. Bell was a surgeon. He was very dark, skinny and wiry and
had a specific way of walking. His most notable skill was the ability to read people just by
observing them. Doyle noticed this and somehow persuaded him into telling how he does it. This
indicates further aspect of Sherlock, which are his deduction skills.
Another aspect was medicine studies itself piecing together another Sherlock Holmes attribute.
During his life and studies in Edinburgh, he worked for his mother to help the family. Because he
was skilled in medicine, he was able to travel various places like Sheffield and Birmingham.
His most important year in his writing career came in 1882, when he moved to Plymouth to work
with his friend Turnavine Budd. But because this relationship was not ideal, Arthur decided to
move out to Southsea. Here he had more time and was able to settle down to work and hone his
literary skills and eventually come with the idea of a detective called Sherlock Holmes1 .

Also, while he worked as a doctor in Plymouth, he treated a patient named Jack Hawkins, who was
diagnosed with cerebral meningitis. He was the head in the family, protecting and providing for his
mother and sister Luise. With his dead, they were to lose it. Here, his childhood comes in the form
of being the knight who rescues "damsels in distress."

On the problem relating the phrase damsels in distress please see Booth,
Michael (1965) where this term is explained and described.

12

1 Arthur Conan Doyle – A brief biographical study – Christopher Roden, 2003

2.3. Middle age and first literary success

After hectic life at Edinburgh, Doyle finally found a calm place, where he could engage into
writing some works. His everyday life as a doctor produced a lot situations that helped in further
development of Sherlock Holmes. In his profession, he had quite easy access to drugs. He observed
how they can either help or worsen the situation of his patients.
His first works were "Stories of London Society, All the year Round and Temple bar." These
stories served only for a little extra money, because they were sold to local magazine. Yet his name
was not written as an author in them, because it was common back then to publish as anonymous.
Basically, his main popular article was Cornhill. In this work, he described his visits to foreign
countries, such as Austria, Paris and Africa. This further developed by adding characters in them
and become more story-like chapters. After few months, Doyle had quite the amount of material to
start publishing short stories. But before revealing his first Holmes story, he had to wait a whole
year, because market at that time was flooded with cheap fiction. Doyle hesitated, but agreed with
the terms of the publisher.
The first reviews were quite negative. Accepting the critique, he changed the way of how Sherlock
appeared. From formerly historical novel, he transformed into detective stories. The second story
thus proved much more appealing to readers. But what really helped Doyle was the export of the
book to America. Here, he established a big audience which liked his books. Another big help was
Oscar Wilde. Together they agreed to write articles to local magazine in order to raise its sales.
This meeting proved to be very important for Doyle. He finally met somebody with very similar
style of writing. Wilde's latest book called The picture of Dorian Gray was rejected at first, but
eventually became popular. Doyle, observing he has this much in common with Wilde, gladly
accepted the offer to write the article. One important fact is that seeing and talking to him, Doyle
realized to write Sherlock Holmes stories even in gloomier mood.

13
2.4 Resenting Sherlock Holmes and later life

There are two major reasons why Doyle wanted to end Sherlock Holmes franchise after the
success. The first one is the concept of the stories. Doyle never thought of making Sherlock Holmes
a franchise, a job. He wanted to be more involved in his medical practice. The reason he kept
writing them was the amount of readers it attracted. But in his eyes, the stories needed an end in
order for him to move on. In his Memories and adventures of A.C. Doyle (Doyle, 2012) he writes:
“The difficulty of Sherlock Holmes work was that every story really needed as clear-cut and
original a plot as a longish book would do. One cannot without effort spin plots at such a rate.
They are apt to become thin or to break. I was determined, now that I had no longer excuse of
absolute pecuniary pressure, never again to write anything which was not as good as I could
possibly make it, and therefore I would not write a Holmes story without a worthy plot and without
a problem that which interested my own mind.“

The other reason is the sense for adventure and searching for something new. Before finally killing
Holmes in Reichenbach Falls, Doyle already wanted to write historical novels.
Later in his life, Doyle was involved in World War I on various such as British, Italian and French
one. Seeing the horrors there, Doyle wanted to find some peace after war, so he returned home.
Back in Edinburgh in 1916, he writes another Sherlock story named His Last Bow. This led once
more to a great popularity and Doyle realized his fans have never forgotten him.
In his last years, Doyle inclined to spiritualism. He was convinced, that his life had come to the
point, where he wants to try one more thing he had never done. In this part of his life, he thought
about life, death and afterlife. Doyle died from a heart attack in 1930, aged 71.

14
 2.5.The concept of Sherlock Holmes Characters.

Doyle realized he had to come up with something unique in order to obtain his audience. In
Memories and adventures of A.C. Doyle (Doyle, 2012) he does not clearly states what led to
creation of the characters, but there are some hints the reader realizes. Firstly, he needed a main
character, that would be annoying a lot of people, but simultaneously embark the readers in liking
him. He came with a concept from previous experience of other people mentioned earlier and added
a little bit of himself (knowledge in anatomy, effects of drugs such as opium, cocaine).
He also wanted Sherlock not to be the true protagonist. That is why he created Dr. Watson. He
served more as a catalyst for Sherlock Holmes. Doyle knew, that to fully develop the potential of
Sherlock Holmes, he needed somebody who would ask questions and help Sherlock in other ways
because the most interesting part would be omitted, which is Sherlock's thinking process. Without
Watson, the books would be less entertaining and gripping at the same time.
We can also deduce that Doyle's persona was split among them. This way, Doyle had control over
the actions and could come up with stories that would create unique situations that readers will like.
Sherlock portrayed an alpha male, who constantly seeks to irritate others by his knowledge and
relying that everybody is less intelligent then him.
This is very well seen in The Hound of Baskerville story, where Sherlock secretly sends Watson
alone only to later emerge and trying to save the day. And here comes our doctor. Although not as
smart as Holmes, he represents typical reader, who asks the important questions but often only ends
up confused. Watson also appears to be more of a pawn sometimes only to serve Sherlock. This is
nicely shown in the story A Scandal in Bohemia. Sherlock orders Watson to throw a rocket into a
window without telling the purpose, although he could. Yet Watson in books remains mostly calm
and very well behaved, unlike modern film and series adaptations, where he is much more sarcastic,
has much more temper and gets involved in the storylines more equally.
It is however quite confusing why Watson often willingly listens to him without questioning
Sherlock's motives. Only after the events are done, Sherlock tells Watson and the readers the whole
plan. Also, as more stories emerged, Doyle more and more inclined to the role of Watson. It is seen
in his attitude towards Sherlock, where Watson becomes rather neutral, gets married and does not
rely Sherlock that much, but rather lives his own life. We can only guess whether Watson over time
grew tired of Sherlock because Doyle experiencing the burnout and boredom with the stories.

15
Interestingly enough, Doyle had never written a background story for Sherlock concerning his
birth or youth and Sherlock appears in the book as a middle aged man with no retrospective look at
his beginning as detective. We can only deduce that when Doyle came up with the idea of Sherlock,
he did not have any plans to continue writing more stories about him. The only glimpse of a family
he has was in story The Adventure of Greek Interpreter. Here we meet his brother Mycroft, who
possesses the same intellect as Sherlock. This is probably the representation of one of Doyle's
brother, who also achieved success in literature.
His parents however are not mentioned at all in the stories. It is unclear what led Doyle not to
write about them, but it is very likely possible, that he remembered his father when he was young,
where he was the black sheep of the family with his drinking and not fully endorsing his potential
as a musician. The only thing he gave Sherlock which resembled his father was only the skill to
play violin. It was probably the only positive memory of his father. On the contrary, his mother
made a presence in the form of Irene Adler. One could guess that all the positive influence she had
on him, would eventually lead to a creation of a character, which would be a tribute. And rather by
writing about her as mother of Sherlock, she got more significant role as Adler. In establishing this
character, Doyle paid ultimate respect to her, considering she played a crucial role in one of the
stories and being as intelligent as Sherlock.
As for other women, only 2 slightly significant and one important were presented, Mrs Hudson
and Mary Watson and Irene Adler. Their roles are represented only by chunks, except Irene Adler,
who needs a closer description due to her importance. Yet it is already clear now, women did not
play that big of a role except Irene. Their relevance grew with modern adaptations, such as
Sherlock TV series (2010) and other films starring Robert Downey Jr.
The last major character that is of concern is professor Moriarty. He served as an antagonist for
Sherlock. He was of the same intellect and could brilliantly deduce almost all of Sherlock's steppes.
Moriarty is a fascinating character, because he is not that different from Holmes. The only
difference is that he uses his skills to harm people. What probably Doyle intended by introducing
this character was that Moriarty was as close to an alpha male as Sherlock. Both fought together in
order to establish this position only to discover they are equal. It is also very possible that Moriarty
saw Holmes as something else. Maybe he was not to be an enemy in the first place. The answer to
gender aspects surrounding this character is developed in the next chapters.

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 3. Gender aspects of main characters

The main purpose of this chapter is to closely examine the motivation of main characters behind
their actions, why do they behave they do and the attitude towards others. The first part of this
section is composed of description of the main male characters, while the second part consists of
explaining the role of women, but in more detail than in the first part. As I have hinted in the
previous chapter, women have much more bigger role in the modern adaptations and we have to
establish what the main differences are. To find to which scale it differs, we need to examine
women role in society and in various classes because as we will see later, the roles change quite
significantly.
The explaining of behaviour will be done via passages from selected short stories, where the
character's dialogues carry gender aspects which might supported by theories from various book
about them. Some of these aspects will not need a detailed explanation, because it is clear why they
act the way they do. Also, this chapter will serve as an introduction to the next part, where
characters are examined and compared with the findings that have been described here. It is thus
crucial to pay very close attention to details but also the whole concept of gender aspects. There
might or might not be a change in behaviour of some characters throughout the franchise. The one
problem that can occur is the point of view in which they are seen to behave. Since the narrator of
the stories is Watson, the opinion is somehow already established on behaviour of Sherlock and
others. We already get a point of view by Watson, but we need to interpret it to more neutral way
because Watson's ideas of appropriate behaviour and acting might differ from ours.
The expected outcome of this part is to name and describe gender aspects we notice in the
behaviour of main characters, namely Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, Irene Adler, and Moriarty.
Although Adler and Moriarty appear only in one story, their role is extremely important, because
they represent different type of character that is unique, because it carries aspects that might be
slightly or more different than those in modern adaptations.

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 3.1. Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes is the main protagonist of the franchise. Although we do not t see the story from
his point of view, we still can add our knowledge to what Watson, the narrator, sees and says. In
selected stories, I examine the opinions of others on Sherlock and his typical aspects, which are
ignorance, drug abuse, male dominance, cold-bloodedness etc. This will be supported by gender
theories, if needed. Other characters will follow the same pattern, but with different aspects.

The most explaining story is obviously the first one, Study in Scarlet (Doyle, 2008). Here, we meet
John Watson, who returned to London after serving in the military and who seeks to find a place to
live. He meets one of his friends, who says that he knows someone who is working in a hospital. He
describes him as queer, enthusiastic, but adds he is a decent person. He also adds, the man did not
study but rather learns by observing and he is communicative when he wants to. One crucial
passage of the story is this:
"Holmes is a little too scientific for my tastes—it approaches to cold-bloodedness. I could imagine
his giving a friend a little pinch of the latest vegetable alkaloid, not out of malevolence, you
understand, but simply out of a spirit of inquiry in order to have an accurate idea of the effects. To
do him justice, I think that he would take it himself with the same readiness. He appears to have a
passion for definite and exact knowledge."

Here we see one major aspect that runs throughout the original books and some modern
adaptations. It is the passion for definite knowledge without looking at the consequences. Sherlock
Holmes is a character that would sacrifice anything to get the work done, even if this causes harm
to others. Without any further knowledge we could agree that this is true. And one fascinating thing
is, that in the original story we never get a situation so important or rather desperate, where we
could observe if Sherlock is really capable of sacrificing someone. But in the modern adaptations,
especially in Sherlock, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, we will see what he is capable of when
confronting danger that could harm his friends.

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 Now, if we recall back the first part and the description of the creation of Sherlock Holmes
universe, we realize that A.C. Doyle put a part of himself into Sherlock, mainly his medical and
anatomy skills. He did the same with Watson, but the first major division occurs. On one side, we
have Sherlock, cold blooded detective, that wants to find out everything he can, not looking how it
will affect others and on the second hand we have Watson, a typical men with feelings being
normal person, who can grieve and realize the danger and harm investigation could do to others.
Doyle clearly split his persona between these two, in order to achieve most potential. Since many
readers would be confused with Sherlock's actions, we have Watson who serves as a normal being,
trying to lower the cold-bloodedness of Sherlock by helping him in various ways.

Another important aspect that is useful for further study is the communication between Sherlock
and Watson early in this story. We have Sherlock very much engaged in communication with others
and he is presented more as a person with feelings, which quite contradicts with what has been said
thus far. One might wonder, since this is the first story, if Doyle was not yet clearly decisive of how
his characters should behave. So we see Sherlock more friendly and laughing, which is not that
common in later stories as well as the Sherlock series with Cumberbatch. The other two adaptation
of Sherlock have much more in common with this one, with what has been described here in this
story. The reason might be, that this kind of Sherlock is much more appealing to viewers, who do
not want to see a boring character which talks only a few times during the episode or a film.

In the stories, we also never see Sherlock being in a relationship. And he is not looking for one.
This is unusual since in Victorian England it was considered to be married at certain age, yet
Sherlock was an exception. We might guess how much it would influence his behaviour and
attitude towards for example Watson, and to which extent it would shape future adaptations. On the
other hand, having Sherlock paired up with a woman instead of a man, would eventually lead to a
relationship, but it would be too much obvious for readers and they would probably have asked for
it, since they managed to persuade Doyle into reviving Sherlock after a while. This way, having a
male sidekick was a clever strategy how to eliminate this possibility, but as we know, the
relationship between Sherlock and Watson was still very relationship-like, until Watson married.

19
Soon after moving with Sherlock, Watson realizes one gender aspect, that is the most known to be
the major trait of Sherlock. It his is his knowledge and the way he understands values, whether
material or personal. He is the type of male character that would only care for things he finds
important. Watson stated this:
“His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge. Of contemporary literature, philosophy and
politics he appeared to know next to nothing. Upon my quoting Thomas Carlyle, he inquired in the
naivest way who he might be and what he had done. My surprise reached a climax, however, when
I found incidentally that he was ignorant of the Copernican Theory and of the composition of the
Solar System. That any civilized human being in this nineteenth century should not be aware that
the earth traveled round the sun appeared to be to me such an extraordinary fact that I could
hardly realize it.“

This explanation by Watson is probably the most revealing one for the readers. We see that
ignorance is the major trait of Sherlock Holmes. It is very closely connected to the cold-
bloodedness mentioned earlier. It is also a typical male gender aspect, which has been seen
throughout history.
Last but not least, early in the story, one significant discovery that Watson makes while living
together with Sherlock is the usage of drugs. Nothing else is explained further in this story however.
The usage of opium is closely looked at in the story The Man with the Twisted Lip and usage of
cocaine in The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter. As we know, drugs can drastically change
one's behaviour.
The surprising fact is, that when it comes to modern adaptations, they tend to ignore this fact of
being ignorant is some areas. In the British version of Sherlock set in modern day, we now get a
person, who knows everything about literature and is aware of how things work. This is another
gender aspect which changed. Some people might thus say that in the original stories Sherlock was
not as entertaining, but it is quite the opposite. While he lacks this kind of knowledge, he was much
more engaged in search for the truth and fighting crime. However being ignorant to these things is
making Sherlock more accessible for readers, since they might not know what Watson is implying
to when he quotes Carlyle. Some readers might find it funny, that someone like Sherlock is not
familiar with this trivial knowledge and others are like Sherlock when it comes to this awareness,
thus making him more likeable.

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 In the story The Man with the Twisted Lip (Doyle, 1993) Watson accidentally finds Sherlock in a
opium den. However there is no proof that Sherlock is using this drug, but is in this place only to
solve a case. Yet it would be strange, why Sherlock should not be using opium in the first place.
In fact, usage of opium was quite common in the Victorian England and it was a popular trait of
middle class men as well as lower class. Mostly male gender attended these places in order to relax
and forget stressful events in their life, which could very well be the trouble at home, with their
wives. But as we know, Sherlock had no relationship and did not have any symptoms which are
typical for addicts to opium, such as reduced anxiety, pain or euphoria. The other way to escape this
was paying a visit to brothels.
The conclusion of this story is that Sherlock was not a opium user but rather wanted to see what
effects it might have on others while he was investigating a case. But this could have very well
served as a important aspect for Elementary, the American version of Sherlock, which focuses on
the drug addiction, what it caused and how it influenced him.

What Doyle probably wanted in this story is to connect to the work of Oscar Wilde and his book
Picture of Dorian Gray. In that story, opium dens play a big role for the main character. Doyle
probably wanted to pay a tribute, since Wilde helped him in the beginning of his career. The other
reason might be closer connection to readers, which might very well be visitors to such places.
What, however, is a gender aspect, and especially in Victorian England, is smoking. Tobacco in
that time was regarded a habit and pleasure. A typical male habit that continues to this day and it is
in different variation seen on modern adaptations, with slight changes. Sherlock was quite a big
smoker and his typical trait was to use a pipe, explain that smoking eases his mind and allows him
to think and relax. Sherlock's portrayal that stuck in many people minds is smoking his pipe in his
chair, trying to solve or deduce a way to finish a case. Sometimes he is joined by Watson, who
smokes too. But in neither of the TV shows set in the modern day, we do not see him smoke, which
is probably due to having characters with good traits that are appealing to viewers.

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 As was mentioned now as well as in the first chapter, Doyle met Wilde and they agreed to publish
their stories. Since both had their own style of writing, we see another drug being used. It is
cocaine. While Wilde had opium at that time in his story, Doyle, being educated in medical science,
selected cocaine in his story The Sign of Four (Doyle, 1890) we read in the beginning :
"Sherlock Holmes took his bottle from the corner of the mantel-piece and his hypodermic syringe
from its neat Morocco case. With his long, white, nervous fingers he adjusted the delicate needle,
and rolled back his left shirt-cuff. For some little time his eyes rested thoughtfully upon the sinewy
forearm and wrist all dotted and scarred with innumerable puncture-marks. Finally, he thrust the
sharp point home, pressed down the tiny piston, and sank back into the velvet-lined arm-chair with
a long sigh of satisfaction."

Since Doyle was a doctor himself, he knew the effects of long usage of cocaine. The explanation of
the procedure is quite raw. In this story we clearly see Doyle's position in Watson, since he
persuaded Sherlock to stop using it. There is a long dialogue, where both men try to explain their
point of view. We as readers might be torn between which character to support. Either we follow
Sherlock, because we know how his mind works and we might feel for him, or we are like Watson
and try to protect him, by explaining what is wrong.
I find this as a good move by Doyle. Here, we, the readers become more and more like the
characters in the story. We have to decide of which character we take after and go with it. Male
readers would thus connect more with Sherlock, because they realize all the troubles they face. Us
being the middle class for example, means caring for family and being the head and the
breadwinner at the same time. Women on the other side would see themselves in Watson, who tries
to protect something close to him. Since their position was at home, taking care of the family, it is
only logical they would agree with Watson's point of view. The satisfaction part is also interesting
because it suggests that Sherlock should be more and more addicted to it, but later he stops using
cocaine. In one of the modern adaptation, we will see what drugs did to Sherlock while he was
using them and how it changes him in the process of being a drug addict.

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 The last gender aspect examined here is the overall male dominance and ego of Sherlock Holmes.
Although there is not clearly a conversation regarding this, readers by themselves soon learn that
Sherlock likes being the one who transforms words into action.
One of the best stories to show his male dominance is the story The Hound of Baskerville (Doyle
1930). Here we see Sherlock in a different light. He is much more mysterious in his way of
speaking to people and he tends to mock Watson more than usual. A good example is in the
beginning of the story, where Sherlock asks Watson to describe the man who is coming to their
house, just by looking at him. Watson provides quite detailed description and Sherlock states this:
"It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but you are a conductor of light. Some people
without possessing genius have a remarkable power of stimulating it. I confess, my dear fellow that
I am very much in your debt."

This small part would suggest Sherlock considers Watson as someone more equal to him and
acknowledges Watson's ability to deduce things that might not be so obvious. The real deal is
however, that Sherlock listens to Watson only to correct him in a moment after. The main point of
this conversation was to prove that Sherlock himself is still the most brilliant one out of the two.
Sherlock only wanted to hear Watson say the obvious things with little details, but knew, he could
never imitate him. Yet this is only the start of Sherlock's dominance.
Later in the story, Sherlock orders Watson to go to a certain place without him, because he needs to
attend something else. He tells Watson to be his eyes and ears and thus giving him the possibility to
stand as equal. This must have been very symbolic for him, because Sherlock again tried to be
friendly to Watson. But it is later revealed however, that everything Sherlock said was a lie. He was
secretly spying on Watson, while he was investigating the case. This is how he wants to apologize
to him:
"My dear fellow, you have been invaluable to me in this as in many other cases, and I beg that you
will forgive me if I have seemed to play a trick upon you. In truth, it was partly for your own sake
that I did it, and it was my appreciation of the danger which you ran which led me to come down
and examine the matter for myself."

23
We, as readers are now split again with two major questions. The first one is obvious. Is Sherlock
really so thoughtful of his friend Watson, by staying on the moors and does not contact him at all
and only waits until Watson finds Sherlock? Or, the more likely explanation, that Sherlock again
wanted to be the hero of the situation, mysteriously appearing in the right moment and saving the
day. Watson questions Sherlock and wants an explanation why did not Sherlock tell him about this
part of investigation. He consistently tells the motives and variables that might influence the case.
Here we can observe Watson's naivety. Although Sherlock's explanation is good and makes sense,
he does not apologize. He only states and says what he needs to keep Watson co-operating.
Additionally, Sherlock praises Watson for the work, which, however was in vain after all. So as
much as the readers probably hoped for Watson to have more crucial part (and for much of the story
we think he plays it) and in the end, Sherlock and his brilliant mind saves the day and only got
insulted when Sherlock appeared.
But if we dig even deeper, we have to understand one thing. Sherlock Holmes is a detective in the
first place. If he wants to do his job well, he needs to be objective and since he does not possess
such a great range of emotions, he still realizes he made something wrong and provides a mild
apology and acknowledges Watson's work at least a little bit.
After all, Sherlock is also a character that fights crime. He does something positive to society and
is useful for police, since he tends to work with it. A crime fighting character in Victorian England
is quite something unusual, since corruption was common. People wanted to read something that
gave them hope of better future, and Sherlock fits right in.
And here we have it. Another gender aspect that was hidden all along. Being a good person, with
morals, chasing thugs and solving every case, even if the cost is lying to your friend. It would be
boring for Doyle, having two main characters with the same view on things. This way, he had
Sherlock, a man of justice, who had his dark sides, but got the job done in the end.
Although I have established the basic gender aspects of Sherlock Holmes, it might very well be
that there other aspects will be discovered. Sherlock Universe is such a complex franchise with
colorful characters and various gender aspects.

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3.2. John Watson

It is a little tricky do distinguish typical gender aspects of Watson. Firstly, he is the narrator of the
story, so he pays a lot of attention to Sherlock. The only time he produces his own ideas is when
Sherlock asks Watson to analyze something. Secondly, this character has quite a stiff persona. What
this means is that Watson does not do something outside his believes if not being told by Sherlock.
In such case he is capable of everything.
One aspect that is present throughout the stories is loyalty. Since both protagonists in the book are
males, they needed to be on different levels when it comes to position. As Watson was an army
doctor, he very well fit in the supporting role. He is also the one who carries weapons. This shows
that Watson was the muscle in the duo, while Sherlock was the brain. Very interesting monologue is
presented by Watson early in the Study in Scarlet (Doyle. 2008) :
“The reader may set me down as a hopeless busybody, when I confess how much this man
stimulated my curiosity, and how often I endeavoured to break through the reticence which he
showed on all that concerned himself. Before pronouncing judgement, however, be it remembered,
how objectless was my life, and how little there was to engage my attention. My health forbade me
from venturing out unless the weather was exceptionally genial, and I had no friends who would
call upon me and break the monotony of my daily existence. Under these circumstances, I eagerly
hailed the little mystery which hung around my companion, and spent much of my time in
endeavouring to unravel it.“

This passage shows everything about what Watson feels. First of all, he was bored. He had no
friends and Sherlock was the only one he had. Yet, looking at his position now and in the army back
then, we as readers wonder, why he did not try to meet more people. In Victorian England it was
not that hard to go to some gentleman club and have a good time with others. It clearly shows
loyalty to Sherlock, who on the other side had Watson for mere amusement and very rarely took
seriously his ideas.
Secondly, in the beginning of this part we see that Watson appeals to readers not to judge him
immediately. He tries to explain his thoughts and feelings and wants the readers to acknowledge his
point of view, but he does it in a very weak manner, where he appears quite boring. We readers
should feel for him and understand where is loyalty to Sherlock comes from.

25
Another quite significant aspect of Watson is his ignorance and potential homosexuality.
Throughout the stories, we see constant debates and opinion exchanges between Sherlock and
Watson. Doyle, by creating these characters must have been on thin ice, since he partnered two
males together. However the important fact is, that this kind of relationship was not welcome in
Victorian England and was looked at as something horrible, yet many authors including Wilde
tended to have some kind of male relationships. Sherlock stories were not the exception.
We could argue that it was or was not intentional; describing though process of both individuals
and their debates they had together. But how else to explain that Watson almost never openly
criticizes Sherlock, and when he does, he is quickly calmed down. We can take the example from
The Hound of Baskervilles (Doyle, 2008) where after Sherlock reveals himself on the moors,
Watson asks for explanation and he is clearly enraged. After Sherlock explain everything, Watson
thinks:
“I was still rather raw over the deception which had been practised upon me, but the warmth of
Holmes's praise drove my anger from my mind. I felt also in my heart that he was right in what he
said and that it was really best for our purpose that I should not have known that he was upon the
moor.“

We do not have to look any further to realize how much of a influence Sherlock's praising was for
Watson. He clearly admired him for his brilliance. How else to explain he immediately calmed
down and tried to persuade himself it was for greater good. There is absolutely no way that Watson
after this deception would still believe Sherlock, yet he does. It is fascinating how much influence
Sherlock had over him. And again we see the clash between Sherlock, who does not pay attention
to feelings of others and Watson, who is filled with emotions right now and manages to forgive
Sherlock, although he must have known the apology was a mere way to calm Watson down.
The relationship between Sherlock and Watson has been examined several times. There are
different opinions on them and they sometimes differ in small details. Some believe that Sherlock
and Watson had a secret homosexual relationship and others do not see it that way. My guess would
be that Doyle intentionally wrote the dialogues this way, since homosexuality in Victorian Britain
had its place and this appealed the readers who could find something or someone they felt
connected to.

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3.3. Irene Adler

Even though Irene Adler is present in only one story, her role is quite significant for various
reasons. First and foremost, she is the only woman in the entire franchise intellectually close to
Sherlock and is capable of reading his moves for most part of the story. Secondly, her overall
gender presence was different than other women's. She was the new model of woman, who is not a
housewife or a maid, as was common in Victorian England. She represents something new.
Although she possesses qualities typical for that period like courtesy and respect for male gender,
she is also quite unique in thinking, almost misleading Sherlock Holmes. Watson in the begging of
the story Scandal in Bohemia (Doyle, 1993) says:
"To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any
other name. In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex. 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. 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."

This is probably the best description of Irene and her position in the story. She appears very
dominant and confident. That is another unusual gender aspect for that time. She went toe to toe
with Sherlock and managed to convince him in the end, that females are as good as males when it
comes to intellect and power.
In modern adaptations the focus is on observing how much of her character remains. That is how
big the difference between the intellect is, because it might very well be, that she might be
portrayed even smarter than Sherlock. Another significant fact compared will be the relationship
with Sherlock, since in the original story, there is no romance and in one or more of the modern
adaptations we might find evidence of being in a one. It will be interesting to see by how much the
role of women altogether changed and how it was reflected on male characters, for Sherlock was
not interesting in the opposite sex at all and Watson married only to escape the constant behaviour
of Sherlock in the later stories.

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 3.4. James Moriarty

Last character examined is professor Moriarty. Although he appears again in only one story (same
as Irene Adler) he plays a crucial role for the plot, being a criminal mastermind and the man behind
Sherlock's death. In the story The Final problem (Doyle, 1993) Holmes provides a brief description
of Moriarty, saying:
"He is a man of good birth and excellent education, endowed by nature with a phenomenal
mathematical faculty. At the age of twenty-one he wrote a treatise upon the binomial theorem which
has had a European vogue. On the strength of it, he won the mathematical chair at one of our
smaller universities, and had, to all appearances, a most brilliant career before him. But the man
had hereditary tendencies of the most diabolical kind. A criminal strain ran in his blood, which,
instead of being modified, was increased and rendered infinitely more dangerous by his
extraordinary mental powers. Dark rumours gathered round him in the University town, and
eventually he was compelled to resign his chair and come down to London. He is the Napoleon of
crime, Watson. He is the organiser of half that is evil and of nearly all that is undetected in this
great city. He is a genius, a philosopher, an abstract thinker. He has a brain of the first order."

This might be a little long description, but we learn everything important from it. First of all,
Moriarty's main gender aspect is his ego and arrogance. Being obviously an upper class character,
he despises everyone below him and thinks of him he is something better. It is a typical trait for
people in this position to behave arrogantly. Sherlock on the other hand is also sometimes arrogant,
but not in such a big scale as Moriarty and does not crave for power used for crimes.
That is another typical aspect of him. While one has power, he has control. And if Moriarty can
control (and he does) he is quite easily the most powerful man in England. If we look back at
description of middle class men, all they wanted was obedience at home. What Moriarty wanted
was the obedience of a country or possibly, the whole world.
We can easily state that A.C. Doyle put a lot of effort to the creation of this character. He carries
the most hideous traits and is a competent opponent for Sherlock, who finds the only way to stop
him, sacrificing himself. It must have been a shock for the audience, seeing Holmes die in this
story, since all previous ones were always ending in a positive note.

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 It would be probably better for the sake of readers, if Doyle actually hinted the appearance of
Moriarty before and slowly revealed his secrets, rather than just throwing him in the story. Although
Sherlock's explanation of Moriarty is enough for readers, there was a potential to have more stories
where these two masterminds fight. It is also quite possible, Doyle wanted a character, that would
represent himself but in the evil way. Since Sherlock is the good one and carries a lot of Doyle's
traits, Moriarty is quite the opposite with his evil side. And it the end it comes to this clash in the
last scene, where these two fight and neither one wins. At this time, Doyle was already sure that he
does not want to continue the stories and wanted to work on other literary works.
But Moriarty remains a character that has the widest range when it comes to portraying him in
movies and TV series. This can't be said about Sherlock since he is the main protagonist and people
want to experience his whole way of thinking and behaving they are used to. In one of the
adaptations we even get a female version of Moriarty, namely in Elementary, an American version
set in the modern era. It provides us with a twist, which many people appreciate because there
might be people who thought that there is a hidden homosexuality concept in Moriarty's character
and this way, it somehow resembles it, but does that in a more common and traditional way, where
man and woman are considered the standard relationship

3.5. Summary

This chapter served as a crucial and obvious gender aspects presentation in Sherlock Holmes
franchise. I have mentioned these particular traits of the main characters in order to compare them
with the ones in modern TV and film adaptations. Since some of the gender aspects slightly change,
other become more important, such as arrogance of Sherlock, evilness of Moriarty, or the overall
appearance of Irene Adler. Together with Watson, these main four characters will be compared and
contrasted and it will be observed by how much the aspects change and how much of them remains
the same.
It is important to note, that not all characters who appear in the stories have been mentioned, like
Mrs Hudson, inspector Lestrade or Mary Watson. The reason is that not enough description is
provided and only chunks are listed in the stories. Thus it will be easier to compare them
simultaneously with the modern ones at the same time.

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 4. Gender aspects in the modern adaptations

4.1. Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock Holmes : A Game of shadows.

The first major adaptation examined is the film Sherlock Holmes, directed by Guy Ritchie, where
Sherlock is played by Robert Downey Jr. and Watson is represented by Jude Law. This is the only
adaptation mentioned here, which takes place in Victorian England, since the two other take place
in the modern day era. There are two movies at the time this work is being written and both films
are quite similar in plot and portaying major aspects of the main characters.
What we need to realize is the fact that this particular film is targeted for broader audience and thus
the gender aspects are morphed in a way that connects Sherlock characters to people who might not
be so familiar with the universe. In both adaptations, Holmes shifts to being more violent. This is
probably the first major difference. In the original books, if something went wrong, Watson often
represented the muscle. Sherlock only used his mind. Now he uses it for fighting the criminals
physically and directly. The most notorious scene which portrayed this was the brawling pit part.
This is probably done due to American conception of movies for masses. Sherlock here is
portrayed more as a superhero type who survives every danger he faces. The original concept is
very different, where he is more ordinary human with flaws. To quote production on this type of
Sherlock, Wigramm, the main producer stated:
"I imagine a much more modern, more bohemian character, who dresses more like an artist or
poet."
Yet this goes against the typical Sherlock trait, which is being very casually dressed, not being the
centre of attention, but rather silently observing people from afar. It is just another American
misconception of gender representation in the original story. They need characters, who are easily
distinguished in order to remember them better.
What is a part of this new gender aspect is the behaviour towards women and especially Irene
Adler. In the original story, there was no hint of any relationship between them. Here, Sherlock
appears rather insecure while talking to her and the big possibility is, there was a romance between
them. Also, while he is with her, he tends to lose his perception. This is obvious in the scene, where
Irene drugs him. This is very much different storyline line which completely ignores Doyle's view.
What he wanted is for Irene to be mysterious, and not so emotionally attached to Sherlock.

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 There is also only one scene, which connects Sherlock to drug usage. It is when Watson says:
"You know that what you're drinking is for eye surgery?"
This is the one reference which has something common with cocaine usage, which was used as
topical anesthetic for eye surgery at that time. While this plays a minor role and many people will
not even understand the point of this quote, it is another form of how to preserve Sherlock a hero,
who does not do drugs and is only relying on his skills. The ones who get this reference might
wonder why it was presented in this way, since injecting cocaine through needle was much more
common.
In the second movie, Sherlock is again very violent, rather than being a passive observer. He is also
much more extravagant, changing costumes very often, even wearing a women's costume. What
aspect of Sherlock is however very much embraced is his obsession with Moriarty, which was
lacking in the first film. In one scene, Sherlock shows Watson the so called “spider web“ of
Moriarty's evil schemes showing his passion for having a suitable enemy.
In their first face – to – face meeting we see the clash of good and evil. But it is shown in a way
that clearly distinguishes who is who. It is similar to the original story, yet here we witness the clash
of two brilliant minds, where one tries to outsmart the other. We do however see Sherlock
struggling against Moriarty in another scene, where Moriarty outsmarts him by planting evidence in
a way, Sherlock mistakes a place of possible attack, where a bomb is set to explode.
Additionally, his relationship with Watson does not change that much. In the original story, when
Watson got married, he slowly begun to drift away from Sherlock. In order to stop this here,
Sherlock with a little indirect help from Moriarty persuades Watson into one last case, which they
will inspect. He manages so by eliminating Mary for a while and appeals to their relationship. This
could be a sign from Holmes, where he saw Watson as something more than a friend. To this
Watson reacts quite coldly, so Sherlock changes his answer to partnership. We observe here a
change in gender view on their relationship. In the original story, Watson was the one, who sounded
much more interested in Sherlock, by worrying about his health or asking for answers to difficult
questions. Here we get the opposite, where Sherlock is the one who is losing something, namely
Watson.
The ultimate gender misconception is however, when Watson and Sherlock dance together at a
ball. There is absolutely no possibility that in that time, two men could dance together. And nobody
even saw this as being something weird. If I have to point out one mistake it is this one, since it
goes against everything which was standard in late 1890's.

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 Watson in this adaptation looks more equal to Sherlock when it comes to relationship. He appears
also quite more violent and is even seen punching Sherlock several times. With comparison to
original, Watson appears less dependent on him and the friendship is colder between them.
What is portrayed very well is the relationship between him, Sherlock and Mary. Since the story
takes part in the time Watson is with Mary, he is undecided whether he really wants to marry her. It
would hint the loyalty aspect. Even though in one scene he should have a date with Mary, he
decides to help Sherlock instead. It is thus very close to the original book. However it is later stated
by Watson that Sherlock sabotages the relationship with Mary, because he is scared of being alone.
In the second movie, Watson has few days of time with Sherlock before his marriage. We observe
that his friendship does not change much towards him, which in original story slowly did, since he
spent more time with Mary. In addition, we get another male aspect in Watson, which is gambling
and betting. This was very popular in early Victorian England, since players did not have to pay
taxes and could take their whole winnings home.

Moriarty is another major character present. Although his face does not appear in the first part, we
already learn that he is a criminal mastermind, persuading Irene to work for him in order to study
Sherlock. He is presented as an antagonist for future films.
In the second film we finally meet Moriarty and see his face. He is very much like the original
one. Man of higher education, coming from a noble family, with evil plans. He is also quite older
than Sherlock. We first see him in a restaurant, where he shows his true power, controlling
everybody, which is one of his core aspects. Being in charge is what Moriarty is all about. His
character representation is thus very reliable but viewers were split after watching this film. One
half agreed that this Moriarty is good, because he is the best original Moriarty with all his
attributes, but the other half sees him as rather dull and boring. But we do see that his brilliance
might be bigger than Holme's since he misleads him into a wrong place, although only once. This
shows how much male gender dominance Moriarty possessed and how he enjoyed being the one in
control, being entertained by his own great mind.
In the last scene, where Sherlock and Moriarty fight, we see that Sherlock was probably the
smarter one, since he managed to trick him. It would be interesting to see, what difference it would
be if Moriarty actually won. This is true not only in this adaptation, but also in the other ones. In
Sherlock's defense, we can say that his wound he suffered earlier on in the movie, could have been
a hindrance to deliver a crushing defeat to Moriarty, not only physical, but mental since he managed
to read his every move.
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 By far the biggest change comes with Irene Adler. In the original story, Sherlock did not know her.
In this adaptation, they seem to know each other well with a hint of former relationship. Watson
adds, that she is the only woman who outsmarted Sherlock not once, but twice. We could wonder
what the second time was. The first, obvious hint was a connection to Scandal in Bohemia, which
has been explained earlier. She is also portrayed as higher class rather than middle class and
behaves that way, acting very emancipated, confident and also, aggressive. In one scene, she even
fights two men. This is very inaccurate for two reasons. The first one is that she beats them, which
is quite impossible for women in Victorian Britain. Secondly, there is no possibility that any woman
would even fight at that time. Not to mention, women of high or middle class stayed away from
dark corners of London. But it is an aspect of a woman, who is capable of defending herself, which
is likeable for female viewers.
In the second movie, we see Irene only in the beginning, working for Moriarty. This was hinted in
the previous one and it is also inaccurate. Adler and Moriarty never met personally and did not
work together at all in the original stories. She served here more as a tool, which Moriarty used to
study Sherlock. To completely make her irrelevant for the plot he kills her, since she was no longer
needed. This goes against original plot, but adds the aspect of revenge.
Mrs Hudson's character, which is Holmes's house lady, also gets attention. Their relationship is
quite similar to original books, but Sherlock here acknowledges her much more and he is likely
making fun of her more then he should, but respects her and her point of view.
One detail however, which makes this adaptation quite interesting is spiritualism. Performing
séances was common for some women in Victorian England. Although there are minor scenes in
the film, they represent what was actually quite popular. The book The Darkened room (Owen,
1989) states that women in this time except maids or housewives, had the possibility of becoming a
medium, which was looked at in the beginning as not being a gender norm. The main fact remains
that with passing the Married women's property Act in 1882, women had no separate identity from
their husbands. What this meant was the idea that the women cannot control property, due to
marriage, where only the husband had the option to decide. This was obviously wrong so a
correction came few months later, which allowed women to have control over their identity as well
as giving them some rights and enabling them to show their power in a non-standar form.
In the second movie we meet a spiritualist medium who tries to persuade Sherlock, she can read
future. He however looks through this trick. We could wonder if this was the intention of
screenwriters to present mediums this way, since it actually was standard, or if they felt an occult
character would be more dark, thus appealing
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Although this film is changing gender aspects for their needs, it is still a good Sherlock Holmes
adaptation. It embraces the core, which is deduction, but adds something extra, which is pleasant
for a normal viewer, who does not want to study it any further. The problem which educated
audience might have that too much action was presented, rather than cold, methodological
deduction, which led to conclusion a case.
If we look at the gender as a whole, we see that this particular adaptation needed the change in
order to make this movie function. Some characters, like Moriarty, Mrs Hudson and to a certain
extent Watson stood the same, Sherlock and Irene became the classical man and woman hero type,
which is so popular in today's Hollywood. Their gender changed significantly, but it worked, since
the basis remained. Sherlock was brilliant and the deduction part was there, and Irene remained a
secret to an extent. How else to explain that majority of critics rated it quite high?
It presented new type of Sherlock stories, which were not based on original ones, or only had a few
references in them. The fresh concept was what people found interesting and likeable, not to
mention picking actors, who represented their roles very well and the chemistry between them
worked. The gender mistakes for people who are acquainted with original stories, might comment,
that by not following the former concept, the adaptation lost what was so amazing, the deduction of
Sherlock was diminished to mere fighting and evaluating best strategy how to defeat them.
The problem with this adaptation is the lack of gender character development. If there is some, it is
very unimportant and it does not take full advantage of Sherlock's universe. The stories might be
original to some point, but we get characters that behave the same in both films. On the other hand,
the audience which these are meant for do not want to spend time learning about Sherlock and
Watson's life too much, since they came to see an action movie and gender accuracy is of no
concern for them.
There are times for viewers, they want to see a movie, enjoy it and not think about it. This
Sherlock movie fits in this category, since it provides us with action, mystery and case solving, but
does it with a character who is known to broad audience, so everybody will find something
appealing in this adaptation, which goes well with what Doyle wanted. That being, having
characters and plot, which connects viewers with them.

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4.2. Sherlock - TV series

This adaptation is set in modern day London, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock and
Martin Freeman as Watson. What is interesting in this version is that the original stories such as
Hound of Baskerville or Study in Scarlet are given new, modern concept, which gives the series
fresh feeling, but keeps the original core. There are three episodes per season and each lasts for over
an hour.

Sherlock in this particular version is very much like the original one. The only difference is that his
gender aspects which have been mentioned earlier are more obvious and exaggerated, which makes
him very unique in a way that people immediately feel the old Sherlock within him.
The first episode is Study in Scarlet, which is reference to Study in Pink, being the original story.
At the moment Sherlock and Watson meet, we already see an aspect change within Watson. He is
much more defensive and neutral towards Sherlock, whereas in the original story he thinks of him
in a more positive sense. Sherlock also appears more neurotic and engaged in his own thoughts. He
keeps himself mysterious and rarely explains his deduction process. He rather uses it to mock
people, thus establishing his dominance over others. It is especially noticeable in the first episode,
where he obnoxiously tries to be the only one who can solve the case of mass suicides.
His behaviour towards Watson is cold in the beginning, but they soon form a friendship, although
Holmes uses Watson here more as person of whom he can make fun of. It is just further evidence of
how Sherlock's attitude changed. Later he becomes a burden to live with, since his behaviour does
not get better towards people who care about him.
He is also less aggressive in a physical sense, since he uses his mind to cause pain. Only in few
episodes we actually see pure violence, namely in the end of first episode or when he takes down
assassin in one blow. Yet, it is certainly not the main intention of this adaptation. There is also
another aspect, which is so much connected to original character and that is wanting to learn the
truth at all costs, even if it causes harm to others, and it does not matter if to friends or enemies.
This aspect is the dominant for this particular version of Sherlock.
His brilliant mind, which is his most known aspect, is little diminished, since he himself states, that
although he scans the place where the crime happened in detail, he always misses something
important, which he later realizes and beats himself up over that.

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Sherlock also possesses a somewhat of a manipulation technique, knowing strengths and
weaknesses of his enemies and allies. When he is about to lose an argument, he suddenly starts to
behave very friendly and mentions something that might not have been important for him in the
first place, such as physical appearance. This is very well connected to the aspect of upsetting
people after his brilliant deduction. He does this very tactlessly. The most notorious scene is when
Molly, a colleague of his introduces him to her boyfriend, who is actually Moriarty in disguise.
Sherlock says to Molly that Moriarty is gay, thus imagining he would help her realize that. But she
becomes upset and leaves. He later apologizes, realizing what he might have done wrong. This is
another aspect of this Sherlock, which sometimes makes viewers hate him, since he is so brutally
honest. Although people often find him cold-hearted he knows the priorities like that saving people
is more important than catching the villain.
The one aspect that was not fully explored was caring for others. It is a trait that in this adaptation
plays a significant part. In one particular scene, Mr Hudson is being endangered and he uses his
abilities to protect her, clearly indicating a greater bond between them, which was lacking in the
previous one. This protection of others escalated in the final meeting between him and Moriarty. In
this adaptation, Moriarty commits suicide, with his last words stating that if Sherlock does not do
the same, hired assassins will assassinate all he cares about, namely Watson, Mrs Hudson, Molly
and Lestrade.
Realizing this, Sherlock really "kills" himself in order to protect them.
This is quite fascinating, since this is the one adaptation that really drove Sherlock to the point,
where he thought he is insane and everything he had solved came from his head, being the
mastermind behind the crimes and Moriarty being only an actor hired by him. It made Sherlock
look like he is so smart, but stupid at the same time, since the twists in the last episode of second
season are complicated even for Sherlock, to realize what is true and what is not. Clearly viewers
had the same feeling and were lost in the story, hoping for some explanation.
Lastly, when it comes to drug usage, in one episode we can see a reference to the opium dens in the
Sign of four, only this time, in a modern habit. Sherlock is living with drug addicts in an abandoned
house. It is very like the original one, yet with a twist. He was actually using the drugs as was
proven by lab tests done by Molly, who then slapped him, asking why he did this to the gift he had
been born with. Sherlock is stunned and apologizes, but probably only for the sake of the situation
he was in, since he felt a little bad at least. It also proves that Sherlock is not perfect as opposite to
the American version. Here we have a man, who does things his way, even if it cost harm to
himself, to learn the truth.
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Since we no longer get the point of view from John Watson, his persona is very similar the original
concept, where the Afghan trauma is described in more detail, since he visits psychologist to help
him with this issue. It is as a method how to make this character more appealing to viewers, since it
had devastating effects on Watson, who worked as a medic and is now very depressed and without
feelings, just surviving from day to day. This particular gender aspect makes him an ideal target for
Sherlock, who at first takes slow approach towards him, but later accepts him as a friend, which
means a lot to Watson, who also does not have many.
An unusual change to Watson was removing his walking stick. Watson, in both original and the
movie adaptation was seen having a walking stick. In the original stories, it was a men thing having
these, since it helped distinguish social status, wealth or power. It could also work as a defensive
mechanism for thugs and thieves. Since this particular adaptation is set in modern day, Watson
having the stick felt kind of excessive. Here the walking stick was much of a reminder and mental
block that Watson carried from his time spent in Afghan.
In their first meeting, Watson is astonished by Sherlock's deduction skills, but he keeps his
distance. He also has much more questions and appears less smart than the Watson in the previous
adaptation. He is skeptical and does not believe in science of deduction in the first place, but later
acknowledges that Sherlock is truly a brilliant detective. Their bond becomes stronger over time
and they hand out together almost the whole day. The relationship changes, after the "suicide" of
Sherlock. When he returns, he finds John and Mary, now engaged. Sherlock tries to be calm, but
Watson is filled with emotions, both positive and negative, wondering how he could have done this
to him. It goes so far, that Watson hits physically Sherlock several times. After these events, Watson
is much more like original one, trying to spend more time with Mary, rather than Sherlock. But
when it comes to solving cases, he is glad to help.
Other important aspect explored is his relationship with Mary. At first, it looks ideal, but Mary here
is presented as an assassin and eventually nearly kills Sherlock, to save him from certain death.
Sherlock later explains this to Watson, who does not believe him, but it is later revealed that he had
Watson listen to his observation of Molly when they were alone. This leaves a mark on Watson,
who is torn, if he should stay with her, since their relationship was based on lie. In the end Watson
forgives Mary and they are seen living happily together, trying to forget about the past.

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 The biggest gender difference in this adaptation is with Moriarty. The most noticeable one is that
he is much younger, almost the same age of Sherlock. He is also not a professor on a university, but
rather a fully developed villain, whose only goal is to control and destroy everybody, mainly
Sherlock. He is much more fixed on him, and he does anything to diminish Sherlock's
achievements in order to prove, he is the only one ever to be more intelligent than him.
What makes this character unique and outstanding, is the behaviour and actions, speech and body
language. He is a perfectionist who plans details so efficiently he manages to trick Sherlock several
times, like pretending being a boyfriend of Molly. It is this aspect, which makes him a suitable
opponent for Sherlock, since we get the evilness of Moriarty, which was lacking in the previous
adaptation.
His persona is much darker and more scrupulous, wanting to eliminate Sherlock at all cost, even if
it would cost his life, which it did. He is full of arrogance and self-confidence, believing he is the
only one who can stop Sherlock and expose him. Unlike him however, Moriarty often lost his
temper, and became ruthless. This further shows the transformation of Moriarty, who now acts and
responds unexpectedly, making it hard for Sherlock to read the next move.
Even if there is a clash between good and evil between Sherlock and Moriarty, they have very
much the same approach when it comes to not being bored. But Moriarty's way is much more
sinister and he does not care, if he hurts anybody. Sherlock on the other side, would and did
sacrifice himself to protect others. One particular moment, where we can observe the dominance
Moriarty wanted to establish was hacking the Tower of London, where he sat on the throne,
wearing the Crown Jewels, only to be caught and released, since he did manipulate the jury in
letting him go. This only supports the theory that Moriarty did want to control everybody and used
methods to obtain obedience, which others would find disgraceful.
His final plan was destroy Sherlock came to an end, after they met on a roof of a building, where
Moriarty committed suicide, only to prove a point. However, Sherlock managed to save his friends
with the fake suicide, which has already been explained. In the end, it was Sherlock, who emerged
victorious, but the cost was too high, since Moriarty managed to destroy his reputation as a
detective.
Overall, this gender transformation from and old professor who keeps his cool was appreciated by
the viewers, since the new Moriarty was much more resemblance of a true villain, capable of
anything just to prove his point. Unlike the original concept, he is also more cynical and less
readable, since his character is unpredictable and his criminal connections within England are so
great, even Sherlock questions himself if this is really possible.
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Irene Adler and women altogether also experience certain gender shift. They are presented as
support for male characters, since Lestrade gets a female assistant as well as introduction of new
character, Molly, who did not appear in the original canon.
Irene Adler is presented with certain features that connect her gender aspects from the original
story, like high intelligence and mysterious presence. But she is more powerful, when it comes to
class. She is presented more as a upper – class and she calls herself "The Woman" which would
suggest, she considers herself being above others. She is also represented as a "Dominatrix" which
further gives her power over men and women alike, since it is being hinted, she ended a carrier of
some high class couple when she had an affair with both of them. She also appears to have an
assistant, which would again suggest her presence in the upper – class, where it was typical for
these women to have servants.
When Sherlock and Irene meet, we can observe certain attraction between them. The main
difference is however, Irene knows who Sherlock is when they meet, but in the original story, she
did not know immediately. Another quite significant change is that Irene outsmarts Sherlock in the
beginning, since she is naked, thus eliminating Sherlock's deduction skill. She is also able to
manipulate Sherlock into thinking, she is not as smart, which is later supported by the fact, and she
drugs him and steals evidence. She herself says: "I have beaten you" which makes her dominant
over Sherlock and makes the female gender even more powerful in this adaptation.
Molly is the new character, which is introduced. She works in laboratory, and is somewhat in love
with Sherlock, yet he ignores her feelings, even though he realizes her affection to him. She is a
typical gender representation of a woman who is shy about her feelings and is unable to express
herself. This aspect is quite typical for this time, where people tend to hide their feelings. Molly
represents this character quite good, since she cares for Sherlock, even though he behaves towards
her quite coldly and profesionally.
Quite significant change is observed in Mary Watson. She is now presented as a woman, who has
two lives. One, where is a girlfriend and later wife of John Watson, and second, where she is a hired
assassin. It is a considerable change of the character, which now gets more attention and it makes
the whole concept of relationship between her and Watson more dynamic. In one scene, she even
shoots Sherlock, but only to protect him from certain death. This new added attributes make her
important in the adaptation, where she could very well be on the level with other characters.

39
Overall this adaptation sticks to the original canon, with modern twists, which however do not
make it so much different. The core aspects of Sherlock, Watson and other characters are kept, but
new modern, more obvious traits that are trendy now are added, such as women playing bigger part
and having a compelling impact on the stories.
What gives these aspects credibility is that the screenwriters used Sherlock as a person, who is so
annoying with his observation. It puts other characters in awkward situations and the audience
enjoys watching their reactions, since they are always different. There is also certain change in
Sherlock over the series. We experience Sherlock going through changes, which affects his
relationship with others. In the beginning there is almost cold and professional attitude towards
Watson and vice versa, but over the course of few episodes it changes to a strong friendship, where
Sherlock is really worried about him and does anything to protect not only him, but the others. This
shows a character development that was lacking in the previous adaptation and it much more
reliable and trustworthy to viewers.
What is more, this adaptation, unlike the original, builds the story of Sherlock vs. Moriarty from
the first episode. It somehow resembles the previous one, but it plays more with the whole concept
of male dominance, since Moriarty's aspects are shifted a level higher. Here is the constant battle
between them and it a very well done maneuver because this is also part of modern shows, where
you often have the main criminal showing up over the whole season of the show and it provides the
viewers the satisfaction, since it keeps them agitated for next episodes.
The conclusion is that British screenwriters know Sherlock best and it is obvious in the episodes.
They managed to take Sherlock universe and give it modern look, which on the other hand kept the
original spirit but improved gender qualities and made them likeable for current audience. It
presented Sherlock in a way many people became curious about the original stories and they could
compare and contrast the difference in them.

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4.3. Elementary

Last adaptation presented is the American TV series Elementary, staring Jonny Lee Miller as
Sherlock and Lucy Liu as Joan Watson. This particular adaptation took gender and its aspects to a
new level, which had not been done before. It converted originally male characters, namely Watson
and Moriarty and transforms them into females and gives them significant gender change.
As we can already see, this show splits audience into two main groups when it comes to this
metamorphosis. The first group did not like the idea of Watson and Moriarty being females, since it
is against the core idea of Doyle, who wanted a male Watson as the guide for readers and Moriarty
as an arch-nemesis for Sherlock, who is intelligent enough to prove his own male dominance over
him. The second group appreciated the opposite of what Doyle wrote. They liked that this
adaptation does have these gender changes, since it provides fresh look on what can happen. If for
example Moriarty is female, it is interesting to see Sherlock's behaviour towards her or even
Watson, since she is a female to. Will Sherlock fall in love with either of them? These are the
questions which kept the audience tuned for next episodes.
The main issue of this adaptation is however the length. As I am writing this thesis, third season is
currently airing. Unlike the British version, it puts Elementary to the category of typical detective
series, which might be easily overlooked because of it. But this would be a mistake considering the
possibilities for aspects and attributes for Sherlock, Watson and Moriarty in the future, where we
could get some fascinating view on previous life or their future.
This series has also many old characters, which are presented in the original canon, like detective
Gregson, who is a contrast to Lestrade in many ways in behaviour to Sherlock since he is much
more depending on what Sherlock observes, and realizes his useful potential for police. Another
character presented is Moran, who worked for Moriarty in this adaptation as well as in the original
one and the movies starring Robert Downey. Jr. His importance is only mentioned because his
aspects stayed the same in all three versions, thus being a brute, having a great marksman skill,
which was a typical trait of men serving in war.

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 Sherlock is presented in a standard way in which his core gender aspects are kept but some new
are added. From the original ones his brilliance and power for detailed observation is kept. What
however changed is his way of training memory. He is no longer seen lying of couch thinking like
he did in the original stories but is rather watching 6 TV's at the same time, which makes him much
more memory accurate than any other Sherlock adaptation. Another aspect which connects him to
the British version is the manipulation skill. He manages to persuade others into his bidding, which
often leads to a situation, where the criminal is lost and does not find a way to answer his questions
and is eventually arrested. One of the more important aspects is however addiction to drugs, which
caused his stay at rehab facility. This particular trait of Sherlock is presented here as an escape from
things that caused him harm. Unlike other adaptations, drugs here do play a major role and are the
catalyst for change in Sherlock, because by using them, he eliminates his skills and abilities thus
becoming an ordinary man.
His relationship with women is what is most interesting in this adaptation from a gender point of
view, since major characters are transformed from males into females and it brings significant
change to behaviour and overall portrayal of them. At the first meeting with Watson, Sherlock
manages to impress her with his deduction skills and there is a certain hint on having an affair later
on. But the gender change of Watson is quite recognizable, when Sherlock deals with people in his
own rough style. Sherlock's behaviour goes through various phases with Watson, where in the
beginning we see very professional treatment of Sherlock, since she is hired by his father to take
care of him because of his escape from rehab facility. There is also an implication Sherlock is
sexually active. He states he finds it repellent, but practices it, since his body needs it. It is also
shown when Watson sees shackles in his home, which would suggest he needs to be the dominant
one in the relationship.
What is the crucial and most important aspect is his feelings toward Moriarty, since here, she is
presented as a female. She was the initial cause to Sherlock's drug addiction, when she pretended to
have committed suicide as Irene Adler. It left Sherlock so emotionally devastated, he started using
drugs to ease the pain. We can observe from this version of Sherlock that he possess more human-
like traits and emotions, which make him more likeable for audience, since he is no longer so
gender vague, only solving cases like a robot. This way, viewers get a Sherlock who somehow had
suffered through hard moments in his life, which is very appealing to most American viewers.

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Watson takes more of a woman aspect and tries to negotiate and engage in conversations with
Sherlock, victims or witnesses more than expected. There is a stronger sense for justice and having
the ability to help people, since she is a doctor after all. Yet in this adaptation she is a former
surgeon, which connects her to the medical role of original Watson, but there is of course no
mentioning of being in war. We now have a Watson, who has the possibility of having more
background to her and eventually we have the potential to learn more about her in flashbacks if it
comes to this and we might get a completely new gender aspects, which have not been seen. This is
one of the strengths of this series.
Yet the whole concept of Watson (as well as Moriarty) being females takes Sherlock stories to a
new level, where the gender does not clash in the form of class. This concept is eliminated here and
the roles are very equal. There is no longer a situation, where male gender would be much more
superior. It shows more how much equality means especially in United States, since this series
originated there and the idea of male characters becoming females only embraces the feeling of
women being as capable as men. Another way to look at this is that by making Watson woman, they
managed to hint possible romance between them. Yet nothing is hinted and the relationship is more
friendly and it resembles the original concept, with the slight changes hinted previously.
What is unusual however is that Irene Adler's character is cut and serves as a name Moriarty used
to fake her identity. It is only logical, since too many women characters would cause problems
because it would be hard to co-ordinate between them and choose which one to have as the carrier
of female traits. On the other hand, since Watson and Moriarty are women, it would be logical to
have Irene as a male character, which would balance the powers between genders, while now we
have two major females against one male.
Moriarty, as mentioned earlier, pretended to be Irene Adler, fell in love with Sherlock and the
relationship lasted several months. Even though this goes against the original concept, it provides
us with a new theory, which suggests that relationship between them could be possible. And the
only way this could function would be if one of those two would be female. The probable reason is
that homosexuality in shows is acceptable nowadays, but only with minor characters. Yet with
Moriarty and Sherlock being the main protagonists, it would definitely cause problems. This way,
having male and female gender, everything worked, since it is the common standard.

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Elementary altogether is a very good show, with unusual gender twists, which keep it fresh and
innovative. The only problem I hinted earlier is the fact that it is a TV show like every other on the
first look. Since American series have the same core, namely a male hero protagonist and a female
sidekick it does not bring something more for common viewer, who most likely does not know the
original concept not only of the stories, but gender as well. Elementary series having already three
seasons however proves, that doing something outside the box could pay up, because many people
like quirky and mysterious characters, who are capable of solving cases by paying attention to
details and manipulating others for their needs.
Now if we compare this adaptation Sherlock, we come to conclusion that the British adaptation
sticks to the original concept much more. It is probably for the sake of Doyle's original view and
the English nature to be more respectful and conservative when it comes to changes. So we see
Sherlock in way, which is not clearly heroic. Yes, he possesses the trait of realizing good and evil,
which is the important aspect but he also carries this English attitude of sarcasm and irony, which is
so popular in current culture and it also comes down to the actor and how he represents the
character and puts something from himself to it.
There had been also debates between American and British screenwriters on the concept of
Sherlock and the fear of similarity with these two adaptations, since the British were concerned
with the original gender being too diverted from the former concept. This happened, but the
difference was so huge, that the British screenwriters let it go, because both Sherlock's have such
significant gender aspects difference and the only thing they have in common is the fact they can
deduce, but again, each Sherlock does it his way. The other significant change which is with the the
length of episodes. While Sherlock produces three episodes per year, Elementary has twenty – three
episodes per season. This leads to more space to build up characters and we get to see the
development being more obvious if you have more time. To add up to this, Elementary is much
more viewer friendly in this case, because it follows the routine way shows like House of Mentalist.
This means that the audience already knows how to prepare for it, whilst Sherlock just puts you
straight to the plot and does not let you soak up all the information in the first sit. There is definitely
a value seeing episodes of Sherlock several times, since the viewer might get lost in the whole style
of investigation.

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5. Conclusion

Gender issues are still a young study field not only in real life but also in literature. In the future
there will very possibly be some unification theory for gender aspects. As for now, we have to
choose from a variety, which is very large and sometimes clashes. But it is interesting to observe
the evolution of gender in literature, because it shows how much of a influence it had on forming
theories about it. Sherlock Holmes with various adaptations is no exception when it comes to
gender changes.
Over the course of what the author has written, we observe how much gender changed with various
adaptations. In the original stories we had Sherlock and Watson being the typical representation of
middle class and they carried traits of it and it worked, since the stories were popular back then. If
we look in the current series with Sherlock we realize how much gender equality is important in
this era. We see the progress of having women only as minor characters to nearly being the major
characters and it only proves that gender will evolve and with it, the society and literature. We have
seen Sherlock in three versions and each one is unique in his own way, but at the same time he is
the Sherlock we love and sometimes hate, when he is obnoxious. But this is what gender needs for
further development.
Literature overall is full of material for gender studies and it offers vast number of materials which
can be studied and used for clearing how view mostly on female gender changed and how
significant it is now. Sherlock Holmes provides us with one of the best representation of how
gender equality is slowly built between characters, especially in the modern adaptations.
The society slowly realizes that we need to have the same chances for a job, rights, etc. We have to
realize that literature provides us with means to defend our opinions when it comes to this. It is the
foundation for having theories about gender and we can learn so much from reading various
literature pieces.

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 List of References :

Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge,
1990. Print.

Collier, Jane Fishburne., Sylvia Junko Yanagisako, and Maurice Bloch. Gender and Kinship:
Essays toward a Unified Analysis. Stanford, CA: Stanford UP, 1987. Print.

Beauvoir, Simone De. The Second Sex. New York: Knopf, 1953. Print.

Munby, Arthur Joseph, and Hannah Cullwick. Working Women in Victorian Britain, 1850-1910
Diaries and Letters of Arthur J. Munby (1828-1910) and Hannah Cullwick (1833-1909) from
Trinity College, Cambridge. Marlborough, Wiltshire, England: Adam Matthew Publications, 1993.
Print.

Burgess, Anthony. English Literature: A Survey for Students. London: Longman, 1974. Print.

Doyle, Arthur Conan. Memories and Adventures. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran, 1930. Print.

The Arthur Conan Doyle Collection Lancelyn Green Bequest." The Arthur Conan Doyle Collection
Lancelyn Green Bequest. N.p., 12 May 2013. Web. 23 Mar. 2015.

Doyle, Arthur Conan, and Owen Dudley. Edwards. A Study in Scarlet. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2008.
Print.

Doyle, Arthur Conan, and Richard Lancelyn. Green. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Oxford:
Oxford UP, 1993. Print.

Doyle, Arthur Conan, and Christopher Roden. The Sign of the Four. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1993.
Print.

Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Hound of the Baskervilles: Another Adventure of Sherlock Holmes. New
York: Book-of-the-Month Club, 1994. Print.
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Doyle, Arthur Conan, and Alvin E. Rodin. A Scandal in Bohemia: A Short Story. Orem, UT: Encore
Performance Pub., 1993. Print.

Doyle, Arthur Conan, and Christopher Roden. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. Oxford: Oxford
UP, 1993. Print.

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