Let's talk about Sherlock Holmes!

Arthur Conan Doyle's famous story of Sherlock Holmes is so entertaining. Before this class I have never read or watched any Sherlock Holmes stories or movies and after watching the BBC adaption of "The Scandal In Bohemia" (or as they call it "A Scandal in Belgravia") I want to continue to watch the series! I really enjoyed the episode and liked the actual story just as much. For the most part BBC followed the story line of the story really well. However, they changed a few things (like most tv and movie adaptions do), but I actually thought the changes made the story better. First change that I liked was the fact that Irene Adler was a more complex character. By this I mean, she seemed to have a lot more speaking lines in the story--which helped us get a better sense of her as a character. She completely upstages Holmes and it is so great because Holmes definitely holds himself at a higher standard than everyone else. Adler is the one person he cannot look down upon and cannot for the life of him figure her out--the tv series does a fantastic job of showing her intelligence and how she challenges Holmes. This relates to the theme of masculinity in this story. Holmes--as I mentioned before--puts himself on a very high pedestal and he hates the fact of someone "beating" him or outsmarting him. This story knocks him down a few pegs because not only does he get beat--but he gets beat by a woman (which makes it all the better if you ask me). Society has always thought of men as the "smarter" sex--unfortunate, but true. It wasn't up until the late 19th century that we see woman in the workforce. Holmes, like many men (not all men!) view woman as being less smart than them. One of the reasons why I love this story is because Doyle writes a story where this societal idea is completely contradicted…and it's great! Irene Adler's character shows that woman are smart, witty, and intelligent just like men. 

Another aspect of the tv show that I liked and picked up on was that they used the same lines from the story--not all of them were verbatim but they used the "famous" lines and incorporated them into the show. For example, in the story when Irene Adler is disguised as a an and says "Goodnight Mr. Holmes" is said a few times in the tv show as well. In the show, Adler texts Holmes  the same line--and I immediately recognized that that was one of the lines they used in the story! I really like when the movie and tv adaptions of stories uses lines from the actual text because to me it makes it more credible and usually represents that they are following the original story well (which is always a good thing). 

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this particular story of Sherlock Holmes. I know that there are many more stories of his and I can't wait to read them--or watch them! My question to  you is: What other themes besides masculinity did you see present in this particular story? What changes did the tv show make that you liked? Were there any differences in the tv show that you didn't care for?

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!