25 pages • 50 minutes read
Arthur Conan DoyleA Scandal in Bohemia
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1891A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Sherlock Holmes
Literature’s most iconic sleuth, Sherlock Holmes, is a round, static character and is the protagonist of the story. Holmes’s reputation as a private detective has become international; the fact that the King of Bohemia requests his services testifies to Holmes’s standing as a renowned detective. He is an “observing machine” (61) who possesses extreme mental acuity and deductive reasoning powers. Watson also describes Holmes as one incapable of expressing emotions like love: “All emotions […] were abhorrent to his cold, precise but admirably balanced mind” (61). Work consumes Holmes, and he uses drugs to fuel his obsession. Holmes displays a penchant for making keen observations and predicting human behavior as well as employing subterfuge such as disguises to gain information. Watson specifically refers to Holmes’s affinity for reason and performance when he states: “The stage lost a fine actor, even as science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in crime” (70). Holmes’s dynamic versatility sets him apart from other fictional detectives of the 19th century. Holmes possesses both mental and physical prowess, and he is a man of action. Doyle also layers Holmes’s character with dualistic traits. Holmes is intellectually confident and capable, yet he engages in detrimental behaviors, such as using drugs. Although Holmes understands that his powers of observation surpass even his confidant’s, he still relies on and includes Watson in his cases. This mutual respect underscores the genuine friendship between Holmes and Watson.
Irene Adler
Adler is a New Jersey-born opera contralto whose escapade around Europe leads her to be called the “well-known adventuress” (65). She is occasionally referred to throughout the Sherlock Holmes series and makes her debut appearance in “A Scandal in Bohemia.” Adler is a round, dynamic character and functions as the antagonist of the story. She is described as extremely intelligent, clever, and beautiful. After having a dalliance with the hereditary King of Bohemia, she threatens to extort him by sending a photograph taken of herself with the King to his fiancée. The King tries to recuperate this photograph from Adler but repeatedly fails. Adler is capable of thwarting hired burglars and even the King himself. She rejects Victorian domesticity by pursuing a successful career as an opera singer and owning her own small yet elegant villa. Adler chooses whom she marries at a time when marriages were arranged for convenience and power. She marries the lawyer Godfrey Norton in a quick ceremony in London. Soon after, she realizes that Holmes has tricked his way into her home to find the compromising photograph. Adler anticipates Holmes’s plan and outmaneuvers him. She leaves a letter addressed to Holmes stating that she will not return to London and will only use the photograph for defensive purposes. In its stead, she leaves a photograph of herself.
Dr. John Watson
Confidant to Holmes, Watson is a recently married medical doctor who has been enjoying a quiet, domestic life until he visits his old friend, Holmes. As the narrator of the Sherlock Holmes stories, Watson is a trustworthy authority figure who provides readers with vivid descriptions as well as important moments of action. He is a flat, static character. While intelligent and sharp, Watson does not possess the level of skill for reasoning and subterfuge that Holmes deploys. Much of the dialogue between Holmes and Watson in “A Scandal in Bohemia” is centered around Holmes directing and guiding Watson to observe appropriately and interpret logical facts. However, Watson has a keen understanding of Holmes’s own psychology, which is especially apparent when he describes in great detail Holmes’s “delicate and finely adjusted temperament” (61). Throughout the story, Watson describes his admiration for the detective, whom he regards as “the most perfect reasoning and observing machine” (61). Watson is willing to go to great lengths to help Holmes solve his case. When asked by Holmes to possibly commit illegal acts, Watson emphasizes that he has no problem doing so. He is a loyal friend and companion to Holmes and functions to humanize the genius detective.
King of Bohemia
Wilhelm Gottsreich Sigismond von Ormstein is the Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein and the hereditary King of Bohemia. He arrives at Holmes’s Baker Street office under the guise of Count Von Kramm seeking Holmes’s help on behalf of his employer. A tall man “with the chest and limbs of a Hercules,” the Grand Duke dons a royal costume exuding “opulence” (64) as well as a mask when he first enters Holmes’s office. Holmes hints that he knows the King’s true identity, which puts a quick end to the King’s ruse. The King recounts a dalliance he had with the “adventuress” and opera singer Irene Adler. The King fears that his transgression will be exposed and unsuccessfully tries to steal the photograph from Adler via hired burglars. Although the King admires Adler’s beauty and wit, he believes that she is inferior to him due to their class differences. The King maintains that Adler is “not on [his] level” (74), even though she outsmarts him and all his hired helpers, including the great Sherlock Holmes.
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