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Justin Block
Lynda Haas
Writing 39B
8 June 2014
Sherlock Holmes Deduction Methods
Modern-day media takes the classic conventions of any genre and adds modern-day tastes
to appeal to todays audience. The Chronicles of Narnia is an example of an old story that is
revised to fit modern-day tastes, and the detective genre is experiencing the same effect. The
Detective genre, first created by Edgar Allen Poe, then became popular by Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle, has many unique conventions that separate it from other genres. Leroy Panek, writer of
Doyle, talks about some of the conventions Doyle borrowed from other writers and used these
conventions to make detective stories popular. One of the things Doyle borrowed from Edgar
Allen Poe is the genius character, which is the most popular convention in the detective genre.
The genius has the brilliant, unique deduction methods for solving crimes. Without these
deductions, the detective would be unable to solve the crime. Panek mentions With another
traditional detective theme, Doyle worked the other way, towards fantasy instead of away from
it. The genius detective, from Poe onward, is supposed to be infallible (87). Panek is talking
about the genius character becoming more fictional, because scholarly authors would describe
him as alien for his extraordinary high intellectual skills. Dove, who wrote A Different Story,
describes every detective story as a transformation of crime into game or puzzle, the
aestheticizing of crime (3). This game in every detective story is solved by the genius
detective with his deduction skills, we can also play the game with some help from the detective.
The detective game is still being played today in modern-day media as it still brings the same
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excitement from the Victorian era. Holmes deduction methods are still popular today as it
influences many modern police officers to follow Holmes methods for solving crimes. Modern-
day media, such as Stephen Moffatts Sherlock and Guy Ritchies Sherlock Holmes A Game of
Shadows, shows the deduction skills of Holmes with imagery reflecting in the cinematic media
what Doyle described in his books.
Holmes deduction skills go beyond human comprehension, but with the help of
cinematography the audience can understand Holmes way of analyzing evidence. In the TV
series, Sherlock, the crime scene of the pink lady shows the magnificent deduction skills of
Holmes. According to Maria Konnikova, who wrote Mastermind: How to Think like Sherlock
Holmes, states in observation and inference and deduction is exactly that makes Holmes who
he is, distinct from every other detective who appeared before, or indeed, after (13). Maria is
stating that Holmes deduction skills are unique to him and no one can copy it. Holmes unique
deduction skills are first introduced in A Study in Pink, where he investigates a dead woman in
a pink dress and pink jacket, wearing pink shoes and pink nail polish. In this episode, Holmes
and Watson meet for the first time and solve the case of mysterious deaths that looks like suicide.
The murderer is the cabbie and the partnership between Holmes and Watson started to emerge.
The crime scene, which was the first investigation for Holmes and Watson as partners, is at an
apartment complex where Holmes uses his deduction skills to provide a little background
information on the victim and conclude that the woman was murdered by a serial killer. In this
scene Holmes concludes that the woman was unhappily married, traveled a short distance from
the hotel, and had a pink suitcase with her before she was killed. As he investigates each
element of the crime scene, the camera provides a close-up on the pieces of evidence, such as the
ring and jacket. These close-up shots give the audience a sense of significance, which later
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points out that the audience sees what Holmes sees. For example, when he was looking at the
wedding ring, he came up with a conclusion that the woman was unhappily married for ten years.
To know what Holmes is thinking, words appear whenever he instigates evidence, such as wet
or left-handed. As Holmes also looks at evidence there is a deep focus composition that
focuses on the evidence and everything else in the background is blurred. This gives the
audience a look into Holmes mind of deduction, and his point of view. In most Doyle stories,
the book is in Watsons perspective so we do not get a chance to see what Holmes is thinking
when he looks at evidence. There is a ding sound in the background when Holmes looks at
evidence, because it shows importance for figuring out how she died. When Holmes is looking
at the words, Rache on the floor, there is a scraping sound in the background. The background
sound here shows that Holmes is recreating the event in his mind, so he is deducing that the
woman wrote the letters with her hand. In addition to the close-up of dirty fingernails, Holmes
noticed that the woman was left-handed. The lighting in this scene comes from one particular
source which is the back light inside the room. This provides some shadows and light contrast in
the scene, which signifies a sense of seriousness into the scene, where the audience must pay
attention to each item. When Holmes is checking underneath the womans coat, the camera does
a slow motion shot to portray Holmes ways of analyzing evidence. Holmess unique deduction
skills in the 21
st
century media are very similar to the ones in the Conan Doyle texts. The way
Holmes observes evidence and comes up with a conclusion are still shown in the same manner as
they would in Doyles stories. For the purpose of historical context, the evidence Holmes uses
can come from the 21
st
century, such as a cell phone and the latest fashion. Holmes deduction
methods are difficult to grasp at first, but with proper training, Watson could be able to solve
cases using Holmes methods.
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Holmes deduction skills are unique to him, but Guy Ritchie uses the student-teacher
relationship to have Watson closer to Holmes skills. Dove would agree of this relationship by
saying The teacher-student pattern is one Doyle could not escape Holmes acting as the
superior older boy and Watson playing the awestruck, eager fag (90). In Guy Ritchies film,
Sherlock Holmes A Game of Shadows, Holmes and Watson must stop Moriartys plan of world
war, but it becomes difficult when Moriarty has the same intelligent level as Holmes. Holmes,
Watson, and Simza, a gipsy, follow clues to discover Morairitys plan, which first starts with the
assassination at the summit conference. To keep Moriarty distracted, Holmes must keep him
occupied with a game of chess, while Watson and Simza finds the assassin using Holmes
methods. Watson successfully uses Holmes methods to track down the assassin, who was
Simzas brother. The scene first starts with Simza and Watson coming up with their first
deduction, which is hairlines covering the scars from surgery. When Watson starts talking about
the hairline, the camera does a close-up shot of the hairlines to explain what Watson is saying in
the background. It shows the audience the evidence to finding the assassin. There is a moving
frame from each witness to the next, but it is in the viewpoint of Simza. When Simza talks about
her brothers eyes, we get an extreme close-up of each witnesses eyes to show their different
eye color, which Simza is talking about in the background. This is another example of deduction
from the close-up shots. When we see the eyes blinking from an extreme close-up shot, Watson
makes a deduction that the culprit must be wearing eye color lenses, which would cause eye
irritation. There is also a close-up of the man smoking with his right hand, and then the whip
pan shows the transition from that scene to a close-up of Simza as she explains that her brother is
left-handed, so the smoking scene shows importance for figuring out who the assassin is and
later deduction. Holmes then describes in the background that the assassin would go against his
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usual habits so people would not notice him right away. Some of these habits could be being
left-handed or smoking. This background helps explain to the audience that the deductions made
so far could be wrong, since the assassin may be doing something against his nature. It feels like
we are the students and Holmes is telling us what to expect. When we look at Simzas lips the
lighting creates a serious atmosphere and the extreme close-up of her lips shows she may find the
killer. Then the director uses the whip pan to Watsons lips, because the keywords were you
think, which shows uncertainty in the selection. This shows that Watson uses observation to
note the doubt in Simzas response. When Holmes is talking about the nervous tick or anxiety,
the audience sees the tick of the foot and hands movement through the eyes of Watson. These
clues lead to further deduction of who the assassin is through nervous state. Holmes other
method of finding an assassin was from spontaneous reaction, which is carefully exhibited from
the slow motion of the glasses falling. These falling glasses shows importance, because they will
be the main theory to use for finding the killer. When the glass hits the floor, the camera goes to
a long shot of the witnesses, and then zooms into the only person not looking at the broken
glasses. The camera then shows the same man dropping a cigar, which shows that he is most
likely the killer. The camera then zooms into Watson and Simzas face to show their reaction
and determined looks that they found the killer. Throughout this scene the editing creates
parallelism between the chess scene of Holmes and Moriarty and the deduction scene with Simza
and Watson. This editing shows the deduction skills by showing the images of certain items or
actions of the witnesses and Holmes explaining in the background what each action means. The
teacher-student relationship between Holmes and Watson is clearly reflected from Conan
Doyles text, but Watson was never intellectually close to Holmes. Through Guy Ritchies
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films, the intellectual level of Watson is now getting closer to Holmes when Watson applies
Holmes deduction methods.
The deduction methods of modern-day media Holmes is very similar to the ones
described by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In Conan Doyles text, the audience cannot be able to see
what goes through Holmes mind since we are in Watsons point of view. However, in modern-
media the camera acts as the point of view, so the audience now has a chance to see what goes
through Holmes mind. Ana La Paz, writer of Making the Transition explains the high
intellectual skills of a detective have inspired the creation of other detective shows, such as CSI
and Bones, because Holmes powers of observation, wide knowledge base ability to see
evidence are what make Holmes a great detective as well as a heroic and reassuring figure
(85). The famous deduction skills have spread to a whole new different level due to changes in
media in a consistently changing world.











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Works Cited
Dove, George N. The Reader and the Detective Story. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling
Green State University Popular Press, 1997. Print.
La Paz Ana E. Making the Transition. Sherlock Holmes for the 21
st
century. Ed. Lynette,
Porter. Jefferson, NC: Macfarland & Company, 2012, 80-92. Print.
Konnikova, Maria. Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes. New York:
Viking, 2013. Print.
Panek, Leroy. An Introduction to the Detective Story. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling
Green State University Popular Press, 1987. Print.