Student: Vishali Kapoor

Professor: Lynda Haas

Course Name: Connect Composition
Section Name: Haas WR37 Fall 2014
Wednesday, Nov 26, 3:04 PM

Vishali Kapoor
Professor Haas
Writing 37
November 24, 2014
Sherlock Holmes' Social Ineptitude
The Victorian era, compared to the 21st century, was evidently
much different. Many rudiments have been modernized in order to
maintain their stance in the advanced and dynamic world. During the
Victorian era, the detective genre thrived because it reflected on the
reader's situation. The detective genre, enhanced by Arthur Conan
Doyle, has also evolved throughout the years in order to appeal to its
revolutionizing audience. Conan Doyle created archetypal conventions
in the detective genre; in modern day text, the convention has been
reformed in many ways, but it also continues to mirror some aspects of
the original convention. Film and television have modified many
elements of the detective genre to grasp on to the contemporary train
that never seems to cease. Doyle's classic convention of Holmes' social
ineptness, due to his genius, is dominantly displayed through Sherlock

and Elementary by maintaining Doyle's conventions in order to appeal

to its contemporary audience.
Holmes' lack of social skills is what defines his character; it is
an attribute that allows him to be such an extraordinary character.
Without his persona, he would be like any other intelligent detective
that solves cases. The detective genre is popular not only because of
Holmes' abilities to flawlessly deduce and observe a case, but also
because of his eccentricities. The audience desires a complex
character that is relatable, but also someone they can admire and
distinguish from other detectives or characters in the story or show.
His vital characteristic, his intellect, is what allows the reader to
depend on his observations and skills and believe that despite all his
peculiarities, his reasoning will make sense and correspond to logic.
T.J. Binyon, an English scholar and a recipient of the Samuel Johnson
Prize states, "His corporeality and individuality are enhanced by his
eccentricities". Although Holmes is a mastermind that can unravel any
case, there are ramifications, such as his social incompetence, of his
brilliance. He is an extremely unconventional character who is
detached from his society.
Doyle's creation of Holmes' defining convention is mirrored in
Steven Moffat's television series Sherlock in order to attract its modern
viewers. Towards the middle of the episode of A Scandal in Belgravia,
there is a small Christmas party in Holmes' and Watson' apartment.

Molly comes over and as everyone is greeting each other and settling
down, Holmes begins to work his magic instead of taking a day off.
After Holmes finishes playing the violin, Watson's girlfriend, Janet,
offers him some refreshments and Holmes says "No thank you, Sarah".
This is when the reverse shot comes into play; Holmes is having a
conversation with Janet and the camera switches from Janet's
expression to Holmes and vice versa. This relates to Holmes' classic
convention; Watson tries to cover up for Holmes by saying he is not
good with names, but the reality is that Holmes does not care for her
name, whether it be Sarah or Janet, it does not matter to him. Holmes
only remembers information that is relevant to him or his cases.
Moreover, in Doyle's novel A Study in Scarlet, Holmes claims, "It is of
the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing
out the useful ones". Holmes does not stop to consider Watson's and
Janet's feelings or what effect his mistake could have on their
relationship. He merely begins to deduce again and use process of
elimination to figure out the woman's name instead of apologizing and
politely asking her name. A few seconds later, Molly comes in and
diegetic sound is produced. The audience knows Molly is walking up
the stairs, but diegetic sound, which is her footsteps are played in
order to make the scene more lively and realistic. At this moment,
Holmes' dialogue and expression displayed that he was not very happy
to see Molly. This is because Molly is a very energetic and vibrant

character. Everyone begins to greet each other, while Holmes stays

away and sarcastically says, "How wonderful". This is a standard way
of meeting and greeting everyone who comes to one's home, but
Holmes does not believe it's of any importance and thinks it's just a
useless formality. Holmes' lack of social skills is prominent here; he
does not know how to appropriately welcome someone into his home.
He possesses an absence of social etiquette and is quite apathetic to
everyone's sentiments. He portrays a very inhospitable and arrogant
persona. Again, his indifference is shown. Everyone is casually
conversing with each other while Holmes is interrupting their
conversations. A medium shot is taken when the camera is on
Lestrade's face; as Lestrade is talking to Molly about his wife, Holmes
disrespectfully intervenes to tell Lestrade that his wife is cheating on
him. The medium shot is to show Lestrade's expression after Holmes
has accused his wife. Holmes simply does not let go of his conceit and
continues to deduce and blabbers whatever comes to his mind; his
pride keeps him from acknowledging his mistakes. Lastly, Holmes has
been observing Molly since she has walked in the room; he continues
to describe why she is so dressed up. There are extreme close ups to
track what Holmes has deduced from Molly's appearance and gifts. The
extreme close ups occur on Molly's lips and her gifts. His outbursts
evidently show "his difficulty in social settings, his uncanny ability to
always put his foot in it, to be insensitive or just plain mean when

cornered (Asher-Perrin)". He simply turns every situation and

conversation into a deduction of an object or a person, without
considering anyone else's sentiments. Holmes completely destroys the
gathering because he simply does not know when to speak or when to
stop speaking. Surprisingly, he apologizes to Molly; Holmes usually is
not apologetic, but even he knows that he has made a huge mistake.
All these cinematic elements were included into episode in order to
maintain and adapt Holmes' classic convention to appeal to the 21st
century audience.
Holmes' eccentric persona is dominantly shown through the
modern-day television series; it's evident that he is socially declined.
His qualities are what make the contemporary audience continue
watching him. It is obvious that Holmes is unaware of how to
appropriately present himself in public and is completely bewildered by
the certain interactions of people. He often says things aloud that
should not have been said, but he believes that they are nothing out of
the ordinary. He believes he is a "high-functioning sociopath" while
others think he's just a psychopath. Furthermore, his classic
convention has been maintained throughout another scene in

Sherlock: The Great Game. Doyle's custom characteristic of Holmes

has adapted to new elements in current television series to better suit
the preferences of the modern audience. Holmes still remains to be
socially inept, but in some aspects of this scene, he understands that

he has done something wrong. Holmes, Watson, and Molly are in a lab.
Holmes is examining evidence and Mortiarty, Molly's boyfriend, enters
the room. Holmes' diegetic sound in this scene is his dialogue; Watson
tells Holmes that Mycroft has texted him several times, but Holmes
ignores it and tells him to delete it. There is also a whip pan here that
shows us a close up of Holmes' reaction to Mycroft's texts. Although
Mycroft is his brother, Holmes does not have a great relationship with
him. He disregards him and does not give much importance to him. A
few seconds later, Molly walks in and Mortiarty does too. Molly
introduces Mortiarty and he walks around, admiring Holmes' work.
Holmes, instead of being polite and welcoming, he blurts out "gay" and
the composition of the frame goes directly to Molly's face. This was
necessary in order to show that Holmes' outburst really shocked and
upset Molly. Holmes begins to explain how he deducted this aspect of
Mortiarty's persona; while he is doing this, there are extreme close ups
to Mortiaty's eyelashes, eyes, and his underwear. Molly leaves the
room and Holmes' is left bewildered about what went wrong. He did
not realize that his deductions really hurt Molly, instead he feels as if
he has done a favor to her by letting her know who Mortiarty really is.
When Watson explains, Holmes understands but he conceitedly says
that he was just helping the situation. Holmes in this scene is still
unable to grasp the social conventions, but he understands at the end
that he has hurt Molly. This aspect was probably changed in order to

show the contemporary audience that Holmes is also human and

relatable, but his intelligence obviously surpasses that of an average
human.
Conan Doyle's classic convention of Holmes is mirrored and
adapted to according to the current audience in all the contemporary
interpretations of Holmes. The detective story "is fundamentally an
intellectual undertaking; it is recreational, intended primarily to relax"
(Dove 3); therefore, adaptions of Doyle's Holmes are necessary to
appeal to the current viewers.
Moffat's Sherlock maintains Holmes' defining quality of having a lack of
social skills. The audience is amazed by his persona and if this
convention was taken out, he would not be the endearing character he
is now. It is necessary for television series to adapt to the desires of
their audience in order to continue receiving the same or even more
success for the Holmes series. Although throughout the episodes in
Sherlock, we are shown that only a small number of people actually
like him or at least are able to tolerate him, the audience is able to put
aside that quality, and be amazed by his brilliance and deduction skills.
Even though Holmes can be very aggressive, his skills and focus on his
cases makes him much more endurable. According to Jerome and Ruth
Prigozy, "The detective story is such a pervasive phenomenon of the
contemporary worldnot only in [Doyle's] books but in many other
media [such as Sherlock]". Its popularity continues increasing because

of the imitations and adaptions of Doyle's classic conventions of

Holmes.

Works Cited
Binyon, T.J. "Murder Will Out": The Detective in Fiction. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1989. PDF File.
Delamater, Jerome and Ruth Prigozy, eds. Theory and Practice of

Classic Detective Fiction. New York: Praeger, 1997. Print. PDF

File.
Dove, George N. "The Different Story." The Reader and the Detective

Story. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University

Popular Press, 1997. PDF File.
Asher-Perrin, Emily. "Battling Super Sleuths: The Awkward Case of
Elementary, Sherlock, and Building the Better Adaptation."

Tor.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2014. .

Doyle, Arthur Conan. Sherlock Holmes: A Study in Scarlet. Closter, NJ:
Sharon, 1981. Print.