Justice and Judgment versus Lies and Deceit in “The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle E-Book

Lea Lorena Jerns

• Herausgeber: GRIN Verlag
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2,0, Humboldt-University of Berlin (Anglistik und Amerikanistik), course: British Crime Fiction, language: English, abstract: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s master detective Sherlock Holmes is one of the most famous literary figures in the world. He is known by almost everybody, whether people have read his stories or not. This paper is intended to discuss and to contrast the topics “Justice and Judgment” and “Lies and Deceit” with regard to the short story “The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton” written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. For Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s fictional character Sherlock Holmes “[…] the social order is something to be both upheld and defied. On one hand, his bohemian nature rebels at class distinction and privilege, while on the other hand he takes extreme measures to rescue the aristocracy from scandal” (Doyle, Steven; Crowder, David A. 74). I personally chose this short story on the one hand because of the presence of one of Holmes’ biggest opponents apart from Professor James Moriarty, his gofer Colonel Sebastian Moran and Irene Adler – the already mentioned Charles Augustus Milverton – and on the other hand because of the fact that Sherlock Holmes himself commits a crime in this story. My aim in the conclusion of chapter 4 will be to consider whether lies and deceit or justice and judgment gain the upper hand in “The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton” or if there is simply no clear line that makes it possible to separate both topics from each other.

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Content

1 Introduction

2 Justice and Judgment in The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton

3 Lies and Deceit in The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton

4 Conclusion

5 Bibliography

1 Introduction

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s master detective Sherlock Holmes is one of the most famous literary figures in the world. He is known by almost everybody, whether people have read his stories or not. His readers, however, have often believed “[…] that Sherlock Holmes and his biographer, Dr. John H. Watson, were actual living, historical persons, and that the stories Holmes appears in were actual historical events” (Doyle, Steven; Crowder, David A. 29).

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had numerous sources of inspiration, both in literature and in real life, when he created Sherlock Holmes: “[…] [He] turned to his predecessors in the field. They were Edgar Allan Poe, Émile Gaboriau, and Wilkie Collins. It’s fair to say that Doyle borrowed a little from all three of these writers” (Doyle, Steven; Crowder, David A. 29).

This paper is intended to discuss and to contrast the topics “Justice and Judgment” and “Lies and Deceit” with regard to the short story The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In the above-mentioned story Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wants to make the threat the upper class had to face in the Victorian era a subject of discussion and moreover tries to support the upper class:

Victorian England was an extremely class-conscious society with very low social mobility. In early Victorian society, people had little opportunity to move up the social ladder. (Moving down was always a possibility, should financial disaster strike.) However, by Holmes’s time, increased industrialization, capitalists, a growing skilled labor force, trade unions, and political pressure from socialists began to put cracks in the class system (Doyle, Steven; Crowder, David A. 74).

For Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s fictional character Sherlock Holmes “[…] the social order is something to be both upheld and defied. On one hand, his bohemian nature rebels at class distinction and privilege, while on the other hand he takes extreme measures to rescue the aristocracy from scandal” (Doyle, Steven; Crowder, David A. 74).

Another important point to mention is the fact that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle chose to name the whole story after one of the main characters of this story, namely Charles Augustus Milverton. This fact gives us already a hint what the story will be about.

I personally chose this short story on the one hand because of the presence of one of Holmes’ biggest opponents apart fromProfessorJames Moriarty, his gofer Colonel Sebastian Moran and Irene Adler –the already mentioned Charles Augustus Milverton – and on the other hand because of the fact that Sherlock Holmes himself commits a crime in this story.

My aim in the conclusion of chapter 4 will be to consider whether lies and deceit or justice and judgment gain the upper hand in The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton or if there is simply no clear line that makes it possible to separate both topics from each other.