How Does Sherlock Holmes Characterize In Bohemia

In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s story “ A Scandal in Bohemia,” Sherlock Holmes is given a case by the King of Bohemia, Wilhelm Gottsreich Sigismond von Ormstein. The principle of the case is to retrieve a picture from a woman named Irene Adler, whom the king had romantic relations with previously. Unfortunately, Holmes was not successful. Although Holmes is a great detective, he allows himself to be careless. As a result, he fails to retrieve the picture and be fooled by the suspect, Adler. Furthermore, some people may argue that Holmes succeeds here because he finds where Adler has hidden the photo. I say Holmes fails because he fails to retrieve the photo. This matters greatly because it shows that Adler is in fact, more intelligent than Holmes. Sherlock Holmes is careless for one reason: he believed his own hype of being the greatest detective and Adler takes advantage of that. This is most noticeable when Holmes meets his good friend Dr. Watson. He deduces that Watson is getting wet and also hired a clumsy servant girl. In addition, he realizes that Watson has returned to doing medical practice after he visits him in his home and realizing that Watson is “...smelling of iodoform, with a black mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge on the right side of his top hat to show where he has secreted his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not …show more content…
In this story, Holmes believes his own hype which leads him to be careless. Furthermore he underestimates Adler who is the main suspect of the story. Because of his overconfidence and his underestimation of Adler, Holmes can not retrieve the photo. Adler proves herself to be more intelligent than Holmes even though he considers her just a woman. All these factors lead to this case being a failure, even though Sherlock Holmes is known as the greatest