In this course work Essay

There is a lot of planning and direct action involved. Whereas in â€Å"The Second Bullet†, there is a sinister crime which is full of strange and baffling things but there is no direct physical action on the part of Violet Strange. She visits the crime scene, talks to the people and gathers information. She then examines the physical evidence, reconstructs what happened, and comes out with the only possible explanation. These two dissimilar roles of the detectives in the stories somehow impact their character representation. Clearly, the feminine detective has been portrayed as a non-action champion, while the male detective as an action hero! The lead character in â€Å"The Second Bullet† is Violet Strange who works for a detective agency. â€Å"Owing to some remarkable work done by the firm of –&–, the well-known private detective agency, the claim made by Mrs. George Hammond. † She is young, beautiful, and feminine, comes from an upper class family and well to do. â€Å"But you are so young and so–so–† â€Å"†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ Miss Strange was invariably the society belle†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ † â€Å"Simplicity again, but the simplicity of high art–the drawing-room of one rich enough to indulge in the final luxury of a highly cultivated taste, viz. : unostentatious elegance and the subjection of each carefully chosen ornament to the general effect. † However, the life as a young woman entering the society is not enough for her. She craves for an action that a woman of her class will not dare to go for; criminal investigation. It is unusual for a woman of such refinement to be in the role of a detective in the 1915’s America. As for her personal traits, she is independent, confident, unemotional and determined. She is thorough, very intelligent, has the skills of perception to solve crime, and solves the crime herself. Unlike Holmes, she does not enlist any outside help. She does not resort to any physical action in the story. She uses only her power of observation and reasoning to solve the case. In addition, she does not have a main challenger or adversary as Holmes has in his story. The great detective Sherlock Holmes in contrast is a professional who works on his own and not for any detective agency. He is male, middle aged, well educated and belongs to the upper class. He is arrogant and over-confident. In the opening scene of the story, there is a short exchange between him and Dr. Watson in which the detective’s powers of deduction and observation are displayed. Seeing, as Watson does, is different from observing. â€Å"You see, but you do not observe. † According to Watson â€Å"He was, I take it, the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen,† Contrast to â€Å"The second Bullet†, this story has a main adversary, Irene Adler with remarkable personal qualities. She is confident, determined and clever at figuring out what is really happening. She is respected and feared. Holmes describes her as â€Å"The daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet† â€Å"I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. † But she is more than just beautiful. She outperforms Holmes! Earlier in the story, Holmes tells Watson â€Å"It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts† This tells us he is a analytical thinker but in taking a condescending attitude towards Irene Adler and in assuming too much about women in general, Holmes twist the facts to suit his theories about the opposite sex and is outsmarted by her as a result. Holmes shows personal feeling towards Irene Adler because of her high qualities. As the story ends, the king says â€Å"Would she not have made an admirable queen? Is it not a pity that she was not on my level? † For which Holmes replies coldly as follows: â€Å"From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a very different level to you Majesty,† He sees Irene Adler at a higher level with more human values than the king. To Holmes, she always remained an honourable woman. Dr. Watson observes in the opening paragraph that â€Å"It was not that he felt any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler† He was not sexist at all but merely admired Irene for her attributes. Violet Strange on the other hand has no personal feeling about anyone. But she is sympathetic and caring when she meets Mrs. Hammond for the fist time. â€Å"Certainly you have met with two greatest losses which can come to a woman† She has an open mind. Her desire for money is shown in the opening page but she also does not want to waste her energy on a case she could not believe in. No. The sum is a good one and I could use it but I will not waste my energy on a case I do not believe in. Description, action and dialogue are main ways in which characters are revealed in stories. Both stories have a fair amount of dialogue and talk among the characters. We learn more about Holmes’ individuality and character merely by following his conversation with Dr. Watson. Non-dialogue description of thoughts and feelings are somewhat limited in the Holmes story. The syntax used in The Second Bullet is a very complicated upper class form, which is informal. For example â€Å"Husband and child both taken from her in a moment; and now, all means of living as well, unless some happy thought of yours–some inspiration of your genius–shows us a way of re-establishing her claims to the policy voided by this cry of suicide. † In â€Å"A Scandal in Bohemia† the syntax is simple in comparison and therefore is easily readable and recognizable. Both the writers have clean language; not vulgar or bad language now used by popular authors. I enjoyed reading both stories. One more line about A Scandal in Bohemia† that I believe only reflects the attitude of the male author, which I personally cannot accept. â€Å"A married woman grabs at her baby; an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box† This may be relevant to good old Victorian days but not now! 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