Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies
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Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Adéla Červenková
Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Jeffrey Alan Smith, M.A., Ph.D.
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I would like to thank my supervisor, Jeffrey Alan Smith, M.A., Ph.D., for his patience, valuable advice and encouragement. I would also like to thank my family and friends for their constant support. Table of Contents1Introduction 5 2Sherlock Holmes and Film/Television Adaptations 7 2.1Evolution of the Character of Sherlock Holmes throughout History 7 2.2Sherlock Holmes of the 21st Century 10 2.2.1Sherlock 12 2.2.2Elementary 15 2.2.3Sherlock Holmes and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows 17 3The Sexualization of Sherlock Holmes 20 3.1Bromance or Romance? 21 3.2The One Who Is Desired and the One Who Desires 26 4The Development of Female Characters 29 4.1Mary Morstan 31 4.2Mrs. Hudson 32 4.3Irene Adler 33 5Conclusion 37 6Works Cited and Consulted 40 6.1Primary Sources 40 6.2Secondary Sources 40 7Resumé (English) 45 8Resumé (Czech) 46 1IntroductionHaving been created almost 130 years ago, Sherlock Holmes is still a relevant character in the world of fiction. To this day there have been more than 250 screen adaptations making Holmes the most portrayed literary human character in film & television1. He has evolved into an archetype, a trademark and an icon in detective fiction. Recent years have witnessed a certain boom of popularity of Sherlock Holmes creating a strong fan base of the detective among all ages and genders. This thesis focuses on what makes the modern adaptations popular in the 21st century and how the current situation shapes the characters. The aim of this work is to analyze the renditions, point out their differences from the original stories and how they reflect today’s society. The first chapter provides a historical background of Doyle’s stories and the evolution of the character of Sherlock Holmes throughout history. The main focus is on a depiction of the detective in the 21st century, concentrating on the three chosen adaptations. The first is the British-American television drama from 2010 Sherlock, produced by British Broadcasting Corporation. The second analyzed rendition is an American television drama Elementary from 2012 in production of Columbia Broadcasting System. The last is Sherlock Holmes franchise, more precisely the movie Sherlock Holmes (2009) and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011), both from the Warner Bros. Pictures production. The purpose of the second chapter is to elaborate the issue of sexualization of Holmes in the modern renditions and how it reflects the current understanding of sexuality as such. The chapter also discusses the relationships of the detective, concentrating on the friendship between Holmes and Watson and the homoeroticism and homosexual subtext that the adaptations create to deal with the sexual politics of the 21st century. The third chapter gives an overview of the female characters in Doyle’s stories and in the 19th century in general. Later it deals with the emancipation of women in recent renditions. Each subchapter focuses on one female character that stands out in the adaptations. The first is Mary Morstan, who is Watson’s wife to be and who serves as a tool to make Holmes jealous. The second is Mrs. Hudson, who fulfills the role of a mother for both Holmes and Watson. The last analyzed character is Irene Adler, the woman of the original stories, as well as, the renditions. In the conclusion, the chosen adaptations are compared to each other and the highlights of the research are stated together with the key means that make Sherlock Holmes the phenomenon of the 21st century. 2Sherlock Holmes and Film/Television Adaptations2.1Evolution of the Character of Sherlock Holmes throughout HistoryArthur Conan Doyle started to write stories about Sherlock Holmes out of boredom during his medical practice. In 1887 he published his first novel A Study in Scarlet. It was well received by the public and therefore three years later Doyle celebrated publication of his second novel The Sign of Four (Cheshire V). However, it was not until 1891, when Doyle started sending weekly short-stories to The Strand Magazine, that Sherlock Holmes began his successful road down in history (Davies, The Sherlock Holmes Book, 16). Between the years 1887 and 1927, Arthur Conan Doyle wrote four novels and 56 short-stories about the Consulting Detective, “the only one in the world” (Doyle, The Sign of Four, 110). Since his creation almost 130 year ago, Sherlock Holmes has been ever present on both screen and stage, thus securing a strong fan base. Even though many consider fandoms as a modern-day invention, the concept of it is far from new. Fans of Holmes started creating fanfictions right at the end of the 19th century and “there is no Sherlockian . . . who has not, at least once in his life, taken Dr. Watson’s pen in hand and given himself to the production of a veritable adventure” (Lantagne 269). After killing Holmes in 1893 in the second series The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, not even Doyle himself could predict the strong reaction from the readers. Men and women immediately went into public mourning and “more than twenty thousand people canceled their subscription to The Strand” (Lantagne 268). Doyle was bombarded with letters asking about details of Holmes death and requesting he continued his work. It eventually led Doyle into resurrecting his detective. In 1901 he published The Hound of the Baskervilles. To this day, the third novel is the best one of all Sherlock Holmes stories, as well as, the most screen and stage adapted (Davies, “Introduction”, X). Holmes fans “were among the earliest groups of fans to inspire sequels where no sequel would otherwise have occurred” (Lantagne 269). Their fascination with Holmes and their thirst for new adventures contributed to creation of other renditions. The character of Holmes as one knows him today has been shaped throughout more than a century of his existence. However, as Thomas Leitch suggests, both written and screened adaptations and sequels “often [chose] to remain faithful to unauthorized later versions” rather than to Doyle’s originals. Instead of focusing on one adventure, they set their stories around the Holmes franchise (208, 213). In fact, many specific Sherlock Holmes attributes, such as a deerstalker, do not originate in Doyle’s stories “but from a mixture of visual texts, from illustrations to earlier film and television versions” (Hewett 193). The deerstalker and his cape were introduced in Sidney Paget’s illustrations for The Strand Magazine while the calabash pipe and the line ‘Elementary, my dear Watson.’ appeared for the first time in William Gillette’s play Sherlock Holmes in 1899 (Hewett 204). The constant evolution of the famous detective has been a result of attempt to approach new audiences. The original adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson appealed to the late-Victorian2 readers because they capture the worrying reality, “[they] need him for reassurance in a turbulent world” (Taylor, 100). They see him in a way as a savior, “the belief in Holmes’s powers is largely a faith-based practice.” (Poore 159) “Intellect and ability . . . are the very highest attributes that humans strive to achieve” (La Paz 81). And therefore, when everyone fails, Sherlock Holmes is the one to solve the mystery and to save the world. To retain the same effect, any rendition should adjust to the development of the world, whether it means letting Holmes use new technologies and inventions, putting him in a world of new social norms or challenging his intellect with new types of terrors and crimes. For instance, the famous Basil Rathbone’s film series, which was released between 1939 and 1946 during the Second World War, shows the main duo fighting Nazis3. Through the years, Sherlock Holmes has dealt with many personas such as Jack the Ripper, Phantom of the Opera, Sigmund Freud, Wizard of Oz, Oscar Wilde, as well as has faced many mysteries from Little Red Riding Hood to Martian invasion (Leitch 210). The Consulting Detective has also appeared in number of works aimed at children. The Adventures of Shirley Holmes4 tells a story of a young girl, the great-grandniece of Holmes, solving mysteries in her hometown. Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century5 brings Holmes back as an animated character and lets him solve mysteries in the 22nd century. In 1941, Rex Stout6, when speaking at Baker Street Irregulars Society7 event, “speculated that Watson may have been a woman, thus explicitly raising gender swap and the idea of a romantic relationship between Holmes and Watson, two enduring tropes of the fandom” (Lantagne 270). This opened new possibilities in exploring the world of Sherlock Holmes and gave an idea for new adaptations to come. Sena Jeter Naslund explored Holmes’s love life in her novel Sherlock in Love (1993). Larry Townsend’s novel The Sexual Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1993) “assumes physical relationship between Holmes and Watson” (Redmond 254). These modernizations brought the Victorian Holmes into the 21st century making him the modern detective hero popular among different ages and genders around the world. Download 165.71 Kb. Share with your friends:
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