Review of Related Studies

6

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE

A. Review of Related Studies

Another researcher that analyzes Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is Christopher Redmond. In his book, In Bed with Sherlock Holmes, he tries to analyze the romantic elements in Sherlock Holmes stories. Sherlock Holmes stories here mean the four novels and the fifty six short stories. The object to be analyzed in his book In Bed with Sherlock Holmes is not only the main character, which is Sherlock Holmes, but also other characters like Watson and the detectives from Scotland Yard. The concerns of his study are the romance and sex that exist in Sherlock Holmes stories. Christopher Redmond states that the stories about Sherlock Holmes are not just a detective story. There is something that readers do not realize. Sherlock Holmes stories are not just contained with adventure and mystery, but also romance and sex. Readers simply do not look for sex and romance in the Sherlock Holmes tales; but they are there, and though boys may not benefit for them, they are an important source of the richness that keeps adult readers coming back to Sherlock Holmes Redmond, 1984:10. In the early part of the book Sherlock Holmes: The Sign of Four, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote about Sherlock Holmes addiction to cocaine. His bad habit of using cocaine relapses whenever he does not have any case to be solved. Watson is not very happy about Sherlock Holmes‘ addiction and lectures him. Christopher Redmond found the attitude of Dr. Watson towards Sherlock Holmes when he was using cocaine is like a wife lecturing her husband when he is taking cocaine. ―He Dr. Watson is nagging Holmes rather as a wife would do about his drug- taking. Redmond, 1984:39‖ Redmond also writes about romance between Dr. John Watson and Ms. Mary Morstan. Ms. Morstan was telling Dr. Watson to stay in the room and saying that the presence of Dr. Watson will be helping her. Redmond said that by saying those words, Ms. Morstan is showing her interest to Dr. Watson. So does Dr. Watson too, he has the same feeling towards Ms. Morstan. He said so because Dr. Watson is portrayed as the man of the word and try to show off in the rest of the story to get Ms. Morstan‘s attention. Different from Christopher Redmond, E. J. Wagner tries to find the scientific things in Sherlock Holmes stories and the inspiration of stories in Sherlock Holmes, his book titled The Science of Sherlock Holmes: From Baskerville Hall to the Valley of fear, the Real Forensics behind the Greatest Detective’s Greatest Cases. E. J. Wagner said that where Sherlock Holmes investigates a case in which the victim wa s killed by poison, ―The Adventure of the Speckled Band,‖ is also found in the real world. Almost similar to Sherlock Holmes‘ case where the victim was killed using poison from animal, a woman was also found dead in her house because of poisoned. P olice didn‘t know the cause of her death, They just found tiny hypodermic mark on her. Later on, police found out that Kenneth killed his wife by injecting insulin to her. Injecting insulin to a person that is not a diabetic could kill her. The police, questioning Kenneth‘s coworkers, had discovered that his nursing job involved injecting insulin. It was known that Elizabeth was not a diabetic, therefore injecting her with a large dose of insulin would result in fatal hypoglycemic shock. There was no precedent murder by insulin, no accepted test. Wagner, 2006: 45 Wagner also states that the way Sherlock Holmes observes a crime scene in the novel A Study in Scarlet is similar to what Hans Gross, a brilliant professor of criminology from Vienna that made a standards for investigating. The time Hans Gross made the standards was about the same with the time when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote Sherlock Holmes. From Dr. Watson ‘s description about Sherlock Holmes when Holmes observes a crime scene in the novel A Study in Scarlet, Wagner said that Holmes is very concentrateting to the scene and had so much detail, ―When examining the scene of crime, Sherlock Holmes exhibits an amazing of intensity of concentration and passion for detail Wagner, 2006: 76.‖ It is similar to Hans Gross, Gross believed you must have strictly accurate and complete data before reaching a conclusion. To this end, he required that at crime scene, the investigator keep in mind that anything and everything may be of importance. He stressed that absolutely nothing is too small to have a bearing on the case. Wagner, 2006: 77 Sherlock Holmes in the stories is always described as a strict and conscientious person, and also he is not really good in relation with other person in the story. Karl Albrecht Ph. D sees Sherlock Holmes‘ actions as a symptom of mental disorder named Asperger syndrome. He sees three main characteristics of Sherlock Holmes that makes him think like that, those are Holmes‘ observation skills, his memory, and his ability in making a deduction. These three core characteristics have led many to speculate that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, his creator, had – more or less unconsciously – diagnosed him with what‘s now known as Asperger or Asperger‘s Syndrome. Albrecht, 2011 He also explains how Sherlock Holmes gets that syndrome that the idea of that syndrome came up at 1944 and the stories of Sherlock Holmes was published long time befo re that. He said that it is a part of characterization, where it is ―the art of elaborating the psychological make-up of a person as a distinct, recognizable, and believable personality Albrecht, 2011‖ and he said that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was inspired by someone, which is Joseph Bell, his old university professor. And, he probably had a very useful role model, in his old university professor Joseph Bell. Conan Doyle reportedly wrote to Bell, It is most certainly to you that I owe Sherlock Holmes. Round the centre of deduction and inference and observation which I have heard you inculcate I have tried to build up a man. The wikipedia.org biography for Conan Doyle indicates that his old school mate Robert Louis Stevenson immediately recognized Bell as the character model for Holmes, as he read the stories in faraway Samoa. Albrecht, 2011 Leslie Klinger, the editor of the most comprehensive annotated version of the Sherlock Holmes stories, also said the same thing. As Lisa Sanders had wrote, Klinger wa s saying that Sherlock Holmes has mild form of autism, ―Others, Klinger adds, have suggested that Sherlock Holmes may have had a mild form of autism, commonly known as Asperger‘s syndrome Sanders, 2009.‖ The characteristics of Asperger‘s syndrome are problems with social interaction and intense focus on only one topic or object. ―He described four bright and articulate boys who had severe problems with social interaction and tended to focus intensely on particular objects or topics Sanders, 2009.‖ PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI Those statements are strengthened by Ami Klin, a director of autism program at the Yale Child Study Center, that states a basic thing that defines autism as a condition where a person is having a difficulty to understand about other people and to socialize. ―the fundamental quality that defines all forms of autism is ―mind-blindness‖: difficulty in understanding what others feel or think and thus in forming relationships Sanders, 2009.‖ Lisa Sanders said that all those symptoms are shown by Sherlock Holmes in the stories. She said that when Sherlock Holmes is interacting whith another person, he often show rudeness, even to his closest friend Dr. Watson. In Conan Doyle‘s portrayal, Sherlock Holmes at times exhibits all of these qualities. His interactions with others are often direct to the point of rudeness. And even when Holmes is speaking to Watson, his closest friend, his compliments are often closer to a rebuke. In ―The Hound of the Baskervilles,‖ when Watson, pleased with his own detective abilities, reports to Holmes the results of his investigation, Holmes tells him that he isn‘t a source of light but a conductor of light, a mere aid in solving mysteries only Holmes himself can untangle. Sanders, 2009 The statement above proves that Sherlock Holmes does not know what other people feels, and make him difficult to gain any friend. She also states that Holmes was also showing intense focus on a strange object and he has a very detailed knowledge about that. Sherlock Holmes has very detailed knowledge about cigar that does not seem to be a common thing to know about. Sanders says that it is proving about what Asperger called as ―autistic intelligence.‖ It is a condition where people are able to see something from a very different perspective. Holmes brags frequently of his detailed knowledge of all kinds of strange phenomena. He is said to have written a monograph on the differences among 140 cigar, pipe and cigarette ashes. He demonstrates what Asperger called ―autistic intelligence‖ — an ability to see the world from a very different perspective than most people, often by focusing on details overlooked by others. Sanders, 2009 Different from them, this study is focused on the defense mechanisms of Sherlock Holmes that ―protect‖ him from the things that threaten him. This study focuses on when the defense mechanisms of Sherlock Holmes shows up and categorizing his actions into what types of defense mechanisms those are. The analysis is based on Sherlock Holmes‘s action.

B. Review of Related Theories