Sherlock Holmes: Books vs Modern Media
Everyone in the world knows the famous detective: Sherlock Holmes. The famous detective story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is world-renowned, resulting in several movies, shows, and more in our modern media. However, not many are aware of the source material’s Sherlock.
As most recently, I have developed a passion for reading and was scouritng thoguh Barnes and Nobles. Few books came to mind, which included Sherlock Holmes. I always wondered how the oringail depiction would be differende from the modern movies and shows and I was well supruided by the numbers of changes made to the characte over the years.
The current media gave us the witty and somewhat sociopathic Sherlock Holmes (such as portrayed by Robert Downy JR. and Benedict Cumberbatch). But this is far true from the original Sherlock written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Let’s first look at Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock. Minus the obvious difference in time setting and modern technology playing at hand, there are several key differences between the two characters. First, Sherlockthekills with people. The depiction of Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock is that Sherlock can not make any friends or companions (minus that of Watson) and is rude or awkward to anyone. What about his behavior? Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock acts crazy and awkward as a sociopath. This depiction is far different that then original Sherlock.
Sherlock is first a man of Victorian England, so he acts accordingly to his time. One must remember, sociopathic geniuses weren’t the most popular figures back in Victorian England. So how was Sherlock in the original books?
To begin with, he was a well-mannered educated man who loved the art of his work. In most cases, he is charming and well-groomed. He has the same skills and deductive skills as the modern Sherlock but is more refined as a man. He has a sarcastic yet enthusiastic personality. It is very likely that for dramatic effect or simply it may have been boring for modern audiences to see well-groomed men do detective work, modern media made Sherlock into more “interesting” fellow to be performed and to see.
