Holmes’s Failure of Observing in “A Scandal in Bohemia”

초록

This paper aims to offer a different reading of Arthur Conan Doyle’s “A Scandal in Bohemia” by employing labyrinth and maze metaphors to suggest a reason for Holmes failure to apprehend Irene Adler. Whereas the labyrinth has only one right pathway to identity, the maze has various pathways. This difference between the labyrinth and the maze helps us understand why Holmes is outwitted by Alder at the end of the story. Holmes, who sees London as a labyrinth, firmly believes that there is only one way to view Adler’s identity: a submissive and passive Victorian woman. However, Alder, unlike Holmes, regards London as a maze so she maintains various identities: American woman, retired opera singer, single woman, married woman, young man, and a human-animal hybrid. Adler’s multiple identities connote that she cannot simply be defined as a single type of woman, and it is this freedom that allows her to escape capture. Thus, Holmes loses the case against Adler because of his labyrinthine view, while Adler succeeds because she can observe London, and by extension the world, properly.

키워드