Watching Sherlock Holmes was an eye-opening experience for me. Before this, seldom did I think of how to solve mysteries. I am an adult but whenever I watch the movies or series takes me back to my childhood days when I could give up anything to become a detective. The adventures were so unearthly yet so familiar at some instances.
Sherlock and Watson have been my kind of superheroes. While other superheroes were gifted or simply a victim of coincidences, Sherlock and Watson are self-built in every sense of the word. They have paid immense attention to details, observed things and situations as closely as possible and have the intelligence of separating the important from the not so important evidences.
In the series, when Dr. Watson first met Sherlock, he took one good look Watson and almost told him half of his life story. But their friendship ticked off when Watson saved Sherlock’s life. Watson himself had a set of deduction skills. He was an army doctor so it was easy for him to figure out the kind of bruise or the reason of death. Sherlock always addressed Watson to be someone who puts in more effort in saving lives, which he iterated as a best man at Watson’s wedding. We see an example of him deducing conclusions in the last episode of the entire series. When Sherlock was compelled to take his help. Watson looked at the rifle and figured its range and number, who will be able shoot using that, which helped Sherlock in solving one aspect of the final problem.
Sherlock had developed what is called a ‘mind palace’. He stored all important information in it, in rooms and compartments so that he could go back to them and find it where he had stocked them previously. His research skills were extensive- he was a voracious reader, he was well read about almost every subject in the world, he knew the basics of forensic and had detailed knowledge of chemistry. Sherlock Holmes would look at every inch of the clothing, the scars if any, the gestures and every other minuscule detail to form a character analysis or figure the whereabouts of the person. In spite of all this material, he did not know that the earth revolved the sun. Watson astounded by this but Sherlock shrugged it off saying that it was “useless information”. Thus, we know that he only remembers facts that are relevant and are worth keeping in his mind palace. Charles Augustus Magnussen, we can call him a man of equal worth (with similar skillset). Sherlock had complete idea of the extent this man’s capabilities which led him to kill this man, the only way to stop him. no evidence or information was available against him because every set of facts that he knew was in Charles’ mind palace. Sherlock liked doing all his work by himself. He wanted to attain the full reach of his mental capacity for which he resorted to heroine. All this for a case, he wanted to remember something that happened way in the past. He used to take drugs to some extent but went overboard when required. Being able to constantly trace back clues and deciphering following clues should be imperative to detectives.
Sherlock had a great network of people on whom he could trust. In any field of research, reliable people are required to get concrete information or simple digging out secrets and facts. The sources should be closely knit as was in the case of Sherlock’s homeless gang of people, including some of his closest people- Watson, Lestrade, Molly, Mary and his brother Mycroft.
Wrapping it up, Sherlock was one character, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has put down mastery on pages. Sherlock and Watson using their methods of investigation proves to be a study in itself!
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