The Portrayal of Feminity and "The New Woman" in Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes

       In 1887, Arthur Conan Doyle published the first Sherlock Holmes story, “The Study in Scarlett.” Since this publication, the Holmes stories were wildly popular, people would line up just to read the new stories. Despite the popularity of the Sherlock stories, Doyle craved something more for his writing, frustrated that his more serious works were not as famous as Sherlock was. Perhaps a cause of his desire to create more serious works, Arthur Conan Doyle created a main character that exemplified the masculinity expected of males during the Victorian and Edwardian Era.

        Not ten years after the Scarlett Letter was published, Doyle made the decision to kill off Sherlock Holmes. In 1893, Holmes fell off the fictional Reichenbach Falls, sparking outrage not previously seen from works of fiction. Doyle is famously quoted, ‘“I have had such an overdose of him that I feel towards him as I do towards paté de foie gras, of which I once ate too much, so that the name of it gives me a sickly feeling to this day" (Armstrong). When Doyle wrote off the character, 20,000 Strand readers cancelled their subscription to the magazine. ‘"The magazine barely survived. Its staff referred to Holmes’ death as ‘the dreadful event'" (Armstrong). It is largely speculated that men wore mourning cloaks for the fictional character. In America, groups such as the "Let's Keep Holmes Alive" club were formed around the country. Fans wrote to the Strand magazine and to Doyle, protesting Holmes's death. Such events did not happen before.

       In 1900, Doyle began writing new Sherlock stories, giving in to the pressure from his fans. The stories from the collection around the death of the fictional character, and The Return of Sherlock Holmes have serious themes of spousal abuse and themes of the early women’s rights movement. Perhaps as a result of his desire to have his more serious works taken thoughtfully, Doyle created a model for how men should behave in society.

       Crime stories grew in popularity in the late 19th century. Many short stories published in the Strand magazine were detective stories, many dealt with crimes committed to women. Magazines at the time discussed new law changes and changing social politics, “The Great Marriage Debate” in the Daily Telegraph is one example (Surridge). Doyle wrote about these events in his Sherlock Holmes stories. In her research, Jina Moon speculated that Doyle created Holmes to be a model for society. Doyle believed women’s issues were important because they “destabilized” English society, “Doyle’s awareness of marital brutality led him to weigh in on the movement for divorce reform through writing stories centering on domestic violence” (190). Holmes had the power and ability to point out and solve the problems of society, domestic violence and divorce were some of these problems. “As a Knight of Britain, Doyle viewed domestic violence and divorce laws as a hindrance to national prosperity” (186). Lisa Surridge further discussed this theory in Bleak Houses: Domestic Violence in Victorian and Edwardian Fiction, “Self-controlled, reasoning, protective of women, the late-Victorian Holmes reassured Strand readers that male violence was amenable to social control, and indeed their readers, occupying the place of surrogate detectives, could participate in that control” (175). With the strong popularity of his stories, and the popularity of the Strand magazine, Doyle was able to create a model that allowed groups of people who would follow Holmes’s example (Surridge). Sherlock Holmes becomes an idealized character, a model for female protection.