English 2150 March 19, 2012 Holmes Evil Half

Sherlock Holmes, created by Sir Arthur Canon Doyle, is a legendary detective that a lot of people have heard and/or read about. Much appraise is put on to Holmes as someone who is able to solve crimes through his different intelligence and with that, seem invincible because no one has been able to outsmart him. However, as Doyle tries to end the series by killing Holmes, a character is invented by the name of Professor James Moriarty. Like many things in life, where there is a yin, there will always be a yang, a positive and a negative that counters one another. In order to be able to kill Holmes, one must be as quick or even quicker in terms of thinking ahead and intelligence. Moriarty can be analyzed as being that person and also as someone who is very similar to Holmes but with different intentions. Because of those reasons, Moriarty becomes the downfall of Holmes. On the academic intelligence level, one can definitely agree that Moriarty is of the same or even greater intelligence as Holmes. Even Holmes would agree to this because in the story, The Final Problem, Holmes describes Moriarty as a genius, a philosopher, an abstract thinker. He has a brain of the first order and he is the mathematical chair at a smaller university because he wrote A Treatise upon the Binomial Theorem at the age of twenty-one (Doyle 408). Through the book, The Dynamics of an Asteroid, written by Moriarty and the time period in which the book was written, Schaefer claims that Moriarty is the best known astronomer of all time through the fact that he was a mathematical genius of the highest order whose primary scholarly study was in astronomy (31). Now compared to Holmes academic intelligence, it is a bit harder to deduce if Holmes is of greater intelligence than Moriarty or not, due the fact that Holmes academic

publications may not be consider to be in higher academic intelligence due to the subject of his studies. In The Adventure of the Dancing Men, Holmes was able to decipher the code because he stated that he was fairly familiar with all forms of secret writings, and am myself the author of a trifling monograph upon the subject (Doyle 452). Then in The Adventure of the Empty House, Doyle writes about what Holmes did during The Great Hiatus and he writes the explanation Holmes gave to Watson, You may have read of the remarkable explorations of a Norwegian named Sigerson,Returning to France I spent some months in a research into the coaltar derivatives, which I conducted in a laboratory at Montpelier, in the South of France. (422). Also, in His Last Bow, Watson mentions that Holmes written Practical Handbook of Bee Culture, with Some Observations upon the Segregation of the Queen during the time he retired (Doyle 846). These subjects of studies, compared to Moriartys studies, may be questioned as being more intelligent or not, but overall these studies were of their interest and it is can be inferred that Moriartys academic intelligence is at least the same level as Holmes. The similarities in their intelligence can probably be most evident in their encounter with each other. In the recent movie, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, you see often how Holmes would deduce moves of the attack by playing the future moves in his head, and within seconds, he would win the fight because he saw every move that was going to come and he would countered it. Toward the end of the movie, during the fight between Holmes and Moriarty, Holmes used the same technique, but after the replay of the fight in his head, Moriarty said that he can do the same thing and you see the replay of the moves through Moriartys head. No action was taken, but with their ability to deduce the future moves, they did not have to physically fight in order to figure out who will win the fight. This type of logical deduction portrays the intelligent logics and reasoning that Holmes has and at the same, it shows that Moriarty has the same skills. In The Final

Problem, when Holmes was running away with Watson, Holmes reconfirms to Watson that they must constantly think ahead and know that Moriarty would be thinking the same thing because Moriarty is as being quite on the same intellectual plane as Holmes himself (409). Through the analysis of both Holmes and Moriartys intelligence, one can agree that their intelligence is at least of the same level. With that said, their personalities can be seen as being similar as well. Both characters possess a calm demeanor even when faced with a tough situation. During the time when Holmes was running away from Moriarty with Watson, Watson notes that he smiled at me with the air of a man who sees the fulfillment of that which he had expected. And yet for all his watchfulness he was never depressed and at the same, Watson states that he had never seen Holmes in such exuberant spirits (Doyle 410). Despite the situation that they are in, where they are constantly worried that they might encounter Moriartys possible harmful actions, Holmes is not brought down by it. At the same time, one can notice Moriartys calm demeanor when he meets with Holmes and Holmes was pointing a gun at him but yet he did not even seem to care. This can be read in Doyles The Final Problem, He clapped his hand into his pocket, and I raised the pistol from the table. But he merely drew out a memorandum-book (407). Another similar personality that both Holmes and Moriarty share is their persistence in achieving what they want despite the situation. Holmes spent a lot of time and put himself into a lot of danger just to take Moriarty down and Moriarty chases Holmes down through half of Europe just to be able to take revenge. At the same time, their persistence does not only apply to their encounter with each other. In many of the stories, Holmes goes through great amount of extent just to be able to solve the case, or some would say, to satisfy his desire to learn of the truth. As for Moriarty, in the movie, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, he explains to Holmes that he goes

to great extent to do what he does because of money. So despite the kind of academic standing he has and the already large sum of money he owns, he continues to do more in the criminal world. Every hero has their downfall, just like how superman has his kryptonite. Due to Sherlock Holmes intelligence, the person to defeat Holmes must be someone of equal or even higher intellects as Holmes. In the creation of Professor James Moriarty to defeat Holmes, Moriartys character was made very similarly to Holmes. Through Doyles stories, Moriartys academic intelligence is definitely the same or even greater than Holmes to the extent that even Holmes praises his intelligence. Also, Holmes famous logic and reasoning deduction skills can be seen in Moriartys character through the re-makings of the stories into movies. Their similarities do not end there though. The two characters personalities are similar as well to the extent that both share a calm demeanor and persistence to their wants. Despite their similarities in intellect and personality, their intentions and moral standings are definitely different. Holmes uses his skills to aid the police in solving crimes and bringing justice to the world, whereas Moriarty uses his skills to protect criminals for profit. Although they both come from different beliefs, they eventually cross roads and become the downfall of each other due to their similar strengths.

Word Count: 1,293

Work Cited

Doyle, Sir Arthur Canon. The Complete Sherlock Holmes. Deluxe Edition. New York City: Bantam Doubleday, 2004. Print. Ritchie, Guy, dir. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. Warner Bros. Pictures, 2011. Film. Schaefer, B.E. "Sherlock Holmes and some astronomical connections." Journal of the British Astronomical Association 103. (1993): 30-34. The SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System. Web. 18 Mar 2012. <http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1993JBAA..103...30S>.