Detective Stories. One Is Represented Essay

In demonstrating this he shows the audience that he had done a lot of research about all the character's past which led to their present needs. The demonstration of the crime is extremely rational and pieces are put together in a very logical manner "The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes." (Doyle 78)the detective uses all the available resources and he even travels to various locations in order to get the evidence he needs. It is the large amount of information which he manages to gather the main factor which contributes to his success. His spirit of observation and his detached attitude will help him find the solution to the case "It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but you are a conductor of light. Some people without possessing genius have a remarkable power of stimulating it." (Doyle 119) Just like the detective from hard boiled fiction, Holmes enjoys the complexity of the case and finds it stimulating "There is nothing more stimulating than a case where everything goes against you." (Doyle 132) Another element that they have in common is the awareness that they can not predict nor control the negative events which will happen in the future "The past and the present are within the field of my inquiry, but what a man may do in the future is a hard question to answer."

In "The Big sleep" on the other hand detective Philip Marlowe is forced to solve a case which seems to become more and more complicated as time goes by. The more the characters who get involved in the story and the more the information made available to both the detective and the reader, the bigger the generated confusion.The characters come from a variety of environments -"She's a grifter, shamus. I'm a grifter. We're all grifters. So we sell each other out for a nickel."- (Chandler 46)and Marlowe has to deal with members of the mafia as well. Unlike Holmes who is manages to keep a detached attitude form the whole story he seems to create personal relations with the other characters and unlike Holmes who is less focused on himself he always contributes to the construction of his own persona: "I don't mind if you don't like my manners, I don't like them myself."(Chandler 125) in the end he almost risks his own life in achieving the final evidence he needed in order to establish the culprit, but realizing she was in need of medical help he does not turn her over to the police (since justice is being nevertheless done). We are dealing with two very different manners of solving the case and the two characters under analysis are perfect representatives of the genres under discussion. While Holmes seems to learn something more about people, Marlowe will conclude that "Me, I was part of the nastiness now. Far more a part of it than Rusty Regan was." (Chandler 120) However he enjoys his status of character and he plays his part as well as he can in order to preserve that image "I was everything the well-dressed private detective ought to be. I was calling on four million dollars." (Chandler 35)

Bibliography:

Chandler, R. The big sleep (the bets mysteries of all time). Impress mystery. 2002

Sir Doyle, a.C. The hound of the Baskervilles: another adventure of Sherlock Holmes….....