The Real Sherlock Holmes Essay Example

with each other. Bell praised Doyle's abilities as a student, while Doyle admired Bell's military background ("Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Joseph Bell").

According to Bell's depiction of Doyle, his studies in medicine provided him with the ability to observe, and his experience has served as excellent training for someone like him, who possesses eyes, memory, and imagination. These tools are vital for a successful diagnostician, including eyes and ears that can see and hear, the ability to store and remember the senses' impressions, and a creative imagination that can construct theories and solve complex mysteries or clues. It is evident that Arthur possessed some of the traits he attributed to Sherlock Holmes.

After completing his second year at university, Bell personally selected Doyle to be his assistant. Doyle was impressed by Bell's deductive abilities that he taught to his students, and even referred to them as "amazing." Doyle recalled a specific instance where Bell identified a patient as a sailmaker based on his callused thumb and street address near the docks. This deduction turned out to be correct (Haycock). It is also believed that Doyle developed his character of Dr. Bell's personal assistant in his writing.

Doyle utilized Bell's principle of deductive reasoning when creating Sherlock Holmes, with Watson being a reflection of the detective himself. This can be observed in Doyle's initial Sherlock stories, such as "A Study in Scarlet", which was first published in Beeton's Christmas Annual in 1877 and had little financial success. Just as Bell concluded that his patient was a sailmaker, Holmes utilized deduction to analyze Watson upon their first meeting, deducing that he was a former military doctor who had served

in Afghanistan and experienced trauma there, as depicted in "A Study in Pink".

It is evident from this instance that Dr. Joseph Bell was a significant inspiration for the creation of Sherlock Holmes. However, it should be noted that Edgar Allen Poe also utilized a detective character, Auguste C., in a similar manner prior to Holmes' creation.

Although Edgar Allan Poe’s Dupin inspired the creation of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle, the latter gives full credit to Dr. Joseph Bell as the man who taught him everything. In a letter addressed from Doyle to Bell, Doyle acknowledges, “It is to you that I owe Sherlock Holmes” (Liebow).

Bell is appreciated by Doyle, but the author acknowledges that Doyle had embellished his abilities in a predictable manner (Haycock). The Sherlock Holmes books emerged as one of the most well-known detective series ever written. The public was so taken with Holmes' use of logical reasoning that the desire to write more stories was strong. Even though Doyle eventually grew tired of his fictional creation, he continued to produce tales involving him for several more years. Doyle attributes the popularity of Sherlock Holmes to Joseph Bell, a professor he had for a long time. Bell's application of logical reasoning sparked Doyle's inspiration and drive for creating this character who is now regarded as one of the best fictional detectives in history.