Gender And The Modern Sherlock Holmes PDF Download

Seminar paper from the year 2021 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Literature, Works, grade: 2,0, Leuphana Universität Lüneburg (Institute of Engilsh Studies), language: English, abstract: Women are part of almost every Sherlock Holmes story. But in how far are women presented in the stories of Sherlock Holmes and does the portrayal allow inferences regarding the Victorian Era? This paper tries to find overlaps between the women in Sherlock Holmes and women in Victorian England. For reasons of the limited text size of this paper, only the original texts from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle will be dealt with. The various adaptations, that appeared later, will not be covered. The leading question of this term paper is: To what degree do Sherlock Holmes women conform to the gender roles in the Victorian Era? To find answers on that question, the structure of the paper is as follows. First, a contextual overview about the Victorian Era will be given. The Era will be classified in time, such as historical developments. Secondly, gender roles in the Victorian Era will be discussed. The explanation will include roles of Victorian men for reasons of exemplification and comparison. However, this paper focus is in particular on the role of women in the Victorian Era. The roles of Victorian women will be structured into three sub-sections. One sub- section deals with the concept of separate spheres in the Victorian Era, another on the notion of love and marriage and lastly with the ideal image of women, sexual ethics and double standards in the Victorian Era. Afterwards, these sub-sections will be brought into context with the Sherlock Holmes stories. Therefore, the canon will be classified in the time context. Furthermore, exemplary women who appear in the canon will be analysed and their roles will be compared with the roles of Victorian women. The three sub-sections will be put in context with Sherlock Holmes., by trying to allow draw comparisons. Lastly, a conclusion will be made, and an outlook will be given towards possible further research.