A Scandal in Bohemia

1. I would describe Irene Adler as an intelligent, determined, and beautiful lady. I describe her so because she was willing to do anything to get whatever she wanted and also used her wit to disguise and spy on Holmes and Watson. The king also describes her as a beautiful lady whose intelligence would have made her a perfect queen had she not been a commoner.
2. The story follows Sherlock Holme’s classical formula, which involves building a heroic character, sidekicks and villains. Sherlock Holmes is the hero, with Irene Adler and John Watson as the villain and sidekick, respectively. The story follows the classical formula whereby the author portrays Holmes as the intelligent, cunning, and famous character whose work is to help deal with Adler's villainous acts, with Watson as his assistance. 
3. A typical Holmes story involves deductive reasoning, leading to an ultimate defeat of the villain. However, this story gives some credit to Irene Adler, portraying her as a witty and respectful villain. Sherlock and the king acknowledged Irene’s intelligence and Holmes saved her instead of killing her, an uncommon trend in Holmes’ stories where villains do not receive credit are usually killed.

 

Evil under the Sun

            The novel presents a complicated crime scenario where Arlena is strangled at the beach. As Hercule Poirot investigates the case, everybody has an alibi, and it is hard to tell who was lying (Christie 113). My opinion is that the novel is interesting because the author used suspense and twists in the plot that leave everybody wondering who the killer could be. My question is if Brewster had noticed the person who threw the bottle or its contents. I also wonder how Brewster mistook Christine for Arlena in broad daylight. Was the suntan makeup enough to completely conceal the looks? I associate myself with Poirot. He was committed to his work and did not mind disrupting his quiet holiday with Arlena's case at Devon. I feel alienated by Christine for lying about the murder and her fear of heights. She is merciless and dangerous.

            The most suspicious character was Linda because she did not love Arlena. She had a motive to kill her to ensure they did not live together again. The author explores psychology and social realism by explaining how Poirot invited everyone to a picnic to observe their behaviour and test their vertigo. Poirot used psychological knowledge to know the ones who lied about the alibi. Poirot realised Christine had lied about fearing heights (Christie 211). In realism, a scenario similar to the one presented is possible as people lie to conceal the truth. The setting and situation seem familiar to me. I once encountered a detective who arrested my neighbour for allegedly lying she was a vegan. The detective invited her to a party through a friend and caught her eating steak. She lied so to avoid convictions against having shop-lifted some meat from a local convenience store. The setting and situation also compare with several other previous mysteries where people lie and then end up becoming the main suspects in a case. The novel's tone is sardonic because Agatha first portrays the suspects as innocent and implicates them with the case.

Outline for the 6 jobs

The six jobs are compiled in separate documents. The first one (already submitted) as “A Scandal in Bohemia”

The others are:

1. Share your Ideas about Evil Under the Sun with your Classmates
2. Examine the “Golden Age” Formula
3. Explore a critique of the Classic and Golden Age Mysteries
4. Module 7: Discussion: Three is a Lucky Number
5. Module 4: In-Depth Assignment 1: Assessing Elementary's Irene Adler

All jobs follow the word limit required and contain works cited pages and in-text citations.

 

Golden Age Formula

            The golden age formula in the novel “Evil Under the Sun” is evident in several instances. The first one is the use of social realism. Various actions and characters are set in a way that resembles the actual reality in life. For instance, when explaining the sites around the hotel at Devon, the sports that characters played and the fictitious occurrences resemble real-life experiences. The formula is common in golden age fiction.

            The other one is the moral and ideological values in the dominant social class. The golden age fiction focuses on the upper-middle social class. Although the low-level class characters appear in the fiction, they rarely turn out to be the killers. Similarly, the novel used this formula. The gardeners are mentioned in the novel, but they never turn out to be the killers (Christie 18). The formula exposes the low-level class members as polite and usually less dangerous.

            The third one is that the detective represents and restores order in society. The detective is also presented as a person who relates with the upper and middle social classes and understands them. In the novel, detective Poirot engages in the search for the killer (Christie 23). Although the murder had caused social disorder and affected human relations, the detective restores order by identifying the real killer. The formula resembles the one used in several others in the golden age fictions.

Assessing Elementary's Irene Adler

            Irene Adler is presented in various forms in different pieces of writing that we have covered in this class. The character developed in various writings reflects how the writers wanted to develop her behaviour and help the readers view her as an intelligent woman. Analysing Adler's character from different angles reveals that she resembles some of the common modern women. She is a lady with good looks and great reasoning. However, it is difficult to ignore the fact that the character portrayed in Adler is unique and rare in the real world. The essay analyses Adler’s character based on the thesis that Adler is portrayed as a beautiful and clever woman who stopped at nothing to ensure she got whatever she wanted.

            In “A Scandal in Bohemia” by Arthur Conan Doyle, Adler's character is portrayed as that of a woman with high capabilities and beauty that even the king admired. The story explains that Adler has a picture of her and the king that could have affected the king's reputation. The king hired Stock Holmes as the detective to help resolve the issue by looking for Adler and getting the photo back. Holmes was assisted by Watson, who worked as the sidekick. However, even as Holmes worked hard to arrest Adler and bring her to the king, Adler portrays intelligence. At some point, she disguises herself and tricks Holmes and Watson. Although the two managed to disguise themselves and enter Adler's house, she managed to escape before retrieving the photo they needed (Conan Doyle 22). The king is amazed by her intelligence and confesses that were it not that she was a commoner, she would have made an amazing queen. The king says, "Would she not have made an admirable queen?" (Conan Doyle 41). Holmes makes similar remarks, saying Adler was one of the most intelligent women he had dealt with. The character portrayed in this book is that of a determined lady who could outdo a detective to get away with her plan. The original character depicted in this work is more reliable and shows a woman whose appearance and behaviour could attract any man.

            The character presented in BBC's episodes portrays Adler as a lady whose main target is to impress the audience. The intelligence is low, and the character is not as clear as in the elementary work. According to Caro Lancho (13), the character portrayed in BBC is less believable and not as witty as the original one. The elementary episodes also portrayed Adler as a close friend to Holmes in some instances. For example, Holmes refused to kill her and disguised himself as a terrorist to save her life (Romero 18). However, the movies done in 2009 portray her as cunning and untrustworthy. The movies added more items to portray Irene Adler as a character with trust issues (Arifin 33). Although it helped develop her character and portray her as a hero, it dilutes the original character in the original novel.

            Regardless of how various episodes presented Irene Adler, the common view was that she was an intelligent woman with high determination. Her personality and physical appearance made her attractive. She was keen on her moves, and this helped her achieve her goals easily. The analysis solidifies the thesis that Adler was beautiful, determined, and intelligent.

 

Module 7: Discussion: Three is a Lucky Number

           In "Three is a Lucky Number" by Margery Allingham, the short story explains how a husband tried to kill his wife three times. It starts with a bold statement, introducing the reader to the husband's third attempt preparations to kill his wife (Allingham 1). The main difference between the short story and "Evil Under the Sun" is that the novel does not introduce the reader to the killer. The short story helps the reader view the crime from the killer's point of view, while the novel only portrays the suspects. The similarity is that the two writers use suspense to encourage readers to reflect and question. The short story compares to Dante's commentary on the Golden Age in that it brings out the format and expertise that Dante said deserved a laurel crown (Russo 12). However, Dante's view about Christianity and heaven as the land of honey and milk did not appear in the short story. The unique characteristic of "Three is a Lucky Number" is that the author does not reveal the theme until the end. The theme "bad things will catch up to you" develops along with the story, and it is hard to identify it in advance. Unlike the other novels, where the theme is easy to identify at the beginning, the short story uses suspense to keep the reader guessing about the theme. The story also maintains a calm and scary tone that helps develop the theme. For example, one wonders what happened at the end because the story has an unexpected ending.

Critique of the Classic and Golden Age Mysteries

            Chandler’s critique provides insights from the Golden Age mystery that is easily traceable in the novel “Evil Under the Sun.” For example, Chanlder explains how the Golden Age crime novels portrayed various characters. For instance, there was always a heroic character, mostly the detective, who would solve a case and relief other suspects. For example, detective Poirot solves the mystery of Arlena by calling everyone to a picnic and studying their behavior to determine if they had lied about their alibi. To his critiques, I would agree with his views that most of the authors during the Golden Age used a similar formula that made their novels and that they portrayed the society as it was in the 20^th century. However, I disagree with his views that English writers are dull. He states “The English may not always be the best writers in the world, but they are incomparably the best dull writers” (Chandler 2) I feel the critique is wrong because it generalises all writers. I also disagree with his view that the Golden Age mysteries glorified crime. He said:

 “The realist in murder writes of a world in which gangsters can rule nations and almost rule cities, in which hotels and apartment houses and celebrated restaurants are owned by rich men who made their money out of brothels, in which a screen star can be the finger man for a mob, and the nice man down the hall is a boss of the numbers racket “(Chandler 4).

            Although the novels portray a society in which crime was rampant, they did not display it as a common source of richness. His analysis gives me expectations that the hard-boiled formula would be exciting and full of realism and naturalism.