Holmes on Holmes: Exploring the Aesthetics between a Victorian and Contemporary Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes is one of my favorite fictional characters along with Harry Potter and Indiana Jones. Anything with Sherlock Holmes will immediately grab my interest from Basil Rathbone’s series to the recent adaptations with Robert Downey Jr. and Benedict Cumberbatch. Recently, I began catching up on CBS’s Sherlock Holmes adaptation Elementary (2012 — present) and have found it quiet interesting how it starkly branches off from Basil Rathbone’s The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939) for its own unique spin on the famous detective. Between the two Sherlock Holmes adaptations, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Elementary, the modern day Sherlock Holmes in Elementary portrays a more realistic detective that can exist in both the fictional world and modern day society. The huge difference between the two mediums is that The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes stays within the restrictions of literature and fiction, while Elementary branches out to the norms of reality. Elementary makes the wiser decision of molding Holmes to the characteristics that society requests to be deemed more acceptable and realistic. In Elementary, Jonny Lee Miller’s Sherlock Holmes views his detective work as a duty, restores order for the well being of all aspects of society, and proves that he is in fact an ordinary human that has limits of his own. Unlike Elementary, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes refuses to adapt its hero to the standards of society and allows Holmes to exist as the “perfect” detective.

Basil Rathbone’s Sherlock Holmes is too surreal that one has a hard time imagining if he could exist in real life. In The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes is someone that only associates with those of the highest order of society. Holmes’ clientele are members of the high end of the social scale, such as Sir Ronald Ramsgate (Henry Stephenson) and Miss Ann Brandon (Ida Lupino), and his cases revolve around the most intelligent of masterminds, such as Professor Moriarty (George Zucco). In Sherlock Holmes, the story revolves around Professor Moriarty’s plot to steal the priceless Royal Crown Jewels from the Tower of London. Although Holmes deals with high profile cases that regard individuals of the upmost social and political scale, Holmes lacks a sense of urgency. For Holmes, his detective work is freelance, but he treats it more of a hobby and it seems to be the only thing he has going on. Holmes has no other occupation; the police force did not employ him, yet he picks up cases because his has so great an interest in science, history, and forensics, that they overshadow his need for a salary and employment. Rathbone’s Sherlock Holmes just makes one ask if he’s for real? With a detective that is too perfect on screen, we question if he could possibly exist in reality. Rathbone’s contemporary counterpart Jonny Lee Miller in Elementary fits the bill of a detective that society requests.

The modern day Holmes separates himself from Rathbone’s Sherlock Holmes, because he views his detective work as a sense of duty rather than recreation. In Elementary, Holmes is employed by the New York Police Department as a consultant detective. After being transferred from Scotland Yard, Miller’s Holmes has a fresh start with his career as a recovering drug addict. Despite his indifference to police procedure and constant conflict with his superior officers, this does not inhibit Holmes’s diligence to solving his cases. In Sherlock Holmes, Rathbone’s Holmes gets easily distracted by irrelevant pieces of information that he finds fascinating; in one particular scene, in his office, Holmes randomly goes on talking about a chinchilla fur and its origins, even though it has no relevance or importance in capturing Professor Moriarty. In Elementary, time is a commodity that cannot afford to be wasted with such tomfoolery. In the episode “Lesser Evils”, Holmes is assigned to a case of local New York City hospital that is experiencing an abnormally high mortality rate. Holmes tries to uncover an “Angel of Death”, a serial killer killing patients whom are terminally ill or in critical condition. For this reason, the modern day Holmes has to constantly work against the clock to bring justice to those that put people’s lives at risk, rather than stop a robbery for a few jewels. The way each Holmes treats their cases, one having fun and the other working against the clock, reflects how they view and respect their enemy’s motives.

Sherlock Holmes showcases the competition of two great minds. In the 1939 film, Holmes has to stop Professor Moriarty from stealing precious jewels from the Royal Treasury that would go down as the greatest heist of the century. However, the jewels are not Moriarity’s main objective. His main goal is to prove that he’s smarter than the world’s greatest detective, and that Holmes can never beat him. Holmes is completely aware that this whole investigation is just a duel between him and Moriarty and nobody else. This is why Holmes is polychromic, and takes his time with his case; no matter what happens, it’s his reputation that’s on the line, not a couple of jewels or another person’s life. For Moriarty, it’s all about ego.

On the other hand, today’s Sherlock Holmes has to handle a variety of villains with various crimes, but they each share the similar goal of personal gain. In Holmes’s hunt for the “Angel of Death”, a well renowned doctor is the overall mastermind behind the deaths of his patients. The doctor has had a history of making major mistakes during previous surgeries that have hurt his reputation, and as a result, he was on the brink of having his medical license stripped away. In order to save his career, he hired a third party doctor to inject toxins to kill patients related to his field to prove he was not the one responsible for their deaths. Holmes, though a famous literary detective, is just like any other person of law enforcement. It is not his life on the line, but others connected to the crime. His main concern, aside from catching the bad guy, is the well being of others. The villains do not care for the lives of others, and only concentrate on getting what they want by any means necessary. Holmes has to stay quick on his feet and race against time to make sure no else falls victim to the villain.

In Elementary, Holmes proves that he’s human after all. In Sherlock Holmes, Rathbone’s Holmes is depicted as a man that cannot fall to temptation or failure; even in the most impossible of situations, Holmes pulls through in the end. At the other end of the spectrum, Elementary features a Sherlock Holmes that’s the mirror opposite of Rathbone’s Holmes. As recent rehab patient getting sober from drug addiction, Holmes aims to erase his past and fallouts, as he starts a new life in New York City, rather than going back to his home in London. This shows that the new Holmes isn’t “perfect” like Rathbone’s Holmes, who has no faults or deficiencies. Aside from his imperfections with his personal issues, Holmes proves that he can even make mistakes with investigations. In the middle of the pursuit of the “Angel of Death”, Holmes overestimates his confidence and accidentally catches another doctor stealing morphine instead of the killer. Frustrated and losing confidence in himself, Holmes eventually gets his act together, and goes back and reviews information he had overlooked in his research. Holmes gets back in the game to capture the real killer. Elementary preaches the ideology that even heroes can fall and are ordinary humans just like the rest of humanity. Anybody, regardless of profession or social status, can get back up when they have fallen.

Elementary, much like its BBC counterpart Sherlock, best exemplifies a hero that can coexist in both literature and reality. Sherlock Holmes’s flawlessness in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes restrains him from being depicted in reality. Elementary presents a Sherlock Holmes that has the ability to fail, and does not have all the time in the world; this makes him seem more human. Jonny Lee Miller’s Holmes is granted to have more complexity than Rathbone’s, because he has numerous adventures across a TV show unlike Rathbone who’s only limited to one film. However, despite Miller’s Holmes’s flaws and vulnerability, he is still restricted to the classical Hollywood structure similar to Rathbone’s Holmes, and is always written to overcome any obstacle. Whether he’s an upper-class detective during the Victorian era or a recovering drug addict in the 21st century, Sherlock Holmes will continue to be portrayed as a man who will always succeed.