Sir Arthur Conan Doyle begins his novella The Sign of Four with his famous character, Sherlock Holmes, injecting himself with cocaine and sighing with relief into a chair, supposedly unharmed after continuous, daily use of the drug. Conan Doyle’s interpretation of cocaine is inaccurate in representing cocaine realistically through Holmes’ physiological symptoms, which do not parallel the real effects of cocaine. This was part of the argument made in the oral presentation, but I believe that Conan Doyle’s misinterpretation of cocaine is only partially inaccurate. I believe that cocaine was misinterpreted by Conan Doyle in The Sign of Four, but only to the point where it was necessary for him to characterize Holmes in a debatable light of whether or not Holmes is addicted to …show more content…
In addition, contrary to what was said in the presentation about the supposed lack of symptoms, I believe there is a noticeable effect of Holmes’ cocaine use on caused by physiological changes that make him indifferent to harm and to reason. These two focuses of indifference are the socially noticeable effects of his emerging addiction, which allow Conan Doyle’s mischaracterization of cocaine to be partially correct despite misinterpretations mentioned in the presentation. First, I believe that in order to understand Conan Doyle’s slight mischaracterization of cocaine, it is necessary to identify what cocaine’s actual effects are and to evaluate these effects as seen in The Sign of Four. Cocaine is a “powerfully addictive stimulant” extracted from coca leaves that have immediate effects when administered, which in the case of Holmes is via injection when he immediately sinks back into the chair (National Institute on Drug Abuse, “What is Cocaine?”, Conan Doyle 5). Cocaine is also known to cause temporary feelings of euphoria, energy, loquacity, mental alertness,