Irene Adler's A Scandal In Bohemia

Women, like all humans, are dynamic beings. They change overtime just like any other species and with that comes change on a larger scale. This includes society’s adjustment to their advancements and evolutions. Women no longer only tend to homes or fields or just carry water jugs on their heads with baby’s strapped to their chest. This was true even in the nineteenth century. This was especially true during the Industrial Revolution. As time went on, women progressed in terms of rights but not without hiccups and negative reactions along the way. “A Scandal in Bohemia” reflects the negative reaction towards the progression of women’s rights in the nineteenth century through its characterization of Irene Adler and the men’s treatment of her throughout the story. Historically, the two main issues that arose from progressions made by women were the two Property Acts of 1870 and 1882 respectively. Several instances arose where women could not get out of awful marital situations with just cause because their husbands now pulled the purse strings even if it was money that the woman had brought into the

Jobs for everyone shift from farm to industry, women included, given their small fingers could work the factory parts. Along with the jobs shifting, a power shift also followed suit. This power struggle is seen in ‘Scandal in Bohemia’ between not only Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler but between Irene Adler and the king of Bohemia, this the central conflict of the entire story. In summary, Irene Adler has a picture of the king of Bohemia and her: “‘[w]e were both in the photograph” (Doyle 1472). He wants it back before he marries someone else and he thinks that the only man up for the job is Sherlock Holmes. However, the woman, as Holmes refers to her as, outsmarts him and leaves him with a photograph of herself, along with a