Sherlock Holmes A Scandal In Bohemia

In last few decades or even centuries, advancement in various aspects brought a huge success in “convenient modern life,” in which people can do something time-efficiently and in greater variety. However, there has been a controversy whether such progress actually brings positive consequences or it has great potential to cause detrimental effects to the world. While some may assert that every kind of progress is a success in many aspects, I believe it is problematic in many cases. In other words, progress, in any matter, is undoubtedly a positive signal that notifies an improvement in certain quality; however, development, at the same time, also signifies a sacrifice of a degree in another quality. Upon the closer scrutiny of literary works

Progress I am referring to in A Scandal in Bohemia is Holmes’ progression to his investigation. Of course, it does not happen occasionally for Holmes but in this case, it is visible that the situation is getting worse every time Holmes attempts to make a progress in his investigation. In the first trial, Holmes dressed up as a drunken man and chased after Irene Adler and Godfrey Norton. As a result, Norton chose Holmes as the official witness of Adler and Norton’s marriage, which was not a big problem at all. On the next day, Holmes acted as an old priest who got “accidently” injured by attempting to protect Adler from a fight. Until this point, Holmes’ plan went really well; however, when Holmes focused on the place of the photograph when Watson threw the smoke bomb into the living room, it gave Irene Adler a clue of Sherlock Holmes himself as shown in Adler’s letter: “You took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed my- self, I began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly be you. ” (Doyle, 14) Moreover, Irene Adler finding out it was just a smoke bomb further exasperated the plan. I think such failure was due to the too hasty progress in which a few flaws, such as Holmes getting caught finding the photograph or smoke bomb found by Irene Adler, were