An Exploration of Social Dimensions Through Sherlock Holmes : A Historicist Interpretation and Teaching of Sherlock Holmes’ First and Last Adventure

Abstract: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s short stories about the character Sherlock Holmes are known by many people, they excited readers when he first released the stories in different magazines, and they still excite readers to this day. This essay aims to explore the social dimensions in Conan Doyle’s first and last Sherlock Holmes story by searching for indications of social status and formality. The theory that is being used is the new historicist approach, where there is a contrast between the literary and the non-literary texts, meaning that the stories may be affected by what happened in the society when the stories were written. The conclusion for the essay is that characters in both stories are in the beginning not of a higher class, rather a middle class, whilst in the last they become less dependent on one another, they do not need to live together anymore but, they choose to keep working together. Lastly, this essay is about the Swedish classroom and gives examples of how a teacher could use these stories in their classrooms.