Amavizca 1 Rebecca Amavizca

Professor Lynda Haas

Writing 37

2 February 2014

A Mystery within a Mystery: The Police Force in the Mystery Genre

The mystery genre has widely attracted a massive audience to its gripping and twisted plots. An excerpt from The Theory and Practice of Classic Detective Fiction states that "The unique formal pattern of the detective story genre lies in its double and duplicitous plot. The plot is double because the story is first narrated as it appears to the bewildered bystanders who observe the crime and are to some extent threatened by it but who cannot arrive at its solution." (Delamater, Jerome and Ruth Prigozy 1). Besides this, the mystery genre also has other important conventions, such as a lead detective, a strange case, a crime scene and a criminal. However, a story with representation of the police force or a police officer adds even more to the mystery genre. Specifically, the popular and influential literature of Sir Conan Doyle helped establish this foundation. His second short story, The Sign of the Four exposes the role and function of the police, specifically through Athelney Jones, the lead police officer. The novel The Sign of the Four was published in 1890 in the widely claimed Lipincoth magazine. At the beginning of the story, Sherlock Holmes is approached by Mary Morstan inquiring about the mysterious pearls she has been receiving over the past 6 years and a strange letter. Holmes, along with his partner Watson, is interested in investigating this matter further. Together they join Miss Morstan on her visit to meet the mysterious sender, Thaddeus Sholto. Sholto reveals

Amavizca 2 much of the mystery that connects his father Major Sholto and her father Major Morstan with the mysterious Agra treasure. On their visit to meet Thaddeus's twin Bartholomew to split the treasure, the four find the brother murdered and the treasure stolen. Sherlock Holmes and Watson, after long investigation, join the police and together pursue the thief Jonathan Small and his companion. After Small's capture, Holmes and the others find the treasure gone. The story ends with Jonathan Small illustrating the full story of the sign of the four. The police force convention is developed within this story through the character Athelney Jones, who underlines common police characteristics for the mystery genre, such as lacking knowledge, jumping to conclusions, and carrying out justice. This convention is essential to how people read The Sign of the Four and experience the mystery genre because the police convention establishes the importance of an unsophisticated and unintelligent police force in order to add to the greatness of the hero, or main character, such as Sherlock Holmes.

In Chapter 6 in The Sign of the Four, police detective Athelney Jones enters the crime scene and immediately assumes that Thaddeus Sholto is the person guilty of murdering his twin brother. Jones pompously suggests he has "These flashes [that] come upon me at timesSholto was, on his own confession, with his brother last night. The brother died in a fit, on which Sholto walked off with the treasureThaddeus is evidently in a most disturbed state of mind. His appearance iswell, not attractive. You see that I am weaving my web round Thaddeus. The net begins to close upon him" (41). Athelney Jones's word choice exposes his unknowledgeable and ignorant persona. He uses diction such as "evidently" as if implying that the answer to the murder is clearly and obviously done by the brother, however, Jones has not done any deduction and is merely guessing while ateempting to sound correct. Jones lacks the common knowledge to efficiently solve the case on his own. Furthermore, Jones says that Sholto's "appearance" is

Amavizca 3 "not attractive." Jones not only lacks knowledge but also jumps to conclusions by presuming that because of his sickly physical appearance, Sholto looks guilty, therefore Jones assumes that Sholto must unmistakably be the criminal. Jones's type of deduction is quite contrary to Holmes's, who would never have concluded such things on the basis of mere speculation. Understanding that the police, as demonstrated by Athelney Jones, ultimately assists in framing the story's focus of the main character Holmes, readers will have a better experience of the mystery genre because the reader will be drawn to the genius and logical step by step deduction of Sherlock Holmes while subduing the importance of the police who are solely incapable of solving a crime. In the same passage, Conan Doyle utilizes imagery in order to symbolize the police's assurance of justice. Jones depicts himself as a spider closing in on his prey, the supposed criminal. This illustration symbolizes Jones as the police force who is always able and ready, like a spider waiting on his web to catch food, to enforce justice. Conan Doyle emphasizes this to represent the police at being good at one thing: putting those suspicious in prison. Jones's character therefore is significant because it further underlines how incorrect and way off track the police tend to be, thus framing the plot to center on the work and methods of Sherlock Holmes. In the end, this allows the reader to note misleading attempts to solve the mystery and have an enjoyable experience trying to solve the case on his or her own. It also shines more light on the protagonist Holmes, the only character smart enough to unravel a mystery.

The role of the police force, although lack knowledge, jump to conclusions, and carry out justice, ultimately brings the focus back to the legendary Sherlock Holmes. Police detective Athelney Jones is a clear representation of how Conan Doyle consistently uses these character features to portray his other officers, not only in The Sign of the Four but in his other short

Amavizca 4 stories such as Silver Blaze and The Red-Headed League. Conan Doyle established the fundamental qualities of the police force, but throughout the ages the qualities have become more diverse. One article notes that "Police are almost a burden to the Private investigator of Hard-boiled fiction and is much like the police in the Early Crime Fiction who were unable to achieve justicePolice are either stupid or bound by system they are in and hence ne ed the assistance of the PI." The article notes that Hard-boiled fiction is simply Crime fiction written during the 1920s but still used the same formula, while Early Crime Fiction, that of Edgar Allen Poe's era, also had the police "looking into insignificant things to deeply" not knowing "what to observe." Furthermore, the article explains that Contemporary Crime Fiction presents "believable non-stereotyped characters. The police, therefor, make mistakes, as they are only human [sic]" (An Overview of Crime Fiction). Although varied, the genre convention of the police still plays a key part in modern-day mystery texts, all thanks to Conan Doyle.

Works Cited

"An Overview of Crime Fiction." HSC Crime Fiction Gold. N.p., 2007. Web. 02 Feb. 2014. .

Delamater, Jerome and Ruth Prigozy, eds. Theory and Practice of Classic Detective Fiction. New York: Praeger, 1997.