Sherlock Holmes vs. Phillip Marlowe

To begin with, as we are all aware, there are many forms of crime fiction that are being written today. We have moved away from the classical amateur detective (Sherlock Holmes), to more professional sleuths (Philip Marlowe). A crime story must be reflective of the time in which it was written, providing an accurate and realistic depiction of its milieu and of the individuals involved. Of more importance, it must offer some insight into the social, political and moral climate of its era. Crime stories often use many different forms of the previous forms of crime fiction. The development, adaptations and re-evaluations of crime novels from comedy to tragedy, from depictions of our society to the exploration of an individual; the crime genre is now a genre that incorporates many other genres.

Philip Marlowe from ‘The Big Sleep’ written by Raymond Chandler, film directed by Howard Hawks has been thrust into a morally corrupt and decayed world of the 30’s and 40’s, with drugs, sex, blackmail, gamblers, pornographers and murders

Crime was becoming an alarmingly large problem in the 1940’s, within the major urban areas. T

P.D. James ‘The Skull Beneath the Skin’ is radically different to ‘The Big Sleep’ because we could consider it not as violent. What do you consider violent? Each and every one of you will have different attitudes to violence, to what is and what is not violent. ‘The Skull Beneath the Skin’ is amore modern text and draws on many of the previously established conventions.

On the other hand, when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle invented Sherlock Holmes he established the conventions of the detective story genre, achieving popularity because the values and social attitudes in his stories reflected the values of their late Victorian audience. Whatever problems threatened their society, including crime, could be solved by rational means. Holmes demonstrated this, and the readers responded.

In some way Conan Doyle is probably the most famous detective fiction novelist and had much influence over Agatha Christie, and this is perhaps the reason why Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot share similar characteristics. Both of the detectives are egocentric and quirky but Holmes is physically and mentally stronger because he uses a more tactical method of thinking than Poirot

Marlowe seeks only to survive in, not alter his world. He comes across as a women hater, but this is changed in the film, when he shows feelings towards Vivian Sternwood (e.g. the kissing scene)

Some topics in this essay:
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