Doyle's Case of Anti-Suffragism: The "Role" of Women in the Sherlock Holmes Stories Anonymous College

They were deceived. They were manipulated. They were murdered. They were the women in Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories about Sherlock Holmes, the famed private detective of 221B Baker Street. These women constantly fall victim to the “damsel in distress” stereotype. Their lives were full of unfortunate and uncanny events—events which, as Sherlock Holmes himself claims, “[are] infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent” (Conan Doyle 124). The dramatic interchangeability and delicacy of women effectively articulates Conan Doyle’s disapproval of the women’s rights movement.

The role of women in the stories is indistinguishable from each other as women are constantly tricked by their controlling fathers and conniving lovers. For instance, in “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” and “A Case of Identity,” Helen Stoner and Miss Mary Sutherland seek advice from Holmes regarding a dead sister, Julia, and a missing lover, Hosmer Angel, respectively. Holmes ultimately discovers in “The Adventures of the Speckled Band” that Helen’s stepfather, Dr. Grimesby Roylott had trained a snake to bite and kill his stepdaughters in their sleep so that he could remain in control of their finances. Likewise, in “A Case of...