The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Lesson Plan

What important information does Watson disseminate in the first paragraph of "A Scandal in Bohemia"? Why do you think he does this?

The first paragraph of “A Scandal in Bohemia” is rich. Watson disseminates a bunch of information to the reader upfront. First, the reader learns that Sherlock abhors the soft emotions, such as love. He aligns himself with reason, and he trained himself to put emotions aside. Readers in London likely already knew this because of A Study in Scarlet, but students new to Sherlock Holmes may not be familiar with this characterization. Watson, in introducing the woman, makes it clear that Irene Adler is “the woman”: “she eclipses and predominates...