The role of the detective in crime fiction

THE ROLE OF THE DETECTIVE IN CRIME FICTION
Generally speaking, a detective is “a person, especially a police officer, whose job is to examine crimes and catch criminals” or “a person employed bysomebody to find out information about somebody/something” (Oxford Advance Learners Dictionary). But, what is the role of the detective in crime fiction? In this essay, it will be shown that his role issimply to solve the crime. This will be proven by analyzing the process by which the detective achieves his goal: the process of detection.
As it is known, Poe is the one who creates the figure ofthe ‘Genius Detective’, later borrowed by Doyle in the creation of his brainy, eccentric detective Sherlock Holmes. The ‘Genius’ often refers to a person with distinguished mental abilities. The geniusdetective is depicted as a reasoning and observing machine. Being well-organized, the detective does not overlook the details. First, from observing meticulously the “insignificant” details, thedetective will gather all the useful elements to construct his deductions. The detective tries to figure things out for himself rather than to ask for help. In the detective we see the superior mentalpowers of the genius in action. Then, the detective is going to use what it is known as “rational deduction”. The rational deduction consists of inferring particular instances from general law. Finally,as he is the ideal “reasoner”, he will use his mathematician’s intelligence to apply it to the logic of the events. But, as he is also a refined poet, he will include the sensitivity and the artist’sperception to fathom the secrets of the case. So, he is going to interpret physical data by means of his knowledge of the human nature and his intuition. The decisions he makes are based on pastexperience. By analyzing and carefully weighing out all the feasible options, the detective will make decisions. The detective continually reconstructs the background in which mysterious events occurred...