The Women Who Defeated Holmes

“Breaking the Rules”

During the 19th century Great Britain was a country which was living an Industrial Revolution, many things changed since women won rights. Many women voted for the first time, they left their homes and started to be part of the working class. Even some of them turned into doctors, singers and actresses, which centuries before was an inconceivable aspect. It is important tomention that art in all the ways was considered in Great Britain as the most marvelous way of philosophy, plus is important to point that The Age of Enlightenment was at its peak in the Britannic society and women were part of it. The occupational fields started to open for women; life went on and the women continued trying to reach the level that men always had, but there was something thatmaintained women always steps behind men; women still being the inferior creature.
Nevertheless women in one way or another still being part of an entire humanity and this humanity regardless of gender is already divided into three subgroups, which according with Eric Hobsbawm (an important historian, public intellectual and author of the Age of Empire) are the following: scientists, humanists andartists. Women are part of this classification, but there is one in particular who broke the British rules. This woman broke all the stereotypes that women were subject, and she was just a character created by Conan Doyle, her name was Irene Adler. In the Five Orange Pips, Holmes says that he has been beaten just four times, three times by a man and once by a woman, Irene Adler is the only womanartist who defeated Holmes.
As an artist Irene has particular movements, actions and even reasoning that makes her different from other people, especially women. The fact that makes Irene Adler “the woman” is the key that breaks all the stereotypes settled before. It’s that she unmasks and defeats all kind of sexist stereotypes, and also there is the point that Holmes shows some kind of admirationtoward her because she is the only who have beaten him; this is also mentioned by Watson in the story, A Case of Identity. All this brought the idea that artists known how to perform very well even when they are in real life.

Adler is a singer and actress, whose senses have been sharpened and she knows how to use those artistically aptitudes in her favor; England faced a First World War andit is living the Industrial Revolution, but despite of all the social advances of which the woman was part, it was still inconceivable that a woman in some way could be superior to a man or even pleasingly play with his mind in her favor as Irene did, and what stands out even more is the fact that Adler had beaten one of the most emblematic minds among men (although it was just an story). Even theKing of Bohemia describes Irene as "the face of the most beautiful of women and the mind of the most resolute of men." She was who left a huge impression on Holmes; she is the only who beat Holmes at his own game. This is why the thesis that is going to be supported is the following: “Although during 19th century women were considered an inferior creature, on the other hand Adler in the “Scandalin Bohemia” shows that women artists can break the rules”
Furthermore Holmes think “women are naturally secretive”, and they like to do their own, he also states that “when a woman thinks that her house is on fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she values most.” Irene as an artist lives up to expectations, and the hidden picture is her next performance; she cannot lose thatstarring role. Holmes is after in her house, and when he tricks her into thinking there’s a fire, she runs to save her picture, revealing its hiding place. But Holmes then makes the mistake of thinking that; she at the end shows that actually she was a step ahead and keeps the picture with her. As an artist she tend to imagine what will happened next, just like in a play or song. There artists...