FREE ESSAY ON SHERLOCK HOLMES

SHERLOCK HOLMES

The Man with the Twisted Lip
By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
In this short story, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Mr. Neville St. Clair has been kidnapped.
His wife is in town one day and she sees him hanging outside of a window. As she looks up
at him, he lets out a scream and is yanked back into the room from where he stands. She
is very concerned about seeing her husband in this situation and thinks that he is in
trouble. She runs to the entrance of the building that she saw him standing in and she
tries to get upstairs to where he is and help him. She is stopped by the doorman and not
allowed access to the upstairs. 
Once the police get to the scene, they barge into the upstairs area and discover that Mr.
Neville St. Clair is not in the room. The only person in the room is a beggar man named
Hugh Boone. Everyone is familiar with Boone because he sits in the city and begs for a
living. The police demand an explanation on where St. Clair is and there is not one given
by Boone or the doorman. On the backside of the building there was a body of water that
at high tide came up to the bottom of the lone window in the room. 
Traces of blood were found on the window seal of this window and drops of blood on the
floor. The clothing of St. Clair was found in the corner of the room and his coat was
found in the water at the bottom of the window. The assumption was made that Boone killed
St. Clair and the body was disposed of in the water. The police detained Boone but the
body was not found. Sherlock Holmes was interested in finding the body.
Holmes, along with Watson, went to the St. Clair home and interviewed Mrs. St. Clair.
Holmes admitted to Mrs. St. Clair that the he thought her husband might still be living.
She agreed with great anticipation and told her that the most startling thing had
happened to her that day. It was three days since the disappearance of her husband and
she had received a letter dated AFTER her husband's disappearance. Holmes asked to see
the letter so he could examine it. He asked Mrs. St. Clair whether or not she was sure
this was her husband's writing. She was sure that the writing was his. Holmes also
noticed that the letter had a dirty thumb print on it. Surely this was proof that Boone,
the beggar, had done the crime. He could not explain how the letter was dated after the
fact in her husband's handwriting. 
The content of the letter was simple. Mr. St. Clair's short note assured his wife that he
would be home and there was a mix up that needed correcting before he returned. Holmes
and Watson decided to stay the night at the St. Clair home and head back for the crime
scene in the morning. That night Holmes thought on the situation and started to make
conclusions. 
Upon their return to the city, Holmes and Watson went to the jail to speak with the
beggar man Boone. When they got there, the chief told them that they were having the
hardest time getting the beggar man to bathe. They had tried and tried to no avail. When
Holmes and Watson looked at Boone they did not see a pretty sight. He was dirty from head
to toe and he had a hideous looking scar on his face that made his lip curl up on the
edge and expose his teeth. He also had a bad cut on his hand that was starting to heal.
The chief commented that the beggar man had still not given any information on the
disappearance of St. Clair.
Holmes looked upon the beggar for a while as the beggar slept and then did something
interesting. He took a wet sponge and went and scrubbed the face of the beggar. The
make-up and the plaster dissolved and the true identity of the beggar was revealed he in
fact was St. Clair. 
Holmes had surprised the chief and Watson. They had no idea that the beggar man was
Neville St. Clair. As Holmes retraced his steps he commented that it was odd the coat of
St. Clair had washed up on shore and not the body. He also commented that during his
discussion with Mrs. St. Clair, he discovered that Mr. St. Clair had cut himself earlier
that day on the hand. He then said that once he saw the letter with the dirty thumb print
that was dated after the disappearance he knew that the evidence pointed more to the
beggar and St. Clair having a closer relationship then expected. 
St. Clair admitted that he had indeed been acting the role of Hugh Boone for many years
now. He said that he went undercover as a beggar once in order to write an article on
beggars and realized that a lot of money could be made. He started doing it all the time
without his wife and kids being aware of it and made a lot more money. He explained that
the reason he did not want his wife to see him was because he was ashamed. He said that
she spotted him as he was changing back to his regular clothes and he knew she would have
questions. He said that he told the doorman to hold her downstairs until he could put the
full disguise back on and explain later, By then the police had gotten involved and it
was to late to turn back.
Sherlock Holmes discovered the true reason that Neville St. Clair disappeared by using
inductive reasoning. He used the clue of the letter, the blood and the cut to discover
the true identity of Hugh Boone.