The Man With The Twisted Lip

This story is unusual, although not unique, for not containing any crime at all, although at first it seems to be dealing with a murder. When Mr. Neville St Clair disappears in a house full of opium dealers the police came to the conclusion that he had been murdered and blamed it on a hideous beggar named Hugh Boone who was immediately arrested. Sherlock Holmes then became involved and with a little bit of detecting came to the conclusion that the coat weighed down with coins were all part of a disguise and that the hideous beggar and the missing man were both one and the same person.

Essay Example on The Man With The Twisted Lip

The structure is a little unusual in this case which can be seen from the fact that the opening of the story starts in Watson’s own house whereas normally it starts on Baker Street with people calling on Sherlock Holmes. At the beginning of the story a woman named Kate Whitney bursts into the house seemingly in hysterics and addresses Watson himself in an effort to get help.

This is a small case which even Watson can solve by himself, after some detecting the woman’s husband is found in an opium den. The story is stronger in atmosphere in its opening sections which describe the sinister ambience of the opium den and the streets leading off it; “Upper Swandan Lane is a vile alley… between a slop shop and a gin shop approached by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the mouth of a cave I found the den of which I was in search.

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” The simile comparing the entrance of the opium den to the ‘mouth’ of a cave is especially eerie because it combines the idea of a mouth swallowing up a victim with the wildness and savagery of an animal’s lair. The evil looking disguise that Neville adopts is not his real appearance – He turns out to be a ‘sad, refined-looking man’. However in a way it symbolises the ugly, immoral course he has chosen to earn his living, a course which is criminal and unethical.

Once again Conan Doyle creates a stray interest in an odd character with a strange background, rather then the brilliant deduction which Holmes generally uses to solve a mystery. Typically a woman features in the story, a distressed Mrs Sinclair who appears in the story as the client and as usual Holmes solves the case for her. At the end of this story justice is not done due to none needing to be done because there is the absence of a crime. But even though there is no crime Neville St Clair has deceived his family and has become a ‘dishonest’ beggar.

Holmes insists that if the matter is to be hushed up Neville must abandon his dismal disguise and become a refined gentleman once more. Again we see Holmes acts as an agent of morality rather then an instrument of the law, and shows lenity when the man promises to repent. This brings out the kinder side of his nature which isn’t so apparent in stories when the emphasis is on his brilliant deductive skills. At the same time the Victorian reader would be satisfied that justice is indeed brought out in the end.