Dr. Watson
| Dr. Watson | |
|---|---|
| Sherlock Holmes character | |
 Dr. Watson (left) and Sherlock Holmes, by Sidney Paget | |
First appearance | A Study in Scarlet (1887) |
Last appearance | "The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place" (1927, canon) |
| Created by | Arthur Conan Doyle |
| In-universe information | |
| Full name | John H. Watson |
| Title | Doctor |
| Occupation | Physician, British Army surgeon, war veteran, private detective, writer |
| Family | H. Watson Sr. (father; deceased) H. Watson Jr. (brother; deceased) |
| Spouses | Mary Morstan (deceased) Unnamed second wife |
| Nationality | British |
Alma mater | Medical College of St Bartholomew's Hospital |
Dr. John H. Watson is a fictional character in the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Along with Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson first appeared in the novel A Study in Scarlet (1887). "The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place" (1927) is the last work of Doyle featuring Watson and Holmes, although their last appearance in the canonical timeline is in "His Last Bow" (1917).
As Holmes's friend and confidant, Watson has appeared in various films, television series, video games, comics and radio programmes.
Character creation
[edit]
In Doyle's early rough plot outlines, Holmes's associate was named "Ormond Sacker"[1][2] before Doyle finally settled on "John Watson". He was probably inspired by one of his colleagues, Dr James Watson.[citation needed]
Watson shares some similarities with the narrator of Edgar Allan Poe's stories about fictional detective C. Auguste Dupin, created in 1841, but unlike Watson, Poe's narrator remains unnamed.[3]
Fictional character biography
[edit]Watson's first name is mentioned on only four occasions. Part one of the first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet, is subtitled Being a reprint from the Reminiscences of John H. Watson, M.D., Late of the Army Medical Department.[4] The preface of the collection His Last Bow is signed "John H. Watson, M.D.", and in "The Problem of Thor Bridge", Watson says that his dispatch box is labelled "John H. Watson, M.D."[5] His wife Mary Watson appears to refer to him as "James" in "The Man with the Twisted Lip"; Dorothy L. Sayers speculated that Mary may be using his middle name Hamish (an Anglicisation of Sheumais, the vocative form of Seumas, the Scottish Gaelic for James), though Doyle himself never addresses this beyond including the initial.[6] David W. Merrell, on the other hand, concludes that Mary is not referring to her husband at all but rather to (the surname of) their servant.[7]
The year of Watson's birth is not stated in the stories. William S. Baring-Gould and Leslie S. Klinger estimate that Watson was born in 1852.[8][9] June Thomson concludes that Watson was probably born either in 1852 or 1853. According to Thomson, most commentators accept 1852 as the year of Watson's birth.[10]
In A Study in Scarlet, Watson is the narrator. He states that he had studied at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London, receiving his medical degree from the University of London in 1878 with further training at Netley as an assistant surgeon in the British Army. (In Doyle's short pastiche "The Field Bazaar", Watson is described as having received his Bachelor of Medicine from Doyle's alma mater, Edinburgh University; this would probably have been in 1874.)[11] He was sent to India with the 5th (Northumberland Fusiliers) Regiment of Foot before being attached to the 66th (Berkshire) Regiment of Foot. Watson saw service in the Second Anglo-Afghan War and was wounded at the Battle of Maiwand by a jezail bullet,[a] suffered enteric fever and was sent back to England on the troopship HMS Orontes following his recovery.[12] With his health ruined, Watson was then awarded a daily pension of 11 shillings and 6 pence[b] for nine months.[12]
In 1881, Watson is introduced by his friend Stamford to Holmes, who is looking for someone to share rent in rooms in 221B Baker Street. Concluding that they are compatible, they subsequently move in. When Watson notices multiple eccentric guests frequenting the rooms, Holmes reveals that he is a "consulting detective" and that the guests are his clients.[12]
At the beginning of A Study in Scarlet, Watson states he had "neither kith nor kin in England". In The Sign of the Four, Watson reveals that his father and older brother are deceased, and that both had the same first name beginning with "H" after Holmes examines an old watch in Watson's possession, which was formerly his father's before it was inherited by his brother. Holmes estimates the watch to have a value of 50 guineas.[c] Holmes deduced from the watch that Watson's brother was "a man of untidy habits—very untidy and careless. He was left with good prospects, but he threw away his chances, lived for some time in poverty with occasional short intervals of prosperity, and finally, taking to drink, he died". Holmes explains his reasoning: the initials on the watch, "H. W.", as well as the 50-year-old date of the watch, tell Holmes that it had belonged to Watson's father, who naturally had the same surname, and was passed down to Watson's elder brother, whose carelessness is clear to Holmes from the fact that the outside of the watchcase is dented from being in the same pocket with coins and keys. Holmes deduced that the elder Watson's good prospects he must have inherited substantial wealth as well as the watch. The brother's poverty is evidenced by multiple pawnbroker's marks inside the watch case. from the fact that inside the watch case are four claim numbers scratched by pawnbrokers. Holmes also infers the brother's prosperity from the fact he was able to redeem the watch on several occasions. Holmes explains to Watson finally that the brother's heavy drinking was demonstrated by multiple scratches around the watch's winding hole are scratches from the key—an unsteady drunkard's hand trying to wind the watch at night.
Watson witnesses Holmes's skills of deduction on their first case together concerning a series of murders related to Mormon intrigue. When Holmes solves the case, Watson is angered that Holmes is not given any credit for it in the press. When Holmes refuses to record and publish his own account of the adventure, Watson endeavours to do so himself. In time, Holmes and Watson become close friends.
In The Sign of the Four, Watson becomes engaged to Mary Morstan, a governess. In "The Adventure of the Empty House", a reference by Watson to "my own sad bereavement" implies that Morstan has died by the time Holmes returns after faking his death. "The Adventure of the Norwood Builder" supports this implication with a statement that Watson has sold his medical practice and begun sharing rooms with Holmes on Baker Street again. In "The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier" set in January 1903, Holmes mentions that "Watson had at that time deserted me for a wife", but this wife was never named or described.
In His Last Bow, set in 1914 on the eve of World War I, Holmes notes that Watson (who would then be in his early 60s) is "joining up with [his] old service", and they spend a "few minutes" in what Holmes described as possibly "the last quiet talk that [they] shall ever have."
Watson as Holmes's biographer
[edit]Throughout Doyle's novels, Watson is presented as Holmes's biographer. At the end of the first published Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet, Watson is so incensed by Scotland Yard claiming full credit for its solution that he exclaims: "Your merits should be publicly recognised. You should publish an account of the case. If you won't, I will for you". Holmes calmly responds, "You may do what you like, Doctor".[14] Thus, the story is presented as "a reprint from the reminiscences of John H. Watson", and most other stories of the series share this by implication.[12]
In the first chapter of The Sign of the Four, Holmes comments on Watson's first effort as a biographer: "I glanced over it. Honestly, I cannot congratulate you upon it. Detection is, or ought to be, an exact science and should be treated in the same cold and unemotional manner. You have attempted to tinge it with romanticism... The only point in the case which deserved mention was the curious analytical reasoning from effects to causes, by which I succeeded in unravelling it", whereupon Watson admits, "I was annoyed at this criticism of a work which had been specially designed to please him. I confess, too, that I was irritated by the egotism which seemed to demand that every line of my pamphlet should be devoted to his own special doings".[15]
In "The Adventure of Silver Blaze", Holmes confesses that "I made a blunder, my dear Watson—which is, I am afraid, a more common occurrence than anyone would think who only knew me through your memoirs." In The Hound of the Baskervilles, chapters 5–6, Holmes says: "Watson, Watson, if you are an honest man you will record this also and set it against my successes!" Nonetheless, in his prologue to "The Adventure of the Yellow Face", Watson himself remarks, "In publishing these short sketches [of Holmes's cases] ... it is only natural that I should dwell rather upon his successes than upon his failures."
Sometimes Watson seems determined to stop publishing stories about Holmes. For example, in "The Adventure of the Second Stain", Watson declares that he had intended the previous story ("The Adventure of the Abbey Grange") "to be the last of those exploits of my friend, Mr Sherlock Holmes, which I should ever communicate to the public." However, Watson later decides that "this long series of episodes should culminate in the most important international case which he has ever been called upon to handle" ("The Second Stain" being that case). Despite this, Watson subsequently presents twenty further cases in his stories. The public knows from the stories that Watson is Holmes's partner; the Prime Minister appeals to both Holmes and Watson's patriotism when revealing the details of the secret letter in "The Second Stain".
In the tales written after Holmes's retirement (c. 1903–04), Watson repeatedly refers to "notes of many hundreds of cases to which I have never alluded" on the grounds that after Holmes's retirement, the detective showed reluctance "to the continued publication of his experiences. So long as he was in actual professional practice the records of his successes were of some practical value to him, but since he has definitely retired...notoriety has become hateful to him" ("The Adventure of the Second Stain"). After Holmes retires, Watson often cites special permission from his friend for the publication of further stories but also receives occasional unsolicited suggestions from Holmes as to what stories to tell, noted at the beginning of "The Adventure of the Devil's Foot".
In "The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier", one of only two stories narrated by Holmes himself, the detective remarks about Watson: "I have often had occasion to point out to him how superficial are his accounts and to accuse him of pandering to popular taste instead of confining himself rigidly to facts and figures", but the narrative style seldom differs, and Holmes confesses that Watson would have been the better choice to write the story, noting when he starts writing that he quickly realizes the importance of presenting the tale in a manner that would interest the reader. In any case, Holmes regularly refers to Watson as my "faithful friend and biographer" and once exclaims, "I am lost without my Boswell".
At the beginning of "The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger", Watson makes strong claims about "the discretion and high sense of professional honour" that govern his work as Holmes's biographer, but this does not keep Watson from expressing himself and quoting Holmes with candour regarding their antagonists and their clients. In "The Red-Headed League", for example, Watson introduces Jabez Wilson by commenting, "Our visitor bore every mark of being an average commonplace British tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow"—wearing "a not over-clean black frock-coat".
Personal characteristics
[edit]Physical appearance
[edit]In A Study in Scarlet, having just returned from Afghanistan, Watson is described "as thin as a lath and as brown as a nut."[16] In subsequent texts, he is variously described as strongly built, of a stature either average or slightly above average, with a thick, strong neck and a small moustache.[17]
Watson used to be an athlete: Watson mentions in "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire" (1924) that he used to play rugby union for Blackheath, but he fears his physical condition has declined since that point. In "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton" (1899), Watson is described as "a middle-sized, strongly built man—square jaw, thick neck, moustache..." In "His Last Bow", set in August 1914, Watson is described as "...a heavily built, elderly man with a grey moustache...".
Skills and personality
[edit]Watson is intelligent, if lacking in Holmes's insight, and serves as a perfect foil for Holmes: the archetypal late Victorian/Edwardian gentleman against the brilliant, emotionally detached analytical machine. Furthermore, he is considered an excellent doctor and surgeon, especially by Holmes. For instance, in "The Adventure of the Dying Detective", Holmes creates a ruse that he is deathly ill to lure a suspect to his presence, which must fool Watson as well during its enactment. To that effect, in addition to elaborate makeup and starving himself for a few days for the necessary appearance, Holmes firmly claims to Watson that he is highly contagious to the touch, knowing full well that the doctor would immediately deduce his true medical condition upon examination.
Watson is well aware of both the limits of his abilities and Holmes's reliance on him:
Holmes was a man of habits... and I had become one of them... a comrade... upon whose nerve he could place some reliance... a whetstone for his mind. I stimulated him... If I irritated him by a certain methodical slowness in my mentality, that irritation served only to make his own flame-like intuitions and impressions flash up the more vividly and swiftly. Such was my humble role in our alliance.
Watson sometimes attempts to solve crimes on his own, using Holmes's methods. For example, in The Hound of the Baskervilles, Watson efficiently clears up several of the many mysteries confronting the pair, including Barrymore's strange candle movements turning out to be signals to his brother-in-law Seldan, and Holmes praises him for his zeal and intelligence. However, because he is not endowed with Holmes's almost-superhuman ability to focus on the essential details of the case and Holmes's extraordinary range of recondite, specialised knowledge, Watson meets with limited success in other cases. Holmes summed up the problem that Watson confronted in one memorable rebuke from "A Scandal in Bohemia": "Quite so... you see, but you do not observe." In "The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist," Watson's attempts to assist Holmes's investigation prove unsuccessful because of his unimaginative approach, for example, asking a London estate agent who lives in a particular country residence. (According to Holmes, what he should have done was "gone to the nearest public house" and listened to the gossip.) Watson is too guileless to be a proper detective. And yet, as Holmes acknowledges, Watson has unexpected depths about him; for example, he has a definite strain of "pawky humour", as Holmes observes in The Valley of Fear.
Watson never masters Holmes's deductive methods, but he can be astute enough to follow his friend's reasoning after the fact. In "The Adventure of the Norwood Builder," Holmes notes that John Hector McFarlane is "a bachelor, a solicitor, a Freemason, and an asthmatic". Watson comments as narrator: "Familiar as I was with my friend's methods, it was not difficult for me to follow his deductions, and to observe the untidiness of attire, the sheaf of legal papers, the watch-charm, and the breathing which had prompted them." Similar episodes occur in "The Adventure of the Devil's Foot," "The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist", and "The Adventure of the Resident Patient." In "The Adventure of the Red Circle", we find a rare instance in which Watson rather than Holmes correctly deduces a fact of value.[d] In The Hound of the Baskervilles,[18] Watson shows that he has picked up some of Holmes's skills at dealing with people from whom information is desired. (As he observes to the reader, "I have not lived for years with Sherlock Holmes for nothing." )
Watson is endowed with a strong sense of honour. At the beginning of "The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger," Watson makes strong claims about "the discretion and high sense of professional honour" that govern his work as Holmes's biographer, but discretion and professional honour do not block Watson from expressing himself and quoting Holmes with remarkable candor on the characters of their antagonists and their clients. Despite Watson's frequent expressions of admiration and friendship for Holmes, the many stresses and strains of living and working with the detective make themselves evident in Watson's occasional harshness of character. The most controversial of such matters is Watson's candour about Holmes's drug use. Though the use of cocaine was legal and common in Holmes's era, Watson directly criticises Holmes's habits.
Watson is also represented as being very discreet in character. The events related in "The Adventure of the Second Stain" are supposedly very sensitive: "If in telling the story I seem to be somewhat vague in certain details, the public will readily understand that there is an excellent reason for my reticence. It was, then, in a year, and even in a decade, that shall be nameless, that upon one Tuesday morning in autumn we found two visitors of European fame within the walls of our humble room in Baker Street." Furthermore, in "The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger," Watson notes that he has "made a slight change of name and place" when presenting that story. Here he is direct about a method of preserving discretion and confidentiality that other scholars have inferred from the stories, with pseudonyms replacing the "real" names of clients, witnesses, and culprits alike and altered place-names replacing the real locations.
Influence
[edit]As the first-person narrator of Doyle's Holmes stories, Watson has inspired the creation of many similar narrator characters.[19] After the appearance of Watson, the use of a "Watsonian narrator", a character like Watson who has a reason to be close to the detective but cannot follow or understand the detective's line of investigation, became "a standard feature of the classical detective story".[20] This type of character has been called "the Watson".[21]
The Holmes-Watson partnership, consisting of a "brilliant yet flawed detective" and a "humbler but dependable and sympathetic sidekick", influenced the creation of similar teams in British detective fiction throughout the twentieth century, from detective Hercule Poirot and Poirot's companion Captain Hastings (created by author Agatha Christie in 1920), to Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse and Sergeant Lewis, introduced in 1975. Watson also influenced the creation of other fictional narrators, such as Bunny Manders (the sidekick of gentleman thief A. J. Raffles, created by E. W. Hornung in 1898) and the American character Archie Goodwin (the assistant of detective Nero Wolfe, created by Rex Stout in 1934).[22] Author Kodō Nomura modeled his characters Heiji Zenigata and his sidekick Hachigoro on Holmes and Watson.[23]
Microsoft named the debugger in Microsoft Windows "Dr. Watson".
Adaptations
[edit]Theatre
[edit]
Bruce McRae originated the role of Watson in the 1899 Broadway production of Sherlock Holmes, a play by William Gillette and Doyle.[24]
Claude King played Watson in the 1910 premiere of The Speckled Band.[24] In the 1923 play The Return of Sherlock Holmes, Watson was played by H. G. Stoker.[25] In the 1965 musical Baker Street, he was played by Peter Sallis.[26]
Derek Waring played Watson in the 1989 London premiere of Sherlock Holmes: The Musical.[27] Lucas Hall portrayed Watson in the 2015 premiere of Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery.[28]
Film
[edit]
Actors to play Watson in early film adaptations of Sherlock Holmes include Edward Fielding (1916), Roland Young (1922), Ian Fleming (1931), Athole Stewart (The Speckled Band, 1931), Ian Hunter (The Sign of Four, 1932), Reginald Owen (1932) and Warburton Gamble (A Study in Scarlet, 1933). The series of Holmes films with Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Watson portrayed the doctor as a lovable but incompetent assistant.[29] Some later treatments have presented a more competent Watson.
Watson was played by actor André Morell in the 1959 film version of The Hound of the Baskervilles, wherein Morell preferred that his version of Watson should be closer to that originally depicted in Doyle's stories, not Nigel Bruce's interpretation.[30] Other depictions include Robert Duvall opposite Nicol Williamson's Holmes in The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1978); Donald Houston, who played Watson to John Neville's Holmes in A Study in Terror (1965); a rather belligerent, acerbic Watson portrayed by Colin Blakely in Billy Wilder's The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970), in which Holmes was played by Robert Stephens (who starts the rumour that they are homosexual lovers to discourage female interest);[citation needed] and James Mason's portrayal in Murder by Decree (1978), with