VoF Part 1 Blog Post

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle utilizes the literary devices of personification and synecdoche in the first four chapters of “Valley of Fear” to depict how Sherlock Holmes is a skilled detective, but also faces tribulations upon solving a mystery.  Oxford Dictionary defines a detective as, “a person, especially a police officer, whose occupation is to investigate and solve crimes”.  Doyle utilizes personification of Holmes’s eyebrows to demonstrate his determination to decode a cipher.  “His brow clouded, however, as he glanced over the contents” (Doyle 176).  “Clouded” has the denotation of being deep in thought, with a connotation of haziness and lack of clarity.  Sherlock’s eyebrows are personified to reflect his mental thought process.  He tries to discover the meaning behind criminal Professor Moriarty’s message and does not give up on decoding the cipher, even though Holmes’ finds the codes confusing and difficult to crack .  Doyle continues to express Holmes’s frustration with the code through the movement of his eyebrows.  “He had spoken in jesting vein, but the twitching of his bushy eyebrows bespoke his disappointment and irritation” (178-9). “Twitch” has a negative connotation of unwanted movement, with a denotation of spasms.  Holmes’s eyebrow movement demonstrates his lack of progress in discovering what Moriarty is trying to convey through code, as he feels “disappointment”.  Therefore, Doyle shows how even Sherlock Holmes, a renowned and glorified detective, experiences challenges when beginning to work on a mystery case, similar to how one may also face failures when approaching a dilemma.

In addition, Doyle applies synecdoche when describing the crime scene at John Douglas’s Manor.  Synecdoche is a literary device that uses a “part to represent a whole” (Oxford Dictionary).  For example, Doyle describes John Douglas’s murdered appearance in pieces.  “Lying across his chest was a curious weapon, a shotgun with the barrel sawn off a foot in front of the triggers.  It was clear that this had been fired at a close range and that he had received the whole charge in the face, blowing his head almost to pieces” (192-3).  In addition, Doyle continues to describe Douglas’s other severed body parts, “The dead man’s right arm was thrust out from his dressing gown, and exposed as high as the elbow” (196).   Therefore, the reader can infer the gruesome murder scene from the specific details of Douglas’s injuries to his head, neck, and arm.  The synecdoche used to describe the crime scene is reminiscent of how a detective pieces together a mystery.  Each clue, Douglas’s missing gold wedding band, mud in the corner of the room, blood on the windowsill, and a bike left in the nearby woods, is used to piece together a bigger picture about how John Douglas could have died.  As a result, Doyle’s choice to apply synecdoche also reflects how Sherlock Holmes has to use small details to try and figure out if John Douglas committed suicide or was murdered.  Doyle provides breadcrumbs for the reader, simulating a firsthand experience of the crime scene and enabling the audience to also adopt the role of detective.

Doyle’s choice to include personification and synecdoche in “Valley of Fear” provides insight into Sherlock Holmes’s mind and thought process.  Doyle’s literary devices allow the reader to be an active participant in solving the mystery, as the clues are introduced sequentially.  In addition, the reader has to make inferences in order to determine how John Douglas died.  Therefore, Doyle’s style of writing is representative of how a detective would begin solving a mystery: discover the issue, and take note of all the clues at the crime scene.