Arthur Conan Doyle wasn't just considered one of the world's best crime fiction writers. He was a progressive speaker who make clear controversial and taboo subjects. One of those taboo subjects was male impotence and mental health problems – a subject of private importance to the creator.
Doyle was a weak child. His father, Charles, He was drunkresulting from which the family faced financial problems. Charles was admitted to an asylum in 1881 and spent the following 12 years in several ones Mental care institutions. Thus began Doyle's interest in male vulnerability and mental health.
The character of Sherlock Holmes is a real expression of male vulnerability which doesn't equate him with weakness. Doyle doesn't represent Holmes, but as a person others can relate to – he struggles with drug addiction, loneliness and depression. His genius thrives partially due to these weaknesses, not regardless of them.
Many of Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories examine male characters facing emotional disaster, betrayal, or moral dilemma. In works like The man with the twisted lip (1891), Adventures of the Engineer's Thumb (1892) and A stockbroker's clerk (1894), Holmes's male clients approach him with problems layered with emotional turmoil, fear, and failure.
In The Man with the Twisted Lip, for instance, a person named Neville St. Clair hides his double life. He tells his family that he's a good businessman traveling to London on business. In reality he's begging on the streets of the town. He lives this double life out of fear and shame for failing to pay his debts. “It was a long battle between my pride and money, but in the end the dollar won,” he explained.
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“I would have endured prison, AY, even execution rather than release my sad secret to my children as a family,” says St. Clair. Reflecting on his character's execution to guard his repute and that of his family, Doyle explores societal expectations of Victorian masculinity and the way men struggled with such pressures.
A stockbroker's clerk examines male suicide in addition to economic and skilled problems. When Holmes uncovers Harry Pinner's crimes, the person tries to commit suicide somewhat than face prison.
In The Engineer's Thumb, hydraulic engineer Victor is treated physically by Watson and mentally by Holmes. As Doyle writes: “He had a handkerchief wrapped round one of his hands, which was stained with blood. He was young, not more than five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong masculine face, but he was very pale and gave me the impression of a man who had been overcome by some strong fury, which brought all his strength under control.”
Physical injury marks the winner as a victim of physical violence. Watson suggests that Victor is using all his mental faculties to maintain calm about his excruciating pain. Holmes treats Victor's mind as he hears his story: “Pray lie down there and make yourself quite at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are tired, and keep up your strength with a little stimulation.”
Holmes is a protector, a confessor and a comforter on this scene. He provides Victor with breakfast, persuades him to lie down and offers him stimulants (presumably more brandy).
The extent of the violence that Victor has endured has escalated to mental trauma. As Holmes treats Victor's mental trauma while Watson treats his physical pain, Doyle demonstrates the importance of psychological support for aging men.
Holmes was a very talked-about character. To contemporary readers, his drug use and dysfunctional clientele were seen as markers of his genius somewhat than a mirrored image of the pressing social issues that men faced throughout the period. But today, they provide a window into the mental struggles of Victorian men, and a perspective between past and present readers.
