The Importance of Watson as the Narrative Voice in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes Stories
...this kind of nature, we may not have thought of the question ourselves but Watson “thinks” it up for us. An example of this is in the Silver Blaze when Watson asks Holmes, almost immediately after the statement has been made, if the boy left the door unlocked or not; without Watson, this question may not have been asked at that time. One of the key features that Watson provides is avoiding the problem that would represent itself should he not be a character in these stories. If Watson were not there, then Holmes would have to explain everything himself. This is a problem. Sherlock Holmes is the main lead character in this collection of stories and it is his mind which deduces everything at the right moment - at the end… what use would a mystery novel be if the crime was solved too early or if the clues were given out early on in the story so as to lead the reader to the end of the crime before it has actually been given by the author? The answer is obvious. Without Watson, Holmes would have to explain all the clues, so as to stop the reader becoming involved in what is going on. This becomes a paradox; if the reader is given too much information then they deduce for themselves what is going on and so the story has failed. If there is no information at all to avoid this problem then the reader doesn’t become interested enough. You have to find a nice medium. This medium is Watson. Watson allows you to be a character in the stories, as previously stated, and so allows you to deduce what Watson deduces, as he sees it. This is probably why th...