Justice and Judgment versus Lies and Deceit in “The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2,0, Humboldt-University of Berlin (Anglistik und Amerikanistik), course: British Crime Fiction, language: English, abstract: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s master detective Sherlock Holmes is one of the most famous literary figures in the world. He is known by almost everybody, whether people have read his stories or not. This paper is intended to discuss and to contrast the topics “Justice and Judgment” and “Lies and Deceit” with regard to the short story “The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton” written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. For Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s fictional character Sherlock Holmes “[…] the social order is something to be both upheld and defied. On one hand, his bohemian nature rebels at class distinction and privilege, while on the other hand he takes extreme measures to rescue the aristocracy from scandal” (Doyle, Steven; Crowder, David A. 74). I personally chose this short story on the one hand because of the presence of one of Holmes’ biggest opponents apart from Professor James Moriarty, his gofer Colonel Sebastian Moran and Irene Adler – the already mentioned Charles Augustus Milverton – and on the other hand because of the fact that Sherlock Holmes himself commits a crime in this story. My aim in the conclusion of chapter 4 will be to consider whether lies and deceit or justice and judgment gain the upper hand in “The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton” or if there is simply no clear line that makes it possible to separate both topics from each other.