The first episode of Sherlock Holmes was very fast paced and
had a lot of semiotic characteristics to it. It showed the creation of the
pairing between Sherlock Holmes and Watson to become the dynamic duo that
solves mysteries.
Sherlock and Watson are very different in personalities. They
both had signifiers that signified their personalities. Sherlock’s apartment was messy with things
cluttered around everywhere. His apartment represented his mind and signified
how Sherlock thinks. He is constantly having so many ideas flow through his
mind while trying to solve cases as it was shown throughout the episode.
Watson’s apartment was barren with hardly any belongings, symbolizing his
“ordinary” mind compared to Sherlock’s. Watson’s apartment is also very dark
and gloomy resembling the darkness and depression within his own mind. Also noticing
their postures, Sherlock protruded confidence and awareness through his stance
while Watson limped and did not stand up as straight, indicating self-consciousness
and unhappiness.
A very symbolic scene is the chase scene where Sherlock and
Watson chase after the taxi. A lot of symbols from the street appear while they
chase the taxi. The symbol for a pedestrian walking symbolizes Watson and Sherlock
running through the streets. The red stop pedestrian sign marks Watson pausing and stopping during the chase. The green light symbolizes Watson and Sherlock going and trying to
catch up to the taxi. At the end of the scene where Sherlock runs into the car,
the symbol appears of a lane that says “end” representing the end to the chase.
In the final scene, Sherlock is given a choice between the
two pills on which will keep him alive and which will kill him. He is shown
picking one of the pills. Watson as well towards the final scene has to make a
choice between the two building on which to enter in order to find Sherlock. The
two buildings can represent the two pills that are a metonymy for life and
death. If Watson chooses the right building, he can save Sherlock’s life, and
if Sherlock chooses the right pill, he can also save his own life. The
interesting part is that Watson ends up choosing the wrong building, the
building Sherlock is not in, which can lead us to suspect that maybe Sherlock
chose the wrong pill in a similar fashion.
I also compared Mycroft and Sherlock through paradigmatic analysis.
Sherlock
|
Mycroft (Sherlock's brother)
|
Free thinking
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Controlled Thinking
|
Random
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Structured
|
Low Status
|
High status
|
Reckless
|
Careful
|
The light blue I highlighted is that I liked your analysis.
ReplyDeleteI think it's interesting how the creators of the show paired two very different characters together within in a show because after a while, at least in this episode, I noticed how similar they are. They both long for something: John desires and misses the dangerous situations of the way and Sherlock wants adventure and finds it in sleuthing. Another similarity I found interesting in the episode was how at the beginning, John says something a long the lines of "Nothing happens to me" and then near the end, Sherlock says, "Who would notice me?" These two phrases make me realize that John and Sherlock are not that much different after all.
ReplyDeleteOops, I realized some spelling errors above. I meant to say "dangerous situations of the war" and "says something along the lines." I should proofread next time :)
ReplyDeleteI like that you compared Sherlock to Mycroft. Although they are brothers, they are clearly very different. I have a feeling that Mycroft will play a bigger role in future episodes.
ReplyDeleteI like that you compared Sherlock to Mycroft. Although they are brothers, they are clearly very different. I have a feeling that Mycroft will play a bigger role in future episodes.
ReplyDeleteI like that you broke down the chase itself and described the little detail that foreshadowed the action as it happened, I didn't catch the "end" sign the first time I watched the episode, great find!
ReplyDelete