Sherlock Holmes: Drug Fiend, Easily Bored Or Depressive?

“Sherlock Holmes: Drug Fiend, Easily Bored or Just a Depressive?”

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Word Count: 1258
Citation Style: MLA What is considered a ‘drug’ in any society is invariably a function of social convention. This is not to say that illicit narcotics should not be restricted in their use, or that there are no sound reasons for characterizing them in a negative fashion – rather, it is that the distinction between what we ingest as either ‘narcotic’ or ‘medicine’ or ‘indulgence’ can not be linked in any meaningful way to its impact upon the human body. So it is with Sherlock Holmes, a character created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and one who is famously fond of injecting himself with cocaine. This paper takes as its focus the reliance
upon drugs by Sherlock Holmes as a necessary part of his investigate work. This paper will argue the following: first, that Holmes addiction was far more socially acceptable in the late nineteenth century, as studies had not yet linked cocaine use to psychological and health problems; and second, it will argue that Holmes drug use is very much in keeping with literary Romanticism – at least in the sense that poets such as Shelley and Coleridge found inspiration in narcotics such as opium. Holmes use of cocaine can therefore be argued to be a function of societal ignorance of its effects and as a means of linking his ‘genius’ to other ‘geniuses’ who used drugs for stimulation and creativity during the nineteenth century. This paper will conclude that Holmes use of cocaine is likely less a function of work-related necessity and more a function of an underlying mental disorder, like manic-depression. Both cocaine and morphine were legal drugs in late Victorian England.
As Christopher Redmond explains, the “seven-percent solution” injected by Holmes at the beginning of The Sign of Four was legal in Britain until 1916 and was likely meant to reflect Holmes manic-depressive, mercurial personality (34). In fact, like many amphetamines, cocaine was both a stimulant and a potent euphoria inducing narcotic, appropriate – if in retrospect self-destructive – to a man capable of working non-stop for days on end (Small 342). There is evidence that Doyle himself was fascinated with cocaine and had read and was well aware of its potentially negative side effects (Pearce 228). Nonetheless, Holmes addiction to cocaine as presented in 1888’s The Sign of Four offers only visual commentary upon the possible repercussions from intravenous cocaine addiction. Doyle writes that:
Sherlock Holmes took his bottle from the corner of the mantel-piece and his hypodermic syringe from its neat morocco case. With his long, white, nervous fingers he adjusted the delicate needle, and rolled back his left shirt-cuff. For some little time his eyes rested thoughtfully upon the sinewy forearm and wrist all dotted and scarred with innumerable puncture-marks. Finally he thrust the sharp point home, pressed down the tiny piston, and sank back into the velvet-lined arm-chair with a long sigh of satisfaction
(1). This passage is important for its passing details. Holmes’ fingers are slender and nervous indicating either a degree of agitation, or anticipation of some sort of immanent relief. Similarly, Doyle notes that Holmes pauses before injecting himself, staring at his horribly disfigured forearm before thrusting “the sharp point home” (1). The pause, combined with the graphic description of his punctured forearm, can only be read as an indication that Holmes is at least somewhat aware that he is damaging himself. Although there were many physicians advocating cocaine’s pain-killing properties (it is still used in dentistry), some dissenting voices were beginning to express concern regarding its addictive potential (Small 343). What this disturbing passage also emphasizes – given the evident self-awareness of Holmes – is that his use of cocaine was a necessity given his temperament and his occupation. Throughout The Sign of Four readers are presented with evidence as to the scope of Holmes addiction and its relationship to his work. For example, later in The Sign of Four Holmes is portrayed as injecting cocaine “three times a day for many months” and Holmes himself describes cocaine’s effects as “stimulating and clarifying to the mind” (2). Holmes acknowledges the possibility of side effects, but dismisses them as of “small moment” in relation to the aforementioned beneficial effects (2). The real key to understanding cocaine’s appeal to Holmes, however, is in his admission that his mind “rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work … and I am in my own proper atmosphere. I can dispense then with artificial stimulants. But I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for mental exaltation” (Doyle The Sign 2). Here is a quintessential example of manic depression, where Holmes needs his work – which he has specifically created for himself – as a means to occupy his mind from the dull routines of day-to-day existence. Perhaps then it is not so much that Holmes needs cocaine because of his work, but that Holmes needs his work and cocaine because of his personality disorder. It is also possible to argue that Holmes use of cocaine was meant to position him outside the mainstream of late nineteenth century Victorian culture. For example, in “A Scandal in Bohemia” Watson compares his own domestic bliss with the lifestyle preferred by Holmes. Watson explains that his “own complete happiness, and the home-centred interests … were sufficient to absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature (italics added for emphasis Doyle 1). Setting aside the obvious parallels between Holmes’ lurching from cocaine to ambition and manic depression, what is also evident is that two forms of lifestyle are being generalized: conventional domesticity and bohemian non-conventiality. Small notes that at the time of Doyle’s earliest writing of Holmes stories, the death of opium addict Wilkie Collins made headlines and linked his demise to that of other prominent nineteenth century figures such as Samuel Coleridge – the poet who wrote Xanadu after an opium induced dream (349). However, as Small also explains, the primary concern at the time was the temptation presented to the ‘professional classes’ who might turn to cocaine to enhance their occupational abilities and stamina (Small 349). Cocaine then is represented both a means of presenting Holmes as somehow outside of social convention, while also linking him to the then contemporary concern over the addictive potential of cocaine for men of his class. This paper has argued that Holmes addiction was far more socially acceptable in the late nineteenth century and that the depiction of Holmes as a habitual user of cocaine was likely linked to a desire to emphasize his ‘outsider’ identity in relation to the more conventional Dr.
Watson. Moreover, this paper has argued that a careful reading of some of Doyle’s work indicates that Holmes use of cocaine is a function of an underlying mental or personality disorder. This latter point is indicated by Holmes disdain for emotion (in general) and emotional attachments in particular and in his claims that when his work is done “there still remains the cocaine bottle” (Doyle The Sign 118). Clearly, disdain for emotion and emotional attachments is socially maladaptive, and resorting to cocaine use out of boredom and lack of work is not the sign of a well-adjusted personality. Cocaine may have helped Holmes cope with his mood swings, and provided a means of mental stimulation that compensated for the lack of physical stimulation (love, sex) that most humans
crave.

Works Cited
Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan. The Sign of the Four. Project Gutenberg Website. 2 March. 2011. Web.
28 May 2016. Retrieved from: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2097
Doyle, Arthur Conan. “A Scandal in Bohemia.” In The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Project
Gutenberg Website. 2 March. 2011. Web. 28 May 2016. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1661
Pearce, D. N. “Sherlock Holmes, Conan Doyle and Cocaine.” Journal of the History of the
Neurosciences 3.4 (1994): 227-232.
Redmond, Christopher. A Sherlock Holmes Handbook. Toronto: Simon & Pierre, 1993. Print.
Small, Douglas. “Sherlock Holmes and Cocaine: A 7% Solution for Modern Professionalism.”
English Literature in Transition, 1880-1920 58.3 (2015): 341-360.