Admire_Irene_Adler

Irene Adler There have been many interesting characters with some admirable qualities to them this semester. But none of them can compare to Irene Adler from “A Scandal in Bohemia” by Arthur Conan Doyle. This Sherlock Holmes story has an unexpected outcome. Sherlock Holmes is a very brilliant detective who can disguise himself cleverly and is very well known for always being successful in any case. Irene Adler was perhaps the first person to uncover Sherlock’s ingenious plan. Since she defeated the great detective Sherlock Holmes that means she is worthy of being an admirable character. Irene Adler is a beautiful opera singer who once had a relationship of some sort with the hereditary King of Bohemia. They have written letters to each other back when they were young. The king had sent a picture of them together within a letter and he wants to obtain it back because she threatened to reveal it. He is engaged to a Scandinavian princess whose royal family is very delicate, and would not tolerate any misconduct in his part because it would end the marriage. “Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she traveled. Twice she has been way laid. There has been no result” (437). The king has attempted to get the picture five times before but now solely relies on Sherlock to successfully accomplish the task. Sherlock and his accomplice Watson, who is a doctor, both devised a clever plan to take the picture from Irene Adler’s house. Sherlock planned to dress up like a simple clergyman and cause some sort of commotion in which he gets injured in front of Irene’s house, so she would let him in. Then Sherlock was going to signal Watson to throw a plumber’s rocket through the window and yell fire so that she would grab her primary possession, which is the picture. That was going to show Sherlock were the picture was hidden. Everything seemed to go according to plan until a coachman had come in, so Sherlock was not able to retrieve the picture right then. Either way he planned to come back early the next morning to steal the picture from her since they already knew where it was. Things seemed to take a turn for Sherlock’s brilliant scheme. Irene Adler and her husband have left to the airport right away with the picture, and she replaced it with a portrait of herself. She wrote a letter to Sherlock Holmes admitting he did a great job at first, “You really did it very well. You took me in completely” (446). But then she said she felt a suspicion after the alarm of fire. Then she told Sherlock that she then realized he wore a disguise and also mentioned that she followed him home and was the one who wished him goodnight as she was on her way to depart with her husband, “Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes” (445). The men were definitely surprised that she had caught their scheme after all. Sherlock was so astounded that he did not even accept the king’s valuable ring as a reward; he preferred Irene Adler’s portrait. Since then he always mentions Irene as “the woman”, as an honorable significance to her (447). Sherlock was beaten unimaginably “the best plans of Sherlock Holmes were beaten by a woman’s wit” (447). Irene Adler was a character that was to be truly admired for her beauty and intelligence. She was the one who uncovered the great detective, Sherlock Holmes, ingenious scheme. Even Sherlock Holmes admires her. To top it all off, she is a woman. She shows that men are not always above women. Men are mostly described as more strong, powerful, and intelligent; Irene Adler is a character that shows that women actually can defeat even the greatest of men.