The Trickster, Remixed: Sherlock Holmes as Master of Disguise

Abstract

This chapter investigates disguise in the Holmes canon, and offers reasons for its relative scarcity in the adaptation Sherlock. Drawing on Alec Charles’s identification of Holmes as an example of the “trickster” archetype, the chapter considers the connection between the trickster and the anti-hero, and the different attitudes of Holmes and Sherlock to disguise. Analyzing Sherlock’s “The Empty Hearse” and “His Last Vow” – and their canonical precursors – the author argues that the contemporary Sherlock’s inability or unwillingness to disguise himself asserts his authenticity, and distinguishes this anti-hero from villainous characters. The aspects of disguise and slumming that the canon and the TV series expand upon or downplay are also, the author suggests, reflections of different approaches to storytelling in these two mediums.