A commonality among most members of the human race is the fear of the effects of aging on the body. By creating a character famous for his quick wit and not his physical infirmity, Arthur Conan Doyle brought Sherlock Holmes to life and brought him into the homes of many people through his creative storytelling. Holmes is known for his excessive genius and arrogant personality which tended to set him apart from the crowd. “A Slight Trick of the Mind” by Mitch Cullin shows the reader that even Sherlock Holmes feels the indicators of aging. Mitch Cullin brings back an elderly Holmes to show the reader the devastating effects of old age on the most important things in life. Holmes's very identity – defined by his intellect, his work and his relationships – suffers irreparable blows from his increasing memory loss. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Cullin's novel is set in Sussex, England, long after Holmes' retirement. The reader learns more deeply about Holmes' long-standing fascination with beekeeping. Along with the reintroduction of the bees, the reader also meets its keeper and her son. Throughout the novel, the story of Holmes' retirement is told as he struggles to remember the events that took place. Along with the underlying story, the reader experiences Holmes learning to love and care for others; a trait he seems to grasp as he gets closer to the end of his life. Cullin portrays anyone struggling with elderly symptoms through the famously publicly fascinated Sherlock Holmes. Holmes, at his peak, was considered a man with "lively and piercing" eyes as well as a "thin, hawk-like nose [which] gave its full expression in an air of alertness and decision" (Doyle, vol.1, 11). His features matched his intellect by being both sharp and striking. He was also commonly explained as having "an ignorance... as remarkable as his knowledge" due to his lack of confidence in anyone's judgment but his own (Doyle, vol.1, 12). Throughout Doyle's creation, Holmes was always standing, one of the most exciting aspects of himself to the reader. He was always one step ahead of other characters no matter the situation, which led to him having an intriguing nature about him. Sherlock's intellect was above the others, making his brain seem almost non-human compared to the others. During one of his mysteries, Holmes explains his intellect compared to a more simple-minded human by saying with "most people, if [someone describes] a sequence of events to them, they will tell you what will be the result” (André?, 117). This means that they would be able to put the events together in their minds and draw a conclusion from that information. Holmes argues that, in contrast to this, "there are some people (like him), [where] if [someone] told them a result, [they] would be able to work out from their own inner consciousness what it was." the steps that led to this. to this result” (André?, 117). By this he says that these people are able to use analytical reasoning to discover the steps that led to the resulting factor. His deductive skills were better than any other profession and he was very proud of it. Cullin, fast-forwarding the reader many years into the future, begins his story by introducing a 93-year-old Sherlock Holmes. Holmes is described as “[using] two canes, his body [remaining] inflected, and [that] the passage of the years had not dimmed his piercing gray eyes, [and his new} snow-white hair, (was) thick and long, like his beard,” creating for readers a different visual than that depicted in Sherlock’s previous adventures (Cullin, 3). As Holmes ages, he talks about losing loved ones and the impact and regret he feels from these broken relationships. He lost two dear friends within a short time of each other; "Dr. Watson (was) someone who was missing from his family...coupled with the recent loss of Mrs. Hudson," which led to what "felt like a door abruptly closing on everything that had him." shaped before,” making him feel alone in the world (Cullin, 194). The reader can see that a once arrogant man has become more humble of heart. in his hope of keeping someone around in recent years. Cullin shows how age can affect the desire for companionship and the ability to ask for help. Sherlock becomes aware of his new inabilities that somehow others around him are capable of; for example its slow pace and weak limbs. As a character, he must learn to make adjustments within his personality to help him accommodate these changes. Although these changes are significant, he is still known throughout the world as the brilliant Sherlock Holmes, which has also deteriorated his professional life. Sherlock Holmes, in Doyle's creations, has always been better than the rest. As noted above, he used his analytical and deductive skills to help solve these seemingly impossible crimes. In the stories, he is often contacted by the police force due to his ability to take the case to the further step it needs to be solved. One thing that was unique about Holmes was his memory abilities. In a psychological study of the character Sherlock, the author compares the novice to the expert. In terms of deduction, they affirm that “experts are distinguished from novices by their organization of knowledge and their long-term memory (LTM)” (André?, 111). In their example, they explain that “the superiority of an expert comes from the nature and organization of his knowledge… [and the way in which it is] acquired and reorganized in memory as expertise is acquired. develops” (André?, 111). This article helps support the fact that Holmes had a special mind compared to others around him. Sherlock Holmes was built to be a detective. Similarly, in Doyle's words, Holmes's deductive skills are "one of the peculiarities of his proud and self-reliant nature...[where he] recorded all new information very silently and precisely in his brain", remembering every little detail he encountered. the case (Doyle, 1035). Holmes' career not only defined his personality, but also gave him a place to be himself. Over the years, he lost contact with this aspect of himself due to his uncontrollable memory loss. Cullin wrote his novel as a reflection of Sherlock's scattered memory. He never writes a story in its entirety before moving on to the next plot. This gives the illusion that Sherlock is trying to trigger memories in one of the scenarios. In the film branch of this novel, Mr. Holmes, Sherlock is shown with progressive memory loss when his doctor gives him the task of making a dot in a book for every name or event he forgets over the course of a single daytime. Looking at the notebook later in the film, viewers notice that the number of dots on a page increases dramatically and quickly. Thesetwo examples help show how his memory loss was better projected to the audience. One of the main storylines involved Holmes' final case as a freelance detective. He spends the entire novel searching for clues and answers as to why he decided to retire and how, at one point, he was able to deduce clues so quickly. There is a part in the book, as Mitch Cullin stated in an interview, where Sherlock gets off the plane in Japan and realizes that forty years ago he would have picked up so much detail in his surroundings , where today he I was just admiring the beauty (“Sherlock’s”). As Holmes' memory deteriorates, he is often found shouting "I don't know" and "I have no idea" as he tries to find answers that no longer exist (Cullin, 120). The progressiveness of his symptoms and his reaction to them help to show how this loss affects his love of deduction. He can do his best, but it is shown in the novel that he is not as sharp as before. But with the loss of his memory, he began to form relationships without needing help; he would not have been able to create. In the early years of Sherlock Holmes, the detective often presented himself as a stubborn man. He was much smarter than the others, so he had difficulty interacting with them. He often made fun of people and their simplistic comments. When it came to relationships in general, he had a hard time making that connection. In "The Sign of Four", Sherlock is quoted as saying that "love is an emotional thing, and everything emotional is opposed to that true cold reason which it places above all things" (Doyle, 157). Here, Sherlock explains his lack of need for love, given that he has cold, hard reasoning in which to put his efforts. Even when Sherlock and his brother Mycroft are together in stories, there is a competitive chemistry between the two more than anything else. Sherlock must always be the best at what he does. In all of the Sherlock Holmes stories, he is seen as having only a few relationships that he approves of. These include John Watson, Mycroft and his one true love, Irene Adler. Watson and Holmes met while looking for a place to live. Upon meeting and every day after that, Holmes continued to amaze Watson. This astonishment gave Holmes a thrill that he continued to seek and which also allowed him to accept Watson and his above average, but below his own, intellect. His second known friend is also his brother, Mycroft. Mycroft and Homes look out for each other throughout the stories but are also very competitive between the two. They enjoy being together because unlike others, they are able to challenge each other mentally. Holmes' third friend or most romantic interest is Irene Adler. It is quoted in “A Scandal in Bohemia” that “to Sherlock Holmes, she was the wife” (Doyle, vol. 1, 240). He was in love with her and the way her brain worked, but due to work-related issues, the two were unable to continue developing that relationship. So, Sherlock had a few close friends but other than that, he wasn't able to develop any other strong bonds. But as he grew older, he discovered that those close relationships were all that really mattered. Holmes, in his final years, lost everyone he had in his life, including his dear friend Watson and his brother Mycroft. However, the reader is still able to see how Sherlock struggles to form any form of relationship. He has a housekeeper who lives with him, Mrs Munro, with her son Roger. The two don't tend to get along very well..