Depp as Holmes Equivalent

The main character, played by Johnny Depp, is an inspector with many parallels to Sherlock Holmes. Right from the beginning of the movie, the viewer understands that the inspector looking after the ‘Ripper’ case is an opium addict. Though not exactly the same as heroine, it is still related to the highly addictive drug which Sherlock Holmes, as we know from lecture, would use for medicinal purposes. On these opium binges, Depp’s character sees clues into murders already performed and visions of murders to come.

More importantly than this, however, the inspector uses powerful deductive reasoning to bring him to the conclusion that the Ripper murders pose as a cover up for controversy surrounding the heir to the throne after Queen Victoria. Upon arriving at the first murder scene, Depp’s character notices that there is no blood spray on the walls and that the corpse is dry even though the ground is wet. This leads him to believe that the body was murdered elsewhere and then brought out onto the streets. The inspector also notices that an empty sprig of grapes is always beside the body after it is disposed of, meaning that the killer is a member of the upper classes of society with enough money to be able to afford grapes to give to a less fortunate prostitute. In addition, Depp’s character notices that whoever has been carving up the bodies and harvesting organs has done so with surgeon like precision. It is more than likely that the person responsible is an educated person with a keen interest in human anatomy.

These clues have implications for the many examples of class divisions in the movie and will be discussed in greater detail at a later date.

On a somewhat unrelated note, Depp’s character even has a Watson-like sidekick! Though in the movie he is not a doctor as he is in the actual Sir Arthur Conan Doyle version of “A Scandal in Bohemia,” he still asks many questions which would lead the inspector to say something along the lines of “you see but you do not observe” (Doyle 1558). In addition, the constable helping Depp’s character with the Watkins-like presence mentions in the movie that Depp’s character has witch-like powers, quite similarly to when Watkins says “You would certainly have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago” (Doyle, 1558).

Works Cited:
Doyle, Arthur Conan. "A Scandal in Bohemia." The Longman Anthology of British Literature. Ed. David Damrosch and Kevin Dettmar. New York: Pearson Longman Education Inc, 2006, 1557-72.