The Gestalt Shift in Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes Stories

Michael J. Crowe

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9783319982908
• eBook ISBN: 9783319982915
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism Theory
• Index: Literature

This book analyzes the four novels and fifty-six stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle describing the adventures and discoveries of Sherlock Holmes. Michael J. Crowe suggests that nearly all the Holmes stories exhibit the pattern known as a Gestalt shift, in which suddenly Holmes's efforts reveal a new perspective on the case, typically identifying the culprit(s) and resolving the case. Drawing on ideas presented by Thomas S. Kuhn in his famous Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), Crowe argues that similar to the way that Kuhn applied the idea of a Gestalt shift to the history of science, this approach can be used to reveal the structure of the Holmes stories and possibly be applied to some other areas of fiction.

© The Author(s) 2018

Michael J. CroweThe Gestalt Shift in Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes Storieshttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98291-5_1

Begin Abstract

1. Introduction

Michael J. Crowe¹

(1)

University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, USA

Michael J. Crowe

End Abstract

Goal of This Book

What makes the Sherlock Holmes stories so dramatic and engaging? This book offers an explanation of these effects in terms of the idea of a Gestalt shift or switch.¹ Gestalt is a German word meaning form or shape or configuration. A Gestalt shift happens when one first experiences an image or entity in one way and then in a quite different way. A famous example of such a shift is the duck/rabbit Gestalt shift.²

In looking at this image, one sometimes sees it as a rabbit, but then it turns into a duck. This remarkable ambiguity makes Gestalts and Gestalt shifts important in a number of ways, as we shall see. The word Gestalt is increasingly common in English. If one sees a silhouette composed of a human head with a deerstalker hat atop it and a pipe hanging from the mouth area, one readily recognizes it as a “Holmes Gestalt.” Hundreds , perhaps thousands, of copies of this Gestalt adorn the Baker Street tube stop in London.

Part One: Gestalt Figures and Gestalt Shifts

We shall begin by examining a few Gestalt figures and Gestalt shifts. The first diagram represents a Necker Cube.

Is it a box pointing up and to the right or a box pointing down and to the left? Note that one cannot see both perspectives simultaneously. Or possibly you see twelve lines on a planar surface. Similarly, in the Rubin Vase, you can see either two faces or a chalice, but not both simultaneously).³

Typically, in Gestalts, the two or more sights are quite different; for example, a chalice is very different from two faces. Note that although it may take some time to see what is represented in a Gestalt diagram, one typically sees it suddenly—and it may disappear suddenly. Discussions of the Rubin Vase frequently distinguish between the ground and the figure. In this case, the figure consists of the two faces, whereas the dark area is the ground. What is meant by a Gestalt shift is the shift between the two or more images seen on the page.

My thesis is that in a large number of Arthur Conan Doyle’s sixty Sherlock Holmes stories one can detect one or more patterns that correspond to a Gestalt shift. Moreover, I will claim that the dramatic character of many of these stories results from the reader having an experience comparable to what one experiences in a Gestalt shift. I shall also claim that analyzing the stories in this manner provides a deeper understanding of their dramatic structure and effect. I do not claim that Doyle was aware of Gestalt figures or Gestalt shifts, at least in the ways that contemporary psychologists are aware of them.

Verbal Gestalt Shifts

The Gestalt experience or Gestalt shift can also occur in regard to verbal expressions, including jokes. Some examples: Think of the story of the panda that walked into a bar, ate his lunch, pulled out a gun, began shooting, and then left. When confronted by the police, the panda explained that he was just doing what the encyclopedia article on pandas directed. It said that a “Panda eats shoots and leaves.”⁴ Lowly commas are important, and can save lives: compare “Let’s eat, grandma” with “Let’s eat grandma.” These sentences are very similar; their meanings are very different. Or consider these three headlines: “Teacher Strikes Idle Students,” or “British Left Waffles on Falkland Islands,” or “The President Wins on Budget, but More Lies Ahead.” Or think of the story of the missionary who was very pleased by the natives wanting to have him for dinner, until he remembered they were cannibals. Note that as you go back and forth between the two readings, nouns may turn into verbs and vice versa.

Admittedly, these examples are all quite short. Visual Gestalts take up more space. Are larger verbal Gestalt shifts possible? A student once delighted me by presenting a paper similar to what follows. Hint: You do not need to know a word of Greek to read the following selection; you do, however, need to be familiar with the Greek alphabet and be acquainted with Sherlockian writings. Can you determine what the next paragraph says?

Ιν τηε ψεαρ 1878 Ι τοοκ μψ δεγρεε οϕ Δοχτορ οϕ Μεδιχινε οϕ τηε Υνιϖερσιτψ οϕ Λονδον, ανδ προχεεδεδ το Νετλεψ το γο τηρουγη τηε χουρσε πρεσχριβεδ ϕορ συργεονσ ιν τηε αρμψ. Ηαϖινγ χομπλετεδ μψ στυδιεσ τηερε, Ι ωασ δυλψ ατταχηεδ το τηε Φιϕτη Νορτηυμβερλανδ Φυσιλιερσ ασ Ασσισταντ Συργεον. Τηε ρεγιμεντ ωασ στατιονεδ ιν Ινδια ατ τηε τιμε, ανδ βεϕορε Ι χουλδφοιν ιτ, τηε σεχονδ Αϕγηαν ωαρ ηαδ βροκεν ουτ. Ον λανδινγ ατ Βομβαψ, Ι λεαρνεδ τηατ μψ χορπσ ηαδ αδϖανχεδ τηρουγη τηε πασσεσ, ανδ ωασ αλρεαδψ δεεπ ιν τηε ενεμψ∋σ χουντρψ. Ι ϕολλοωεδ, ηοωεϖερ, ωιτη μανψ οτηερ οϕϕιχερσ ωηο ωερε ιν τηε σαμε σιτυατιον ασ μψσελϕ, ανδ συχχεεδεδ ιν ρεαχηινγ Χανδαηαρ ιν σαϕετψ, ωηερε Ι ϕουνδ μψ ρεγιμεντ, ανδ ατ ονχε εντερεδ υπον μψ νεω δυτιεσ.

If you have succeeded in reading this paragraph, it seems probable that you puzzled over it for a period, possibly looked at a table matching up Greek and English letters, and then suddenly saw it as the opening lines of Doyle’s A Study in Scarlet. Moreover, having managed this paragraph, you are able to supply the next paragraph, and hundreds more paragraphs if you wish. If still puzzled, see the information in the footnote that follows this sentence.⁵

More on Verbal Gestalt Shifts⁶

Cambridge University scholars have developed some new results on verbal Gestalts. Try reading the following passage:

7H15 M3554G3 53RV35 7O PR0V3 H0W 0UR M1ND5 C4N D0 4M4Z1NG 7H1NG5! 1MPR3551V3 7H1NG5! 1N 7H3 B3G1NN1NG17 WA5 H4RD BU7 N0W, 0N 7H15 LIN3 Y0UR M1ND1S R34D1NG 174U70M471C4LLY W17H0U7 3V3N 7H1NK1NG 4B0U7 17.⁷

This may explain your success or absence thereof in reading verbal Gestalts such as the one below.

it dseno’t mtaetr in what oerdr the ltteres in a word are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is that the frsit and last ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can still raed it whotuit a pboerlm. This is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the word as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? Yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

Note the following:

• We do not always see what is really there.
• As in the preceding examples, the BRAIN corrects for errors.
• We want things to fit together in a recognized pattern.
• We see what we think we should see.⁸

Classes of Gestalt Shifts

Many kinds of Gestalt shifts exist. Considering some of these will both illustrate what constitutes a Gestalt shift and suggest how varied, even in form, Gestalt shifts can be.

Similarly, one can imagine a detective story that presents readers with an apparently chaotic array of clues but eventually the detective puts them in a comprehensible order. We can recognize a visual version of this pattern by considering the Dalmatian diagram (Fig. 1.1).

Fig. 1.1

Dalmatian Gestalt.

At first it appears as chaos, but then one detects the image of a Dalmatian.

Examples of the Bipolar Shift

Bipolar shifts are very common. In these cases, one moves from one image to another. A person cannot recognize two distinct images simultaneously. The Rubin Vase Gestalt shown earlier is of this type. We can see either a chalice or two people face to face. Note that we cannot simultaneously see both the chalice and the two faces. What we see are two wholes: One sees the chalice, but then two faces. One does not see a face on the left, and half a chalice on the right.

Another example of a bipolar Gestalt shift emerges from the next image, which has been named the Boring Figure⁹ because it was analyzed in 1930 by the prominent psychologist Edwin G. Boring of Harvard (Fig. 1.2).

Fig. 1.2

Boring Figure.

Persons sometimes see a young woman looking away; then she exits and the person sees an older lady, chin downward, and looking parallel to the plane of the paper. A small circle serves as the left ear of the young woman, whereas it is the left eye of the other woman. What appears as a necklace for the younger woman is the mouth of the more senior woman. It is not vital that the reader succeed in seeing all these Gestalts as multifaceted, but if one is to follow the claims later to be made, it is important to have struggled and sometimes succeeded at seeing these images as Gestalts.

The duck/rabbit shift, which dates back to the nineteenth century, has become well known not only to psychologists but also to philosophers. As will be shown later, it has had a long history and a surprisingly large influence. One can see either a duck looking to the left or a rabbit looking to the right.¹⁴ Note that once you see the rabbit, you will probably notice the rabbit’s mouth, which is nearly invisible when you are examining the duck.

Triple and Multiform Shifts

The Necker Cube (see p. 3) is an ideal image to show that ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Introduction
• 2. The Four Holmes Novels
• 3.  The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892)
• 4. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894)
• 5. The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1905)
• 6. His Last Bow (1917)
• 7.  The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (1927)
• 8. Conclusion: The Sixty Holmes Stories
• Back Matter