Sherlock Holmes Hikayelerinde Aile İçi Şiddet ve Boşanma

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 20. yüzyılın başında kadınların süfrajet hareketine (oy hakkı arayışına) karşı çıktığı ve eserlerinde cinsiyet kalıplarını meşrulaştırdığı için eleştirilmiştir. Ancak, erkek ve kadın için eşit olmayan İngiliz boşanma yasalarının iyileştirilmesini desteklediği düşünülürse, kadın haklarıyla ilgili görüşlerinin çelişkili olduğu söylenebilir. Bazı Sherlock Holmes hikayelerinde Viktorya dönemindeki hukuk sistemi ve sosyal düzene açıkça bulunduğu atıflarla birlikte aile, evlilik ve cinsiyet kalıplarını da önemli konular olarak inceler. Kadınların evliliklerdeki toplumsal ve yasal konumlarına, aile içi şiddet ve boşanma ile ilgili yasaların katılığına da dikkat çeker. Bu çalışma, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’ın kadın hakları ve sözü edilen yasalar ile ilgili görüşleri üzerine farklı bir bakış açısı sunmayı amaçlamaktadır. Çalışmada, boşanma ve kadına karşı şiddet konuları ele alınarak, Doyle’ın boşanma yasaları ve kadınların evliliklerdeki yasal haklarının düzenlenmesi gerektiği fikrini bazı Sherlock Holmes hikayelerinde nasıl yansıttığı incelenmektedir.

Domestic Violence and Divorce in Sherlock Holmes Stories

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has been criticized for opposing to women’s suffrage in the early twentieth century and endorsing gender stereotypes in his works. However, his views on women’s rights were contradictory due to his campaign to reform British divorce laws which were unequal for men and women. Along with obvious references to Victorian legal system and social hierarchy, he displays family, marriage, and gender stereotypes as significant subjects in some of his Sherlock Holmes stories. He draws attention to the social and legal status of women in marriages, and the severity of laws about domestic violence and divorce. This paper aims to propose a different approach to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s views on these laws and women’s rights. With its focus on the issues of divorce and violence against women in some Sherlock Holmes stories, it discusses how Doyle mirrors his defence on reform of divorce laws and women’s rights, especially in marriages.

___

  • Belsey, Catherine (1994). “Deconstructing the Text: Sherlock Holmes”. Sherlock Holmes: The Major Stories with Contemporary Critical Essays. Ed. John A. Hodgson. Boston: Bedford-St. Martin’s. 381-388.
  • Doyle, Arthur Conan (1930). The Complete Sherlock Holmes. New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc.
  • Favor, Lesli J. (2000). “The Foreign and the Female in Arthur Conan Doyle: Beneath the Candy Coating.” English Literature in Transition, 1880-1920, 43 (4): 398-409. https://www.muse.jhu.edu/article/367466.
  • Foyster, Elizabeth (2005). Marital Violence: An English Family History, 1600-1857. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Frank, Lawrence (1996). “Dreaming the Medusa: Imperialism, Primitivism, and Sexuality in Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Sign of the Four” ”. Signs: Journal of Women and Culture in Society, 2 (21): 52-85. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3175041.
  • Frost, Ginger (2008). “ ‘He Couldn’t Hold His Passion’: Domestic Violence and Cohabitation in England”. Crime, Histoire, and Sociétés / Crime, History, and Societies, 12 (1): 45-63. http://journals.openedition.org/chs/64.
  • Haynsworth, Leslie (2001). “Sensational Adventures: Sherlock Holmes and His Generic Past”. English Literature in Transition 1880-1920, 44 (4): 459-485. https://www.muse.jhu.edu/article/366592.
  • Hodgson, John A. (2010). “Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930)”. In A Companion to Crime Fiction, Ed. Charles J. Rzepka and Lee Horsley, 390-402. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
  • Lycett, Andrew (2007). Conan Doyle: The Man Who Created Sherlock Holmes. London: Wedenfield & Nichols.
  • Moon, Jina (2016). Domestic Violence in Victorian and Edwardian Fiction. Newcastle Upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
  • O’Day, Alan (1979). The Edwardian Age: Conflict and Stability 1900-1914. London and Basingstoke: The Macmillan Press Ltd.
  • Perkin, Joan (1989). Women and Marriage in Nineteenth-Century England. London: Routledge.
  • Redmond, Christopher (1984). In Bed with Sherlock Holmes: Sexual Elements in Arthur Conan Doyle’s Stories of the Great Detective. Canada: Simon & Pierre.
  • Savage, Gail L. (1983). “The Operation of the 1857 Divorce Act, 1860-1910 A Research Note”. Journal of Social History, 16 (4): 103-110. https://doi.org/10.1353/jsh/16.4.103.
  • Surridge, Lisa E. (2005). Bleak Houses: Marital Violence in Victorian Fiction. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press.