Professor James Moriarty only appears in two actual stories of the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's canon, specifically "The Final Problem" in 1893 and The Valley of Fear in 1914 (Part II, 128).
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| "The death of Sherlock Holmes" in "The Adventure of the Final Problem" Illustration by Sidney Paget, The Strand Magazine, December 1893, p. 558. |
Moriarty's name is first mentioned in "The Final Problem." This short story is where Holmes apparently dies in a physical fight between himself and Moriarty which ends in both geniuses falling into Reichenbach Falls. (The illustration by Signey Paget of the two battling at Reichenbach Falls is shown.)
Many of Doyle's critiques question why Moriarty's name was never mentioned prior to "The Final Problem" citing that fact that it is hard for someone to be an arch-enemy of Holmes if they have never physically met before.
But, Moriarty is the criminal version of Holmes. In this way, Moriarty acts as Holmes's doppelgänger or someone almost perfectly imitative of Holmes himself (Part II, 130). Moriarty is a mathematician who created the binomial theorem and ex-Professor. (A possible image of his book titled The Dynamics of an Asteroid and Lecture Notes is shown in the Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows movie adaptation. The image is shown.)
Like Holmes, he is an intellectual genius. This makes Moriarty Holmes's intellectual equal, which is something highly unprecedented throughout the canon with the exception of Irene Adler (or "the woman"), who was the only person to ever beat Holmes.
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| The cover of The Dynamics of an Asteroid, from Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, 2011. |
Like Holmes, he is an intellectual genius. This makes Moriarty Holmes's intellectual equal, which is something highly unprecedented throughout the canon with the exception of Irene Adler (or "the woman"), who was the only person to ever beat Holmes.
Because they are equals in the canon, it is interesting to note that the only time that Moriarty and Holmes meet ends in a physical altercation rather than an intellectual one. This is another critique of Doyle's "death" of Sherlock Holmes in "The Final Problem."
I think that the Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011) movie adaptation shows the "death" scene of Holmes at Reichbach Falls. Although the "death" scene is different than in the canon, it is interesting to watch the intellectual battle between the two while in physical battle with one another. (The link to the death scene at Reichenbach Falls is Holmes-Moriarty Death Scene.)
In contrast to the canon, many adaptations show that Moriarty is the initiator of the relationship between himself and Holmes. However, in the original canon, Moriarty only becomes involved with Holmes because Holmes starts looking into his criminal organization. In fact, Holmes tells Watson that he is willing to go into a less dangerous line of work to simply focus on his chemical experiments if he is able to tear down Moriarty and his criminal organization.
Holmes describes Moriarty by insisting that he "pervades London, and no one has heard of him. That's what puts him on a pinnacle in the records of crime. I tell you Watson, in all seriousness, that if I could beat that man, if I could free society of him, I should feel that my own career had reached its summit, and I should be prepared to turn to some more placid line in life" to Watson (Final Problem, 644).
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"He turned his rounded back upon me"in "The Adventure of the Final Problem"Illustration by Sidney Paget, The Strand Magazine,December 1893, p. 563. |
As a result of Holmes attempting to ruin Moriarty's criminal career, Moriarty attempts to use his abundance of henchmen to find Holmes and kill him before he can expose and destroy his criminal organization. (An illustration of the two by Sidney Paget is shown.)
In "The Final Problem," it seems that Holmes has already created a relationship with Moriarty through Holmes's suspicions that he is the mastermind of many undiscovered crimes.
Holmes remarks that he has "continually been conscious of some power behind the male-factor, some deep organizing power which forever stands in the way of the law, and throws its shield over the wrong-doer" (Final Problem, 645).
Because both are geniuses in their own right, the relationship between the two is very intellectual in nature. Yet, Holmes never physically meets Moriarty until Reichenbach Falls because Moriarty uses his henchmen to commit crimes while he sits and plans what to do next in order to benefit his criminal organization. As a result, Holmes's relationship to Moriarty is geared towards exposing Moriarty with evidence that Moriarty is very good at making sure he is not directly linked to. This is a quality that Holmes is very intrigued and almost awe-struck by.
Holmes speaking to Watson about Moriarty: "He is the Napoleon of crime, Watson. He is the organizer of half that is evil and of nearly all that is undetected in this great city. He is a genius, a philosopher, an abstract thinker. He has a brain of the first order. He sits motionless, like a spider in the centre of its web, but that web has a thousand radiations, and he knows well every quiver of each of them. He does little himself. He only plans" (Final Problem, 645).
Word count: 472 words (excluding the title, source citations and links, picture captions, words in parentheses, and quotes)
Works cited
Doyle, Arthur Conan. "The Final Problem." Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories Volume I. Bantam Books, New York: 1996. pp. 642-659.Doyle, Steven and Crowder, David A. Parts II: Sherlock Holmes for Dummies. Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis: 2010, pp. 83-142.
SherlockHolmesFan314. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows Final Fight Scene HD, 27 Apr. 2012. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buE_jLEZrf4&feature=youtu.be.
