I. The Observant Mr. Holmes

II. Unmasking the King of Bohemia

III. Holmes is Outsmarted

I: The Observant Mr. Holmes

In the opening scene of most Sherlock Holmes stories, there is a short exchange between him and Dr. Watson in which the detective's powers of deduction and observation are displayed. Such exchanges are used to establish the detective's special talents of observation and deduction, particularly for new readers, as well as to suggest the roles played by Holmes and Dr. Watson, who is a good narrator but a poor detective himself. In "A Scandal in Bohemia," the object of such an exchange is Watson himself, as Holmes draws conclusions about the doctor's life since they parted company in their last adventure, purely on the basis of Watson's appearance:

1. Watson has gained weight. There's nothing much remarkable in noticing that an old friend has gained weight, though Holmes apparently guesses the amount gained exactly--we're to understand that Watson's quibble over the half-pound is just embarrassment or vanity on the doctor's part.
2. He has started working ("gone into harness") again. Watson is more surprised that Holmes knows, without being told, that he has begun practicing medicine again. (He used to be a medical officer in the British Army.) Holmes has reached this conclusion based on three observations: Watson gives off the smell of one medicinal substance, has a smudge of another on his finger, and (perhaps most convincingly) has a stethoscope crammed into his hat.
3. He has been getting himself "very wet lately." Watson's shoe shows signs of being cleaned, and Holmes assumes that it must have been cleaned of mud, showing the doctor was at least shoe-deep in a wet environment.
4. And he employs "a most clumsy and careless servant girl." The shoe-cleaning has been done badly, leaving scars where mud was scraped off. Such mud was fact of everyday life a hundred years ago, even in London, and it was the job of domestic servants to clean up shoes and boots, so Holmes assumes Watson's shoes were cleaned by such a servant, and (because of the scars) that she was rather careless in her work.

II: Unmasking the King of Bohemia

Having put Watson in his place with "You see, but you do not observe," Holmes turns to the task at hand, which has to do with a letter he has received. The quality of the paper, its watermark, and the syntax of its message all suggest it came from a wealthy, German-speaking individual from Bohemia (the area around Prague). That wealth is again suggested by the quality of the man's transportation, when he arrives, and by his dress. Based on these and other details, Holmes concludes (before being told) that the man has given them a false name, and that he is himself the King of Bohemia. Holmes therefore calls him as "your Majesty," a form of address used only for ruling monarchs, which surprises the visitor into admitting the truth.

The case turns out to be little more than a domestic problem--the King has had an affair with a woman, which might embarrass him were it to come out now that he is about to be married. She has incontrovertible evidence--in a time when a photo could not be easily faked--in the form of a photograph of the two of them. In the nineteenth century, a woman performer of any kind, even an opera singer, was thought to be of dubious morals, so Irene Adler represents a double threat to the king: the revelation of an affair with such a woman would be a greater embarrassment to someone in the king's position, and her threat to reveal the affair seems to come from base motives. That revelation might indeed have caused a scandal in Bohemia--the title of the story misleadingly suggests that a scandal results--but this sort of sensationalism seems more suited to a tabloid headline than a Sherlock Holmes adventure.

III. Holmes is Outsmarted

Having taken the case, Holmes disguises himself, first to gain information about Irene Adler from the "ostlers," or stable workers, who care for the horses of those in the neighborhood, and then to gain access to her house, dressed as a minister. Once inside the house, he causes a false alarm about a fire, reasoning that--since "women are naturally secretive, and they like to do their own secreting"--Irene has hidden the photograph somewhere in her house, and will retrieve it immediately, as her most valuable possession, if she thinks there is a fire. All goes as planned, or so Holmes thinks, but when he shows up with the King the next morning to take the photography, it and Irene Adler have already left the country. The King is far from disappointed, however. He trusts Irene's promise not to reveal their affair, thanks Holmes for his efforts, and offers whatever reward the detective might want. But Holmes only asks for the photograph of Irene Adler that she has left behind, and the story ends with Holmes feeling "beaten by a woman's wit."

In some ways, of course, the entire story is objectionable. The condescending attitude toward women displayed by all the male characters is not really reversed by Holmes's comeuppance at the end--his defeat is more of a curiosity than a corrective to the paternalistic attitudes toward women that form the basis of the story. And yet, had Holmes only followed his own advice, things might have turned out better for him. Earlier in the story, he tells Watson:

It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.