Abstract

Sherlock Holmes is a fictional novel written by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, which is regarded as one of the most important detective novels in English literature. For many years, there have been countless researches about Sherlock Holmes. However, the research of Sherlock Holmes still has some new interpretations. In this thesis, an interpretation of the criminals in Sherlock Holmes will be given on the basis of Freud’s psychoanalytic theory. The analysis of the two typical types of murderers is based on Freud’s Psychoanalytical theory in this paper. The two typical types of murderers—passionate avengers motivated by love and passionate avengers motivated by jealousy and greed in Sherlock Holmes. With the employment of Freud’s theories, including the theory of unconsciousness, the structure of personality theory, and the defense mechanisms theory, the thesis aims at analyzing the depth and extent of the criminal’s mentality of each type, finding out the reason of the formation of their personality And it is firmly believed that this new interpretation of psychoanalytic will make Sherlock Holmes much more easily understood by readers.

KEYWORDS:Sherlock Holmes; Criminals; Psychoanalytic; Freud

摘　要

苏格兰作家亚瑟•柯南•道尔的侦探作品《夏洛克•福尔摩斯》被认为是英国文学当中最重要的文学作品之一。许多年来，有无数文学研究者对这部作品津津乐道。然而，对于《夏洛克•福尔摩斯》仍然有新的研究方法。本文从另一个角度来研究该作品，即从佛洛伊德心理学的角度来研究《夏洛克•福尔摩斯》中犯罪人物的心理。本文在佛洛伊德精神结构分析法的理论基础上主要分析了两大类杀人犯的心理，即因爱情而复仇的杀人犯和因自私和贪婪而复仇的杀人犯。在佛洛伊德的无意识理论、人格结构理论和自我防御机制理论的基础上，本文旨在通过对每一种罪犯的心理分析而发掘形成他们这种人格的原因，并且给研究《夏洛克•福尔摩斯》的读者提供一种新的研究方法。

关键词:夏洛克•福尔摩斯；罪犯；精神结构分析法；佛洛伊德。

1    Introduction
1.1    An Introduction of Detective Fiction
Detective fiction is almost the most widely read genre in the United Kingdom, the United States and many other countries. By reading detective fiction people can expect many pleasurable elements which can not be gained from the reality. The history of detective fiction is a long one, which could date back to ancient Greek or even more ancient time.
For the beginning of detective fiction, many scholars think that some ancient and religious texts have some similarities with detective fiction. Such as King Oedipus discovers the truth about his faith in the famous play King Oedipus and the story of Susanna and the Elders in the Old Testament, they both bear the similar characters with detective fiction. There were many detective stories in early Arabic literature and Chinese literature. The Three Apples is one story in Arabian Nights may be considered an archetype for detective fiction.