Gil Grissom, a modern Sherlock Holmes, and their relation to C. Auguste Dupin, Poe's ideal scientist

Gil Grissom, Sherlock Holmes, and Auguste Dupin

• Main character of the TV show CSI for the first eight seasons
• Commonly referred to as Gil or Grissom on the show by his constituents
• His character has been closely linked to that of Sherlock Holmes

• Poe's ideal of the scientist according to Stephen Matterson
• Featured in several of Poe's works including "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", "The Mystery of Marie Roget", and "The Purloined Letter".

• Fictional character created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• He is famous for his astute use of logical reasoning, disguises, and forensics to solve intriguing cases

• Sherlock once speared a pig at a market to determine the strength needed for a man to shove a harpoon through a man
• Gil once wrapped a pig carcas in a blanket and left it outside for a few days to determine a timeline and convict a man of murder
• Both Gil and Sherlock are disspassionate with a fierce devotion to logic and have little regard for societal norms of behavior

Grissom/Holmes and Auguste Dupin

Dupin represents Poe's ideal scientist because he believed that intuition was necessary in spawning new ideas that would eventually lead to discovery

In "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" Dupin breaks down every aspect of the crime scene and the testimonies in order to find the truth and preserve reasoning

He uses his intuition to determine that some of the acts commited including the leap from the window to the lightning pole and the shoving of the daughter up the chimney would have to been commited by a super human

In conjuction with the fact that the gold was not taken from the scene and the accounts of every witness that speech of the second culprit was not understood, he determined that the murderer must have been an orangutan

Grissom/Holmes are the epitome of the ideal modern scientist because they base their reasonings in logic and use intuition to solve crimes

In the tenth episode of the first season of CSI, Grissom uses a pig carcas and the maturation of the lavarae inside of it to determine a timeline for the death of a woman

Originally, Grissom just laid the carcas outside and examined the lavarae which told him that the woman had been dead for four to five days before being found. The primary suspect which had all the evidence pointing towards him was out of town during those days, eliminating him as a suspect

Grissom, however went back and analyzed the situation for anything that could have caused a miscalculation in the timeline. He discovered that the woman had been wrapped in a blanket after she was killed and dumped. He reran the test on the pig with a blanket this time and determined that the woman had been dead for seven days before being found. The primary suspect was in town during that time and was arrested.

Comparison

Poe's fictional character Dupin expertly uses his intuition to deduce the truth about the murders in the Rue Morgue. Poe believes that Dupin is the ideal of the scientist because he exemplifies the imaginative leap that Poe feels is the necessary to generate new hypotheses.

Grissom and/or Holmes both represent Poe's vision of an ideal scientist. Even though Holmes and Girssom do not rely on the imagination but rather intuition as compared to Dupin, they do mirror modern versions of Poe's Dupin.

The situations in the sections above are only one example of the ways in which these fictional characters are similar, and how Grissom and Holmes represent a modern Dupin.

Contrast

Matterson states that "it is often claimed that Dupin is essentially poetic as opposed to the scientific rationality of [Arthur Conan Doyle's] Sherlock Holmes."

Matterson is probably right, nevertheless, the end result is the same. Whether it is discovered using rational thinking or imagination, the end result, which is the emergence of the truth, is the same.

Conclusion

Grissom was based off of Holmes and therefore they are practically one in the same.

Grissom/Holmes are modern representations of Poe's ideal of a scientist Dupin because in the end they all seeked the truth. Even though Poe liked Dupin because he used his imagination, he also used reasoning to solve the murders in the Rue Morgue. Therefore, Dupin is very similar to Grissom/Holmes which is contrary to Matterson's statement

Works Cited

http://www.theexpressionist.com/tag/gil-grissom/

• http://www.comp.dit.ie/dgordon/League/OtherLeagues/Singular/Holmes/Holmes.html
• http://blogs.babble.com/famecrawler/2011/01/31/csi-william-petersen-gil-grissom-return/
• http://furnitureandesign.com/furniture/lamps-furniture/sherlock-holmes-coat-hook/

Gilbert "Gil" Grissom

C. Auguste Dupin

Gil Grissom and Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes