“A Scandal in Bohemia” is about Sherlock Holmes and his incapacity to love a woman—Irene Adler. The author, Arthur Conan Doyle, shows that if there were any woman that could unbalance Holmes unbalance from the “perfect reasoning machine” (421) and act on his feelings it would be her. The ideal woman for Holmes is Irene Adler because of she is beautiful, smart, and extremely clever. First, Holmes does not notice Irene Adler’s beauty. Other …showed first 75 words of 529 total…

…showed last 75 words of 529 total…on the man. The narrator states, “When he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her photograph , it is always under the honourable title of the women” (439). If Holmes were capable of loving a woman it would have been Irene; therefore, Holmes is incapable of loving any woman. Irene Adler was the woman because there are none like her in the way of beauty, brains, smarts, and cleverness at fooling the cleverest—Holmes.