Dr. John H. Watson

Strongly built, of a stature slightly above average, with a square jaw, thick neck and thick moustache. John Watson is intelligent, but lacks Holmes’s insight, which serves as a perfect foil for Holmes: the archetypal gentleman against the brilliant, emotionally detached analytical machine. Furthermore, he is considered an excellent doctor and surgeon.

Watson is Sherlock Holmes’s friend, assistant and sometime flatmate. He is astute, although he can never match his friend’s deductive skills.

Watson is well aware of both the limits of his abilities and Holmes’s reliance on him:

Watson sometimes attempts to solve crimes on his own, using Holmes’s methods. However, because he is not endowed with Holmes’s almost-superhuman ability to focus on the essential details of the case and Holmes’s extraordinary range of recondite, specialised knowledge.

Watson never masters Holmes’s deductive methods, but is astute enough to follow his friend’s reasoning after the fact.

Watson is also very discreet in character with a strong sense of honour. Despite his frequent expressions of admiration and friendship for Holmes, the many stresses and strains of living and working with the detective make themselves evident in Watson’s occasional harshness of character. He is most critical about Holmes’s drug habits.