PROFESSOR MORIARTY

'Professor James Moriarty' is a fictional character who is the best known antagonist (and archenemy) of the detective Sherlock Holmes. Widely considered to be the first true example of a supervillain, Moriarty is a criminal mastermind, described by Holmes as the "Napoleon of Crime". (T. S. Eliot would later use the same phrase, in homage, to describe Macavity in ''Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats''.) Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, lifted the phrase from a real Scotland Yard inspector who was referring to Adam Worth, a true-life (though non-violent) model for Moriarty.

Contents

Appearance in Doyle's fiction

Simon Newcomb and other real world role models

Moriarty's family

Moriarty in popular culture

References

See also

External links

Appearance in Doyle's fiction

Professor Moriarty first appeared in Conan Doyle's tale ''The Final Problem'', in which Holmes, on the verge of delivering a fatal blow to Moriarty's criminal organization, is forced to flee to the Continent to escape Moriarty's retribution. Moriarty follows, and the two apparently fall to their deaths whilst locked in mortal combat atop the Reichenbach Falls. During this story, Moriarty is something of a Mafia Godfather; he protects nearly all of the criminals of England in exchange for their obedience and a share in their profits. Holmes, by his own account, was originally led to Moriarty by the suggestion that many of the crimes he perceived were not the spontaneous work of random criminals, but the machinations of a vast and subtle criminal ring.
Moriarty plays a role in only one other of Conan Doyle's Holmes stories: ''The Valley of Fear'', which was set before ''The Final Problem'', but published afterwards. In ''The Valley of Fear'', Holmes attempts to prevent Moriarty's agents from committing a murder. Moriarty does not meet Holmes, but sends him a note of commiseration at the end. In an episode where Moriarty is interviewed by a policeman, a painting is described as hanging on the wall; its title, "La Jeune a l'Agneau" translated to "The young one has the lamb" is a witty pun upon the name of Thomas Agnew of the gallery Thomas Agnew and Sons, who had a famous painting stolen by Adam Worth, but was unable to prove the fact.
Holmes mentions Moriarty reminiscently in five other stories: ''The Empty House'', ''The Norwood Builder'', ''The Missing Three-Quarter'', ''The Illustrious Client'', and ''His Last Bow''. More obliquely, a 1908 mystery by Doyle, ''The Lost Special'', features a criminal genius who could be Moriarty (and a detective who could be Holmes), although neither are mentioned by name.
Although Moriarty only appeared in two of the sixty Sherlock Holmes tales by Conan Doyle, Holmes's attitude to him in those two stories has gained him the popular impression of being Holmes's nemesis, and he has been frequently used in later stories by other authors, parodies, and in other media. In fact, among casual Holmes fans it is commonly assumed that the real overall plot arc of the Holmes stories is the war that the detective wages with Moriarty, who oversees the crimes that Holmes foils.
In the Conan Doyle stories, narrated by Holmes's assistant Dr. Watson, Watson never meets Moriarty (only getting distant glimpses of him in "The Final Problem"), and relies upon Holmes to relate accounts of the detective's battle with the criminal.
In stories by other writers, Watson has encountered Moriarty more often.
Conan Doyle himself is inconsistent on Watson's familiarity with Moriarty. In "The Final Problem", Watson tells Holmes he has never heard of Moriarty. But in ''The Valley of Fear'', set earlier on, Watson already knows of him as 'the famous scientific criminal'.
Moriarty's weapon of choice was the "air-rifle", a unique weapon constructed for the Professor by a blind German mechanic, von Herder, and used by his employee Colonel Sebastian Moran. It closely resembled a cane, allowing for easy concealment, and made very little noise when fired, making it ideal for sniping; the weapon became infamous for being Moriarty's favorite tool.
Holmes described Moriarty as follows:
Holmes also states that Moriarty has written the book ''The Dynamics of an Asteroid'', describing it as "a book which ascends to such rarefied heights of pure mathematics that it is said that there was no man in the scientific press capable of criticising it".
Doyle's original motive in creating Moriarty was evidently his intention to kill Holmes off. As is well known, "The Final Problem" was intended to be exactly what its name says; Doyle sought to sweeten the pill a little bit by letting Holmes go in a blaze of glory, having rid the world of a criminal so powerful and dangerous that any further task would be trivial in comparison (as Holmes says in the story itself). Moriarty only appeared in one book because, quite simply, having him constantly escape would discredit Holmes, and would be less satisfying. ''Valley of Fear'' changes this.
Eventually, public pressure forced Doyle to bring Holmes back, but the literary subgenre of the supervillain was already irrevocably launched to influence countless later writers.
A point of interest is that the "high, domed forehead" was seen as the sign of a prodigious intellect during Conan Doyle's time. In giving Moriarty this trait, which had already appeared in both Sherlock Holmes and the detective's brother Mycroft, Conan Doyle may have intended to portray Moriarty as a man having an intellect equal or greater than that of Holmes– thus as the only man capable of defeating him.

Simon Newcomb and other real world role models

In addition to the master criminal Adam Worth, there has been much speculation^[1] among astronomers and Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts that Doyle based his fictional character Moriarty on the American astronomer Simon Newcomb. Newcomb was certainly a multi-talented genius, with a special mastery of mathematics, and he had become internationally famous in the years before Doyle began writing his stories. More pointedly, Newcomb had earned a reputation for spite and malice, apparently seeking to destroy the careers and reputations of rival scientists.
Professor Moriarty's reputed feats might also have been inspired by the accomplishments of real world mathematicians. If the names of the papers are reversed, they describe real mathematical events. Carl Friedrich Gauss wrote a famous paper on the dynamics of an asteroid^[2] in his early 20s, which certainly had a European vogue, and was appointed to a chair partly on the strength of this result. Srinivasa Ramanujan wrote about generalizations of the binomial theorem, and earned a reputation as a genius by writing articles that confounded the best extant mathematicians. Gauss's story was well known in Doyle's time, and Ramanujan's story unfolded at Cambridge from early 1913 to mid 1914^[3] The Valley of Fear, which contains the comment about maths so abstruse that no-one could criticise it, was published in September 1914.
Des MacHale, in his George Boole : his life and work (1985, Boole Press)
suggests that George Boole may have been a model for Moriarty.
The model which Conan Doyle himself mentions (through Sherlock Holmes) in "The Valley of Fear" is the London arch-criminal of the eighteenth century, Jonathan Wild. He mentions this when seeking to compare Moriarty to a real-world character that Inspector Alec MacDonald might know, but it is in vain as MacDonald is not so well read as Holmes.

Moriarty's family

The stories give a number of indications about the Professor's family, some seemingly contradictory.
In ''The Valley of Fear'', Holmes says of him: "He is unmarried. His younger brother is a station master in the west of England." In ''The Final Problem'', Watson refers to "the recent letters in which Colonel James Moriarty defends the memory of his brother."
In neither story are we told the Professor's own first name; it is only in ''The Empty House'' that Holmes refers to Professor James Moriarty.
In his play, William Gillette gives his Moriarty the Christian name "Robert".
The question of how many Moriarty brothers this makes, and which of them is called James, has provided much amusement for Sherlock Holmes fans in the years since the stories were first published.

Moriarty in popular culture

★ Henry Daniell appaeared as Professor Moriarty in The Woman in Green.

★ In a 2006 comic book story featuring Lee Falk's ''The Phantom'', the 19th Phantom has to fight Professor Moriarty. The climax of the story features the Phantom and Moriarty falling down a waterfall in the Bangalla jungles. At the end of the story, Moriarty is shown to be alive, as he returns to London to find "a detective named Sherlock Holmes".


★ Moriarty has been cited as an inspiration for The Master, a villain from the well-known BBC television programme, ''Doctor Who''.

★ The arch-villain in the Canadian television programme, The Adventures of Shirley Holmes is a teenage criminal mastermind named Molly Hardy.

★ In Nicholas Meyer's 1976 novel ''The Seven-Per-Cent Solution'', Professor Moriarty is portrayed as Holmes's childhood mathematics tutor, a whining little man with a guilty secret. He is incensed to hear that Holmes, apparently under the influence of cocaine, has depicted him as a criminal mastermind. Because of Holmes' worsening condition, and Moriarty's threats to tell the authorities about Holmes' addiction, Dr. Watson seeks the help of Sigmund Freud, who uncovers the truth behind Holmes' perception of "the Napoleon of Crime". This is one of many works to seize on the fact that Moriarty never actually shows his face in the Holmes canon. The novel ''The Seven-Per-Cent Solution'' was made into a 1976 film and starred Lord Laurence Olivier as Professor Moriarty.

★ Michael Kurland has written a series of novels in which Moriarty is the hero: His organisation of crime is the method by which he raises the money required for his experimental physics apparatus. In the first book of the series, ''The Infernal Device'', he foils a plot against Queen Victoria, reluctantly allying with Sherlock Holmes.

★ John Gardner has writtern two novels featuring the arch-villain, ''The Return of Moriarty'', in which the Professor, like Holmes, is shown to have survived the meeting at the Reichenbach, and ''The Revenge of Moriarty''. In these two novels, Moriarty is depicted as a Victorian-era Al Capone or Don Corleone, single-handedly controlling London's organized crime structure. Originally planned as a trilogy, the third book has never been published, but there have been indications, since Gardner's death on 7 August 2007, that it may appear posthumously.


★ A computer simulation of Professor Moriarty, played by actor Daniel Davis, appeared in the '' episodes "Elementary, Dear Data" and "Ship in a Bottle". For a bet, Data, posing as Holmes on the holodeck, proposed to solve a Holmes-style mystery, but when Geordi La Forge asked the computer create a foe, he requested one "capable of defeating ''Data''" (as opposed to Holmes). The computer gave Moriarty self-awareness and the ability to manipulate the holodeck's controls. In doing so, Moriarty seized control of the ''Starship Enterprise'', but was convinced to release control and be stored in the ship's memory when he learned that he could not leave the holodeck. Freed from the ship's memory in the latter episode, he again took over the ''Enterprise''. Trapping Picard, Data and Lieutenant Barclay in a holographic duplicate of the ship, Moriarty blackmailed the crew into figuring out a way of allowing him to leave the ship with his mistress Countess Regina Bartholomew. However, the three trapped crewmembers programmed the holodeck on the false holographic Enterprise to create a holographic simulation of the outside world, leaving Moriarty and the Countess unwittingly stored in a memory module.

★ A parody of the ''Star Trek'' incidents can also be found in the cartoon show Futurama, in the episode Kif Gets Knocked Up a Notch, when Kif comments that their "holo shed" can sometimes malfunction and make the creations real. This includes Moriarty amongst fellow 'most evil people', Attila the Hun, Jack the Ripper and "Evil Lincoln".

★ Moriarty was played by George Zucco in ''The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes'', starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, in 1939. Moriarty appeared in two of the Rathbone/Bruce Sherlock Holmes films which were made at Universal Studios between 1942 and 1946, in each one played by a different actor: Lionel Atwill and Henry Daniell.

★ The 1985 film ''Young Sherlock Holmes'' presented a character who was nemesis to schoolboy Sherlock Holmes. The man's name was Ehtar, and he was a vengeful Egyptian who sought justice for the lost lives of his small village, which was burned to the ground by the British Army some years before. He had amassed a secret army of followers among the riffraff of London society, had built a huge underground temple, and performed rituals to mummify five London maidens, to replace the mummies of five Egyptian princesses which had been, in his estimation, stolen from an archaeological find in his village. It is revealed that Ehtar was the real identity of Holmes's trusted professor, Rathe, a man he considered to be one of his mentors. Ehtar shot and killed Holmes's love, driving Holmes into a killing rage. After their climactic sword duel on the frozen Thames, Holmes assumed that Ehtar had been swallowed between ice floes, never to be seen again. However, during the end credits, a man traveling by sleigh is followed, culminating in his arrival at an inn. After the credits, he signs the guest register as "Moriarty," and his face is shown -- Ehtar/Rathe. He was played by Anthony Higgins.


★ The 1988 comedy ''Without a Clue'', revolving around the premise that Holmes is a fictional creation of Watson's, and Watson is the real crime solving genius, featured Moriarty as the main villain. Played by Paul Freeman, Moriarty steals the printing plates for the five pound note from the Royal Mint and kidnaps printing supervisor Peter Giles to help him print his own counterfeit money, hiding out in the abandoned Orpheum Theater. This version of Moriarty is depicted as being very clever and dangerous, weaving a complicated plot to undermine the economy of England: he steals paper from a paper mill, burning the place to the ground to cover the theft, smuggling ink in from Germany, and hiring thieves to break into the Royal Gallery in order to throw Watson off the scent. When Watson and Holmes do take the case, Moriarty sends Sebastian Moran to kill them. However Moran fails and Moriarty is ultimately killed when a fire is started in his theater hideout that overheats the gas mains and causes them to explode during the film's climactic action sequence.

★ Moriarty appeared in Alan Moore's ''The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'': having survived his final encounter with Sherlock Holmes he went on to become the head of British Intelligence under the code-name "M" (a nod to the James Bond novels and films). He instigated the creation of the League as a covert ops unit with plausible deniability. Following his supposed death (indicated, but not clearly portrayed, as he "falls" into the sky, due to the anti-gravity mineral, cavorite) in the midst of a gang war with Fu Manchu, he was succeeded as "M" by Mycroft Holmes. This depiction of Moriarty would appear to be somewhat homophobic. He calls Holmes a "sodomite" and dismissively refers to Mina Murray as a "smelly little lesbian". The film of ''The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'' also included Moriarty, but with a more supervillain-style take on the character. Based on the time-honored "disfigured villain under the mask" theme (such as the French characters Fantômas and the Phantom of the Opera, or the Marvel Comics character Dr Doom), Moriarty disguises himself with a silver mask and face paint, giving him the appearance of having been badly wounded in a fire of some kind. His identity was eventually exposed and, after a fight with Allan Quatermain, he was shot by Tom Sawyer when he tried to escape in a stolen submarine. His briefcase contents - the secrets he had stolen from the League - fall to the frozen depths of the lake, never to be seen again. He was played by Richard Roxburgh.

★ In the 1986 Disney animated film ''The Great Mouse Detective'', the villain, Professor Ratigan, played the Moriarty role opposite Basil of Baker Street in the Holmes role. In the film's climax, Basil and Ratigan do battle on the top of Big Ben in an homage to the ending of "The Final Problem"; both fall off the clocktower, but unlike the story only Ratigan dies.

★ In Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Cats, the villain Macavity is obviously a parody to Moriarty. Also, his personality is similar to the one Moriarty has. In the book of T.S.Eliot, ''Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats'', from where the character was taken from, Macavity is called "The Napoleon of Crime", which is the nickname of Moriarty also.

★ The Darkwing Duck TV series (1991-1993) featured a mole-themed villain named Professor Moliarty, an obvious parody/homage.

★ The 1950s radio comedy the Goon show had, as one of its principal characters, an incompetent 'Criminal Mastermind' named Count Jim Moriarty.

★ The PC game ''Eagle Eye Mysteries'' features a character named Mark Moriarty - he is a high school student who is at the heart of many of the mysteries the player has to solve. In one mystery, on the subject of Sherlock Holmes, he actually mentions that he has the same name as Holmes' nemesis.

★ In the Spider-Man (1994 animated series) it is revealed via flashback that Wilson Fisk's real last name is Moriarty.

★ Also in the Spider-Man animated series episode "The Sting Of The Scorpion", Spider-Man says that "Jameson saving me is like Moriarty saving Sherlock Holmes."

★ In the second season episode ''No Reason'' of House, House is shot by a man named Jack Moriarty. The television show contains many other similarities between its titular character and the famous detective.

★ In Neil Gaiman's short story "A Study in Emerald", Moriarty and Holmes reverse roles. Moriarty (who, though never named as such in the story, is identified as the author of ''Dynamics of an Asteroid'') is hired to investigate a murder. The murder has apparently been carried out by Sherlock Holmes (who signs his name Rache, an allusion to Doyle's first novella starring Holmes and Watson, ''A Study in Scarlet'', in which the word ''Rache'' — German for ''revenge'' — is found written above the body of a murder victim) and Dr. Watson. The story is narrated by Colonel Sebastian Moran, given the rank of Major (Ret.) by Gaiman.

★ Moriarty was also seen in PC game Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened, in which Moriarty has survived the falls of Reichenbach and is in weak condition in a mental hospital.

★ A similar character appeared in the Solar Pons series, which was a pastiche of the Sherlock Holmes stories. The Moriarty figure was Baron Knoll, a German spy and a socialite who appeared in only two stories (much like Moriarty).

References

1. Schaefer, B. E., 1993, Sherlock Holmes and some astronomical connections, Journal of the British Astronomical Association, vol.103, no.1, p.30-34. For a summary of this point, see this New Scientist Article, also from 1993.
2. Donald Teets, Karen Whitehead, 1999, ''The Discovery of Ceres: How Gauss Became Famous'', Mathematics Magazine, Vol. 72, No. 2 (Apr., 1999), pp. 83-93
3. See, for example, the book by Kanigel, The Man Who Knew Infinity

See also

External links

★ The Final Problem - in easy to read HTML format.

★ The Valley of Fear - in easy to read HTML format.

★ Sherlock Holmes Public Library