Coolie (The Dying Detective)
In “The Dying Detective” the titular figure is Sherlock Holmes who is faking a fatal disease in a rather spectacular plot to entrap his prey. The cover story is that while investigating on the docks among Asian sailors, Holmes contracted “a coolie disease from Sumatra.” The word “coolie” had originally been applied to any unskilled person from Asia hired for manual labor, but by this usage it had been transformed into an immediately recognized symbol for untrustworthy and potential criminal Asian immigrants. Generally, speaking, Doyle did not tend to adhere to conventional racial prejudices of the time and this engagement of coolie as a symbol is likely intended to be an expression of the easy acceptance of such biases by the general reading public rather than as an actual expression of racism on the part of the author.
The Severed Ears (The Cardboard Box)
The severed ears which arrive in “The Cardboard Box” are probably the most assertively obvious symbols in the collection; perhaps in the entire Holmes canon. The ears belong to Mary, the wife of James Browner and Alec Fairbairn, the man he was talked into believing Mary was having an affair with by Mary’s devilish sister. The ears are thus symbols of the sister’s “meddling” on a specific level and of the danger of listening to gossip and acting upon that gossip without confirming the truth.
Von Bork
Von Bork is not just an individual German spy outwitted by an aging Holmes in his final document case. Von Bork is the symbol of Germanic feelings of superiority and the threat their nationalism and imperialist aims present to England. Anti-German sentiment was already fomenting throughout British society as their European neighbor began showing signs once again of rising to a warlike pitch and when Doyle has Von Bork assert about the English people that “They are not very hard to deceive. A more docile, simple folk could not be imagined,” he is purposely attempting to make Von Bork something larger than a mere character in a story published a few years after it was, by which time the east wind had turned into a gust.
The East Wind
"His Last Bow" ends with the successful capture of Von Bork before he can escape back to Germany with his useful information gained through espionage. Holmes and Watson are returning to their car while Von Bork struggles against bondage. Holmes looks toward the sea and says “There’s an east wind coming, Watson.” Watson—ever the literal companion—disagrees by observing the wind is quite warm. Holmes, of course, is referring to a symbolic breeze; the chilly future of German aggression.
Leon Sterndale
The African explorer and lion-hunter who turns out to be another of the killers that Holmes allows to go unpunished by the law in his commitment to serve justice is very much a symbolic representation of British colonialism. He has an esteemed reputation and is larger than life and is thought of as a good man, but he is presented as a rather menacing figure hiding secrets and mysteries the sum of whom may be more respectable than certain individual parts. Sterndale is a paradox and ambiguous; a man who has done good, but is capable of villainy. He is one of the canon’s embodiments of British colonialism.
Wisteria
Wisteria is a powerful creeping, climbing vine capable of bringing down structures given enough time. Its symbolic meaning in the Victorian language of flowers was simple and direct: “I cling to thee.” The message is simple and direct as well. Wisteria is capable of spreading over even the sturdiest of structures—like proper British society—and destroying it. The wisteria that was the former Tiger of San Pedro became lodged in this society and threatened to bring it crashing down until the evil—Don Murillo—was cut loose and forced to look elsewhere to spread his infestation of evil.
