Dormant Hope and the Catalyst of Change in Sherlock Holmes: The Mare of Night

Change, when viewed from the depths of despair, often seems impossible. Yet, hope is never truly extinguished—it can exist in a dormant state, waiting for the right conditions to be revived. In Sherlock Holmes: The Mare of Night, we see this concept play out in Holmes himself: a man broken by his mind, paralyzed by hopelessness, yet unknowingly carrying within him the potential for renewal.

This phenomenon, which I call dormant hope, is central to understanding why people often feel stuck and unable to move forward. It is not that hope is gone, but instead that it is inactive, waiting for an external catalyst to reactivate it. This idea aligns with themes from Ross Ellenhorn’s How We Change, which explores how transformation frequently requires an outside force to disrupt stagnation. Holmes’s arc in the film perfectly encapsulates this principle, illustrating how even the most brilliant minds are not immune to despair—but also how despair is never a permanent state.