The Adventure of the Speckled Band Essay Example for Free

The Adventure of the Speckled Band   Essay This passage is very strange since it is a comedy scene in a very serious situation. It is in contrast to the rest of the story and may have been used to give light relief to the reader following the tense episodes before.  Towards the end of the story, the writer takes us inside the mind of anarchist. Showing us how he feels triumphant and more powerful than any anarchist before, how he has now become infamous.  How brilliantly he had planned it, forged the letter of introduction, and got into the laboratory, and how brilliantly he had seized his opportunity! The world should hear of him at last. All those people who had sneered at him, neglected him, preferred other people to him, found his company undesirable, should consider him at last. This is ironic because, as he is getting more and more confident about being famous, the tube containing Cholera breaks on him. The anarchist knows that he will now be the first to die and that he now cannot kill anyone else as he had hoped. The mood changes as the anarchist is no longer feeling triumphant but depressed until he realises that if he drinks the tiny drops left that he will be the first to die but will also be a martyr to his cause. He jumps out of his cab and begins to brush himself against on as many people as he can, hoping to spread the disease. The end of the story is very ironic and has a twist which we also saw in Napoleon and the Spectre. The germ that the Anarchist stole was not a germ at all, he had stole the bacteriologists formula to turn monkey, kittens and puppies blue. He only told the anarchist it was Cholera to impress him. The bacteriologist yelled blue ruin when the anarchist had taken it because that was the name of the formula, and he chased after him because it would have been too much trouble to make another batch.  In conclusion, I thought this story was good; it had sudden mood changes which made it interesting and a twist at the end of the story, which kept the intrigue going to the end. The Adventure of the Speckled Band  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born in 1859 and died in 1930. He created the world famous character Sherlock Holmes in a story called A Study in Scarlet published in 1887. He based the character on Joseph Bell, who was a surgeon he had trained with and was particularly struck by his powers of observation and logic. The Adventure of the Speckled Band was widely admired as one of the best written, most exciting Sherlock Holmes stories, it was written in 1892. The story begins with Dr. Watson, Sherlock Holmes assistant, explaining about Holmes and how he solves cases I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a logical basis, with which he unravelled the problems which were submitted to him From this we not only learn Holmes method of work but also that his companion Watson, holds him in high regard. The character Watson is a little dim, which emphasises Sherlocks cleverness and intuitiveness. This shows that there is contrast between the characters. Holmes is approached by Miss Helen Stoner who is desperate for his help concerning her sisters mysterious death. On meeting Holmes he comments on her shivering it is not cold which makes me shiver. It is fear Mr Holmes. It is terror This captures the readers interest and they are eager to find out what this young lady is so afraid of.  The reader sees Sherlock Holmes deductive techniques almost at once, when he makes and observation about the sleeves of his client, Miss Helen Stoner. There is no mystery, my dear madam, said he, smiling. The left arm of your jacket is splattered with mud in no less than seven places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a dog cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you sit on the left hand side of the driver. This gives the reader a clear idea of how Sherlock approaches a case and his acute sense of observation. Miss Stoner is extremely anxious about her sisters mysterious death. Helens sister, Julia, died in a locked room, just before she was due to get married and her death could not be explained But I have heard Mr Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid the dangers which encompass me This not only gets the full attention of Holmes but of the audience too. Helen is about to become married and is due to stay in the same room as her sister and is therefore very worried. When reading her account of what happened, we are introduced to her Step- father Dr Roylott, we learn that he has killed his butler. This gives a dark impression of him from the start. We then learn that he is to give each of his step daughters an annual sum in the event of their marriage. Doyle continues to build a negative image of Dr Roylott, referring to his temper approaching mania and him becoming the terror of the village and folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger The reader now has a very clear image that this is a character to fear and tension is beginning to build in them as to what this man is capable of. They are also given a clue as what is coming when Doyle refers to Royletts passion for Indian animals. In contrast to Dr Royletts frightening demeanour, Doyle shows Helen Stoner and her sister to be frail, long suffering victims of this man You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I had no great pleasure in our lives The reader is made to feel pity for these girls.  Miss Stoner goes on to relate her sisters untimely and mysterious death. We learn that Dr Roylett, Julia and Helens bedrooms were all together on the ground floor of the manor house. There is no connection between these rooms and they all open onto the same corridor. We also learn that the sisters lock themselves into their room at night as they dont feel safe with Dr Royletts exotic animals roaming around. Julia has mentioned to her a strange whistling that she has heard during the previous nights have you ever heard anyone whistle in the dead of night? This is an extremely eerie comment and intrigues the reader as to what may be responsible for this sound. We see the same technique used in Napoleon and the Spectre. It is at this point that the reader is first made aware of the speckled band As Helen recounts the events of her sisters death, she refers to a low whistle preceded a wild scream of a terrified woman. She goes on to tell how she found her sister her face blanched with terror collapsing in terrible pain and shrieking about It was a band! The speckled band. Doyle has used a lot of descriptive language to create this scene, to give the reader a clear picture of the horrendous death of this young woman. This builds the tension that is already building in the audience in terms of Dr Roylett. The next part of the story relays how Helen herself is due to be married and has to stay in the room her sister died in. On the first night there, Helen while laying awake and thinking of her sisters death, hears a low whistle. It is following this episode that Helen runs from the manor house and goes to Sherlock Holmes for help. The reader is now full of tension and is desperate to see Sherlock protect Helen from this unseen danger. This shows that Doyle has achieved a high level of climatic tension. He increases the tension further by bringing Holmes and Dr Roylett together. The description of Roylett in detailed and uses metaphors like seared with a thousand wrinkles and marked with every evil passion he ends his description by comparing Roylett to a fierce bird of prey Once again the reader is given a clear and negative picture of Roylett and empasises that Helen may be his object of prey. Holmes however is not in the slightest bit intimidated by Roylett which reassures the reader that Holmes may yet be able to protect Helen from her step father. When Roylett bends the poker with his bare hands and throws the twisted poker into the fireplace Holmes laughs at this which reinforces to the reader that Holmes is not intimidated by Roylett and is therefore the hero in the story. The story then moves to Holmes examining the three bedrooms at the manor house. He discovers that in Helens room, which was previously Julias room, that there is a dummy bell rope This is very interesting. You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where the little opening for the ventilator is he also spots that the ventilators do not ventilate. This allows the reader to attempt to solve the puzzles alongside Holmes which keeps them intrigued. Another clue is revealed upon the discovery of a saucer of milk on Dr Royletts desk. Doyle has given the reader enough clues to solve the mystery themselves, however he has also littered the case with red herrings. This adds to the intrigue and tension within the story. Towards the end of the story Doyle uses a conversation between Watson and Holmes to highlight the significant clues. This keeps the clues fresh in the readers mind and again gives them the opportunity to solve the case themselves. This is a clever literary device as it keeps the reader who wants to solve the crime themselves interested but for those who are not keen to do the work they still want to read on as they are aware they are near to the solution becoming evident.  The story concludes with Holmes pulling all the pieces of evidence together and giving a blow by blow description of the events. This was my favourite of the three stories. I particularly liked the way Doyle gave the reader the opportunity to solve the crime themselves. This keeps the reader actively involved with the story and makes them eager to read on to gather more and more evidence. I enjoyed the manner in which Doyle makes you care for the victim and therefore get behind Holmes in his attempts to solve the crime, even though all along you know he will. This style of writing would encourage readers to want to read more Doyle stories as you would develop an affection for Watson and Holmes. Almost as though they were personal friends.