The Speckled Band by Sherlock Holmes
Detective stories first became popular in the Victorian era following
the emergence of organized police forces in the 1830's. Fascination
with the criminal heros accompanied a corresponding interest in the
methodical uncovering of crime. Public hangings were frequent and
Victorian people feared crime greatly. This meant that when the
detective stories came about they felt the fictional character that
cracked every case became the perfect detective i.e. Arthur Conan
Doyle's character, Sherlock Holmes. SherlockHolmes was actually an
amateur detective not a member of the London plaice force and the
Victorians had a deep resentment against the police, as they were
unable to solve the infamous Jack the Ripper crimes. This is why the
detective stories and in particular Sherlock Holmes became so popular.
ArthurConan Doyle's stories still remain popular now because the
stories are well written, fast paced, and the plot encourages you to
try and solve the stories yourself but the stories are always solved
in the end, which the reader tends to find satisfying. He uses many
literary devices to convey an impression of suspense and mystery. They
are placed throughout the story to ensure that the reader is always
guessing as to what happens next.
In my essay I will be looking at the literary devices that Conan Doyle
uses in the 'Speckled Band', the 'Engineers Thumb' and the 'Red Headed
League'.
'The Speckled Band' is about a cruel stepfather (Dr Roylott) with an
intention of murdering his stepdaughters to acquire their property. He
succeeds in murdering his elder stepdaughter, Julia, in a mysterious
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...ques of male authors
and representations of men in literature and also by privileging women
writers.
Reading Arthur Conan Doyle's stories (especially SherlockHolmes) there
is a sense of long-standing, dominant and phallocentric ideologies
that contribute towards the patriarchal attitudes and male
interpretations in literature. The detectives in Conan Doyle's stories
are always male and Conan Doyle only seems to cast women in stock
character roles i.e. the victims are always female and powerless.
Conan Doyle writes in a typical masculine style. He interprets females
in the stereotypical type of how women are 'supposed' to feel, act and
think. This I feel is why many female readers may not be able to
relate to any characters in the Sherlock Holmes stories because the
stock character roles that Conan Doyle produces.
The climax of the story is when Miles is shot by the Bonewoman. The reader comes to realize that Miles’ choice to live life on the safe side was a mistake:
Bow, this is because it is packed with suspense and tension throughout. It shows drama and suspense in different places which is why I enjoy it. Crime fiction has been developed over the years with such characters as Poirot. But all the characters have been portrayed similarly to Sherlock and Holmes. Crime fiction is so popular because it helps us become more involved and able to interact with the story.
One of the most important examples is Dracula and Mina. Dracula is the ultimate evil, and Mina is full of goodness and purity. The Victorian view of women was not helpful to the characters in Dracula. For example, every time the male characters in the story decide not to tell Mina some particular type of information, things end up going terribly wrong. Even though Mina ends up being the key to destroying Dracula, she is still a woman and the Victorian view gets in the way.
“There is a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line” (“Oscar Levant Quotes”).
Woolrich reinforced the detective fictions of yesterday, introducing to the American audience new detectives, who not only wheels a gun but also uses their knowledge of psychoanalysis to catch the perpetrator and solve the crime. Though Woolrich extends his knowledge of the human mind, he, just like MacDonald, Chandler and Hammett gives reference to 18th-century authors which include Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Edgar Allan Poe.
The functioning of the average human mind has intrigued and plagued philosophers and thinkers over centuries, one of the most curious and fascinating studies have been made into personages with dual personalities, schizophrenia being one of the factors. Similarly, in the book, The Strange Case, as well as in the film, Psycho, the books are taken place in late Victorian London, but Psycho is in late 60’s in the USA. The respective authors in these two texts portray that duality of human nature exists in society and humanity through the use of characterization and setting.
Mysteries have always held great fascination for the human mind, not least because of the aura that surrounds them and the realm of the Unknown into which they delve. Coupled with the human propensity of being particularly curious about aspects which elude the average mind, the layer of intrigue that glosses over such puzzles makes for a heady combination of the literary and the popular. In the canon of detective fiction worldwide, no detective has tickled the curious reader’s imagination and held it in thrall as much as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. The 221-B, Baker Street, London ‘amateur’ detective combines a rare blend of intellectual prowess and sharp wit to crack a series of baffling riddles.
Throughout most of literature and history, the notion of ‘the woman’ has been little more than a caricature of the actual female identity. Most works of literature rely on only a handful of tropes for their female characters and often use women to prop up the male characters: female characters are sacrificed for plot development. It may be that the author actually sacrifices a female character by killing her off, like Mary Shelly did in Frankenstein in order to get Victor Frankenstein to confront the monster he had created, or by reducing a character to just a childish girl who only fulfills a trope, as Oscar Wilde did with Cecily and Gwendolen in The Importance of Being Earnest. Using female characters in order to further the male characters’
In the mystery genre one can agree that for a mystery to function as it does, it must have elements like a case that must be solved, a detective or someone who is playing as the detective, and, in most cases, murder. But in the short story “A Scandal in Bohemia,” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a social scandal is a part of the theme, which is also seen in “Witness for the Prosecution,” by Agatha Christie and “Amber Gate,” by Walter Mosley. Just as a murder or a crime disrupts an aspect of society, a social scandal functions the same way. Normally, what we view as the “private life” and “public life” is kept separately because private life operates as the “fantasy” of the two worlds by creating the image of a “normal life”, which consists of a good and happy husband and wife, the ability to be financially stable, social wellbeing and even in some cases a child. On the other hand, the public life consists of the poor, who are considered to be liars and cheaters, crime, murder, and heinous women. The private life predominately functions in favor of the man, more so a white male, and when the public, or characteristics of the public, alters the established private life, then his happiness ceases and the private fantasy is then disrupted or destroyed. Specifically speaking, the marginalized threaten the exposure of the social hierarchy by disrupting the domestic private fantasy by unmasking its instability.
The role of women are never portrayed in a Sherlock Holmes story the way the beautiful and
In the book Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, the women are portrayed as inferior to men in several different ways. Of the few female characters in this book, very few of them are mentioned throughout the entire book and none of them are considered main characters. The ideals of Romanticism emphasize the secondary nature of women to men. In addition, Shelley’s portrayal of the inferiority of women parallels Romantic ideals and some of today’s values but also contrasts some values of today’s society. Shelley uses these Romantic ideals in Frankenstein because all of the female characters are clearly subordinate and secondary to the male characters throughout the story.
Throughout history women have always been considered lesser than men. Women were portrayed as property to men, nothing more. They were supposed to be seen and not heard, and were basically servants to their husbands and fathers. In order for women to even be considered more than property their father or spouse had to be established in the community or a man of high rank. Despite their subservient roles women in British literature have always been depicted as obedient or unruly, from William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, to Beowulf, to Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market.” For example, women have always been portrayed as being housewives, and care takers. Women were supposed to tend to the men and all of the house hold duties and chores; however some women broke away from that stereotype. They became more and curious and aware of their worth, so they were viewed as temptresses or “rebels” against the social norm. Despite the fact that women have evolved throughout history, British literature has always characterized women in two different lights, one being obedient and submissive and another being powerful and strong willed.
Throughout Dickens’s Great Expectations, It is clear that most of the women are portrayed as being heartless, revengeful or violent. Thus this doesn’t give a impression of women, and shows that Dickens could have been gender bias, like most men were in the 19th and early 20th century. However this could have not been Dickens’s intension at all, as he also created very evil male characters such as Dolge Orlick.
Numerous authors have written many stories and books using the same detective. By using a familiar character, it helps to draw readers back to reading these stories. Look at the Rex Stout fans, these people go to the extreme of following the detectives, Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin. Obviously Stout was doing something right in using the same characters over and over again in his stories. Conan Doyle had the same allure with Sherlock Holmes. The exact replicas of Holmes’s home, and the 3-D renderings of Nero Wolfe’s house, are perfect examples of readers/fans becoming totally engrossed with theses stories. Because readers became familiar, and enjoyed these characters so much, they continue to read stories about the characters.
you told me all?' A modern way to express this is 'But have you told