Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Adventure of the Speckled Band

616 Words2 Pages

In his short story The Adventure of the Speckled Band, Sir Arthur

Conan Doyle uses certain conventions expected of the detective genre

to bring the story an exciting dénouement. Discuss and consider the

moral twist in the tale of the story.

In analyzing “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” and in the view of

the background to different detective genre stories it becomes clear

that generic conventions are attached to them. This is one of many

excellent detective stories written. It stands out making the audience

excited and urged to carry on reading. This essay will analyse the

conventions and moral twist of the story.

In the detective story “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” the writer

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle uses twins in the story. Quoted ‘My sister

Julia and I were twins”. This was one of the many conventions that

were broken. This was carefully analyzed by the writer. The writer

analyzes really well by not confusing the audience. This does not

confuse the reader in any way since the write has already told the

audience that one of the twins are already dead.

An early twentieth century writer and critic, Knox, came up with a

certain set of rules which he suggested any writer of detective

fiction should follow. The reason he has done this is to make the

story intriguing easy to understand and also to include the audience

it in. For example Knox’s first rule which is the criminal must be

introduced early, not just brought in at the end. This rule has not

been defied in anyway. The criminal Dr Roylott was introduced into the

story early. The writer Doyle has followed this rule and has not gone

against it. Doyle has introduced the criminal in the story early so

that the audience don’t get confused over who the actual criminal is.

In creating the character of Helen, Doyle defies Knox’s rule that

twins shouldn’t be used. This rule again which is one of Knox’s (rule

10) “Identical twins or ‘doubles’ are not to be used”. Doyle has gone

against this rule and has used twins. Doyle has cleverly killed one of

the twins at the start of the story. Doyle made the story different,

intriguing and fascinating.

The contribution of clues is vital and Knox insists that the

detectives obscure nothing at all. As Sherlock Holmes contemplates

conscience and ‘red herring’ the audience contribute the same journey.

Knox’s rule number 8 “He or she must not willingly conceal clues or

reasons for his deductions from the reader” Obscuring away clues gives

the audience no chance at all to find out how the victim was killed so

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