Dr. Roylott's The Speckled Band

The more obvious theme in the story of The Speckled Band is the male and more specifically, patriarchal authority demonstrated by the relationship between Helen Sonter and her step-father Dr. Roylott. Helen Stoner and her late sister Julia were left in the custody of Dr. Roylott after their wealthy mother passed away, leaving a healthy inheritance to the family. The women’s mother specifically left a portion of the inheritance to them in the case that they got married, which would deplete Dr. Roylott of a portion of the wealth which he frivolously and irresponsibly squandered away. To the reader, the surface message or interpretation might be that Dr. Roylott uses the two young women as human banksfor his personal pleasure and nothing else.

It would appear that this threat of the young women marrying and taking their pension with them would be motive for Dr. Roylott to have killed Julia Stoner and to have been plotting to murder Helen through the means of the “speckled band” which was Dr. Roylott’s pet snake. There are other conversations, however, that suggest that there are subliminal messages of incest and sexual misconduct. Here I will discuss some of the ideas on the meaning behind the snake, male dominance, and the alleged issues within upper middle class Victorian Era families.
From the four different articles that I reviewed, there was a common trend in what the snake actually represented. According to my sources, the snake was actually a representation of a phallic object that stuck its victims in the night, a sexual image, and “a symbol of ‘destructive male sexuality’.” (Cabus) In other words, it is a representation of male genitalia which was used for some form of secual violation or rape. Although there was an actual snake, there is debate on whether Mr. Roylott actually intended for his snake to kill his step daughter or whether he was just as surprised as everyone else about her death. However, this would not detract from the theory that Dr. Roylott was a “voyeur”. (Needleman) We will next look at the abusive and dominant behavior that Dr. Roylott displayed toward his step daughters as well as the overall male dominant behavior throughout the story.
Andrea Cabus decribes Dr.

Roylott as a doctor who marries into money and resorts to crime to maintain his status. Rosemary Jann paints him as a “larger-than-life villain” who preys on Helen and Julia Stoner, two “innocent and ignorant victims, helpless and abused maidens imprisoned…”(Rosemary) Not only was Dr. Roylott labeled as money hungry and violent in the reviews, but he was commonly labeled as insane. His insanity which was said to have intensified during his time in the tropics made Dr. Roylott almost unbearable. This all combined with his large size and overall offensive appearance was a deadly combination that not only made him a threat to the Stoner sisters, but to society. Holmes quickly realized this and in the end, this is what made Dr. Roylott’s murder justifiable. Holmes made it his mission to bring Dr. Roylott down. As a matter of fact, reviews share a common theory that Holmes tried to dominate Dr. Roylott from their first interaction. The male dominance in this story did not only extend from male to female, but between males. The tone of the back and forth struggle for dominance is even said to show some underlying hints of homosexuality according to some reviews. In the beginning of the story, Holmes proves himself to be the stronger man when straightening a poker that Roylott bent while discussing who had a “less freeable” grip. Of course this is only after Roylott tried to feminize Holmes when talking about his womanly, busybody behavior. Holmes

bounces back labeling Roylott as “This Beauty” when discussing his beasty appearance and the nature of his case as if he was intrigued with him. (Hall) Holmes then makes a comment that can be referenced to male penetration and dominance when he “describes Roylott as a man who "strikes even deeper" than the criminals Palmer and Pritchard, but then goes on to say that he and Watson ‘shall be able to strike deeper still’.” (Hall) Jann talks about how in the end, Holmes wins the overall battle by thrashing the snake with Roylott’s own cane proving dominance. Hall talks about how even with all of the occurances of male domination, the female character starts to fade into the background. The only real point of the female image in the story was to serve as a victim, a damsel in distress, and a means of transferring inheritance from one dominating male to the next. Although the female character was not prominent throughout the story, the discussion of the snakes symbolic meaning and male dominance lead into another theme of discussion throughout some literary works; the problem of incestuous relationships amongst middle class households during the Victorian Era.
Needleman points out the fact that Helen’s stepfather constantly watches her, even sneaking up on her at times. Not only is this an indication that he was over controlling, but also that he may have taken pleasure in watching her. Andrea Cabus really gets deep into her conversation about Victorian Middle Class incestuous behavior. She comments:
“… a popular illustrated periodical aimed at a middle-class family audience.”; “…its gothic elements, potentially sexual imagery, colonial connections, and incidental discussion of class and profession.”; “The gothic elements also introduce the potential of submerged incestuous desire between the powerful but insane stepfather and his innocent, victimized stepdaughters. This conclusion, based on the gothic elements, is supported by the phallic image of the snake that crawls nightly into the victims' room through a small air shaft.” (Cabus)
Needleman comments:
“Given his circumstances, he might have hoped to obtain some sexual gratification from spying on his stepdaughter Julia. The ventilator--no doubt, with widely splayed openings to increase the field of view--would have been designed as a peephole through which he could observe Julia dressing and undressing, and possibly bathing in a portable bath in front of the fire...We may suppose that Julia was in the habit of putting on and taking off her stockings while seated on the bed. If watching this spectacle gave Dr. Roylott a special thrill, he might have tried to ensure that she did not move out of his view through, for example, transferring her bed to where the chest of drawers was, by clamping the bed in the corner by the ventilator.” (Needleman)
Jann also points out:
“…the implicitly incestuous pressures that stepfathers bring to bear on stepdaughters are in this story suggested by the imagery of the snake attack as a kind of rape; after "piercing" the wall of Helen's bedroom (1:354), Roylott has her sleep in a bed bolted to the floor so that she cannot escape his snake when it crawls through the hole in the ceiling.” (Jann)
It is suggested that the motive behind Dr.

Roylott’s perverted ways is due to his loneliness and lack of appeal to women. This may not have been the case in all households where this behavior occurred, but the average entitled man coming from a “degenerate aristocratic family” possibly held the similar attitudes and beliefs about the position of women and also felt a need to flaunt their authority in the faces of helpless women and men alike.
In conclusion, the literary works referenced provided a new perspective of the message behind The Speckled Band. It does seem possible that in a time when women held no independent power and men had too much, that they women could have been taken advantage of not only financially, but sexually. Women did not really have a voice then, so it would be unlikely that others would believe them over a man. Doyle could have indeed been trying to bring awareness and justice to women who were victimized in the immoral acts of middle class aristocratic men. If these issues were rampant occurrences throughout society in reality, the people of that era may have detected that

message.