Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Speckled Band

In this essay I will be examining the possible villains in Conan

Doyle’s ‘The Speckled Band’

In my own opinion I thought the villain was definitely Dr Roylott. It

is from the brief encounter between the three men, that the reader can

gather his/her own ideas concerning Roylott's involvement in the

crime. In the Speckled Band Roylott is described as 'Huge, tall, large

faced, with deep set bile shot eyes' etc. Upon entering the office he

did not knock but 'dashed open' the door. Here, we get the sense that

he is quite a blunt and aggressive character as it is traditional, to

knock before entering, this is the first time the reader is able to

look into the mannerisms of his character. After declaring (literally)

his name, he says, “My stepdaughter has been here I have traced her.

What has she been saying?" Roylott has a very dominant tone within his

speech. His conversational tone conveys to the reader, that he

believes he is better than the person he is talking to. When Roylott

doesn't acquire the information he is seeking he 'screams furiously'

repeating the question. It was at this point that I as the reader

became certain of his involvement in the mystery. Everything that

Roylott threatened after this just added to my certainty of his either

partial or complete involvement in the crime. “Don’t you dare to

meddle with my affairs…I am a dangerous man to fall foul of, see that

you keep yourself out of my grip", he snarled. As mentioned before, it

is from this brief encounter that Roylott has managed to escalate

himself to the top of the suspect list. This is purely because anyone,

who had nothing to hide, would not have acted in such a threatening

manner, and would be only too happy to have a case such as this,

solved (the death of his stepchild).

Doyle uses very threatening language whenever Roylott is around, this

is to add to the villainous character that he upholds. Doyle's use of

descriptive language also helps the reader to gather a picture of

Roylott, as he gives a very shady and distinctive description.

Julia Stoner was the first victim that was killed in Dr Roylott’s house.

This case was never solved. Helen Stoner was the around the age of 30,

but looked older; she wore a black dress, which was heavily veiled

that cased an air of mystery. She had premature grey hair from stress

and shock of the death of her sister. She speaks in a low tone of

voice and always worried, she had no money but will be getting some