The Speckled Band Essay Essay Example for Free

The Speckled Band Essay Essay The Adventure of the Speckled Band is a typical detective story which includes a crime, a motive and inevitably the case being solved, with a few red herrings along the way. Helen Stoner turns to Holmes and his assistant Watson to help solve the mysterious death of her sister, Julia, just weeks before she was to be married. This is interesting as for every marriage, their stepfather Dr Grimesby Roylott has to pay out i 250. This straight away gets the reader thinking in to who committed the crime. This incentive turns out to be false as in the end we learn that Dr Grimesby Roylott had been feeding a deadly snake down an unused bell rope and into Julias room, in an attempt to kill her off. His plan backfires however, as the snake returns but only to make him the victim of its deadly bite. Holmes is then only left to put all the pieces together and the crime is solved. The story was written by Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle, who was born on May 22nd 1859 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He is recognised better by the name Conan Doyle and is well known for his Sherlock Holmes stories and the Adventures of Professor Challenger. He was a prolific writer whose other works included science fiction stories, historical novels, plays, poetry and non-fiction. Around the period which he lived life, things would have been very different from nowadays. Vicious killers would roam the streets, brutally murdering innocent passer-bys and prostitutes. Jack the Ripper was a better-known criminal who murdered many prostitutes and was never caught by the police. This was no surprise at the time as the Police were seen as useless and people instead, would turn to private detectives like Sherlock Holmes himself. At the beginning of the story the mood is unclear as we dont know what the perceived crime is yet. Watson drops hints to the seriousness and unusualness of the crime with phrases such as I cannot recall any which presented more singular features than that which was associated with the well-known surrey family of the Roylotts, of Stoke Moran. This basically means that Watson cannot remember any case that he has accompanied Holmes with that has had more unusual happenings or events than this one. The fact that this case is unusual is backed up further by that Sherlock Holmes is up and awake early. He was a late riser In my habits. I think that Sherlock Holmes visitors words and actions prepare us for what happens next. This is because she arrives shivering and when Holmes notices this he offers her a cup of coffee, but she rejects this and states that It is now cold that makes me shiver, it is fear Mr Holmes, it is terror. I think this then notifies the reader of the situation of the crime and therefore expects something bad to happen later on which keeps them reading on further to see what they will uncover for themselves. Helen Stoner is described by Watson as if she is a victim and doesnt suspect anything unusual with her and only wants to find out was has happened so he can help her. In the story she is described as we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable state of agitation, her face all drawn and gray, with restless, frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal.