’ So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he sat when a sudden
ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found the summer sun
shining into the apartment.’
This also shows us his dedication to solve the mysteries. Another example of his dedication is
‘ so absorbed was he in his thoughts I remember, that he stumbled
over the watering-pot, upset its contents and deluged both our feet
and the garden path.’
This demonstrates that Holmes is continuously thinking about his cases and going over the clues he has and forming a theory that works. This exhibits middle class value of hard work. Holmes represents justice, order over chaos which are Victorian values. He has an immense understanding of the world and people and this is shown in the quote taken from The Man With The Twisted Lip
‘I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a women
may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical reasoner.’
This shows that Holmes can comprehend the minds and ways of the world. This is also displayed in The Speckled Band as he tells Watson
‘Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor goes wrong he is
the first of the criminals’.
This quote tells us that he has strong values and represents justice for every one. Doctors were seen as trustworthy, honourable and reliable people and by committing a crime they betrayed the Victorian ethics and codes.
In every classic detective story there is a sidekick and for Holmes this is Watson. A sidekick is needed in a story for many reasons such as preventing the detective looking egotistical, and ask questions about red herrings and clues to help the readers understand the clues. Watson hero worships Holmes and this is evident in the stories.
‘ Had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his professional
investigations and in admiring the rapid deductions as swift as intuitions,
and yet always founded on logical basis, with which he unravelled the
problem which were submitted to him.’
This means that Holmes has almost a sixth sense, his intelligence, which helps him solve his cases. Watson continuously talks about Holmes brilliant skills and it makes Holmes look really intelligent. ‘ My participation in some of his adventurers was always a privilege which entailed discretion and reticence upon me,’ this quote was taken from The Devils foot and this again demonstrates Watson’s hero worship and the fact that he feels privileged to be associated with Holmes. It also means that Watson gets to see the cases first hand and he gets to assist Holmes in solving his cases. Another thing that makes Holmes look intelligent is that Watson is really unobservant next to Holmes. He does not mention certain things. This makes Holmes look even more observant and even more amazing. This is demonstrated in The Speckled Band, Holmes amazes us by demonstrating his skills and telling us how Helen Stoner travelled. This would not have been so amazing if Watson had told us about the mud marks on her dress and the train ticket she held in her hand. This makes Holmes seem more intelligent than he might be. Another example of this is again in The Speckled Band, ‘You have evidently seen more in these rooms than was visible to me.’
Watson is the perfect sidekick and this can be seen in studying his character and the stories. Watson is a doctor, which makes him fairly intelligent. According to the Victorian values a doctor is trust worthy, honest, confidential, friendly, honourable, and respected. This can be seen in ‘The Man With The Twisted Lip’ as we find that Watson is a man of his words:
‘I promised her on my word that I would send him home…And so in
ten minutes I had left my armchair and the cheery sitting room behind
me.’
Watson is respectful towards women, he represents values of the middle class readers.
Another example of Watson being respectful ‘Your wife has been waiting this two days for you. You should be ashamed of you self.’ This quote taken from The Man With The Twisted Lip shows Watson as a person with morals it also makes Watson the perfect person to write the stories, as people will think that he will write the truth. As a doctor he has excellent skills of observing and describing which is an aid for us to recreate every event that happened in the story while we read. In addition to this, the stories are written as Watson’s journal in the past tense, reassuring the reader, as they know that the case has been solved. Good has come over evil and that the streets are safe once again. Holmes finds Watson a great friend and this can be seen in the quote from The Man With The Twisted Lips. ‘You have a grand gift of silence…it is a great thing for me to have some one to talk to, for my own thoughts are not over-pleasant.’ This shows that Holmes appreciates having Watson as a friend and he helps Holmes sort things out in his head by listening to his thoughts. Another example of Holmes treasuring Watson’s presence is in The Speckled Band, ‘Your presence might be invaluable’. One of the main reasons Watson is there is because he is like one of the readers, he does not understand every thing, so he asks a lot of question to help us, readers understand the clues and for Holmes to explain what is going on to us. ‘Where is it then. But I am all in the dark’ are quotes on Watson are taken form The Man With The Twisted Lip. Watson makes the reader more involved in the stories and helps us understand what is going on and how Holmes has used his skills to get clues. Watson asks questions like these, through out the stories. This helps the reader get some more clues that Watson might not have mentioned. Another examples of Watson not understanding is ‘ But what then did the gypsies do?’ ‘But what harm can there be in that?’ and ‘ I cannot as yet see any connection’ these are all present in The Speckled Band. He again gets Holmes to explain his theories to the reader and helps the reader to understand.
Elements of gothic exotic and supernatural are always used in detective stories. They create an interest in the story. Gothic stories were popular from the eighteen century till today, they involved gloomy places, secret passages, danger, supernatural, different and ghostly elements. These stories were written in the 1890s. People were feeling insecure as the end of 19th century was approaching. There were rumours that the world was going to end. The arrival of their crime detecting new hero, Sherlock Holmes, would have definitely provided reassurance. Another thing that needs to be considered is that many Victorian and Edwardian people believed that Sherlock Holmes did exist and for them the fact that Holmes always finds the criminal gave a sense of security. Another way of creating the gothic element is to write about familiar places. This horrifies and attracts people as they know the places and perhaps some live or work near these places. Doyle also writes the dates and years when the incident took place this makes it even more realistic and horrific.
During the time period that Doyle wrote his stories Britain had a growing empire covering two fifths of the world. This growth in empire led to a huge fascination for the exotic. British people believed that they were the most civilised people in the world, hence they saw new cultures as uncivilised suspicious and strange. The aim of these stories was to shock people so the stories were unpredictable, strange, violent and gloomy.
Doyle used the elements of gothic and exotic to create a mysterious and tense atmosphere efficiently, as he wrote short stories Doyle had less space and words to create the right atmosphere suspense and excitement. Theses elements of gothic are present in all of his stories
‘Making our way among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and
were about to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel
bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous distorted child…’
This quote was taken from The Speckled Band as the reader reads this they become horrified and intrigued, they become more interested in the story and want to read on to see what this hideous creature will do to the two characters. This gives it the element of supernatural. Also Doyle uses strong and theatrical adjectives. This element of gothic is used in all of Doyle’s stories including The Man With The Twisted Lip and The Devils Foot, ‘.. and there is absolutely no explanation of what the horror can be which has frightened a women to death and two strong men out of their senses..’ and ‘ Ay, bodies. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pound for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den.’ This again makes the reader interested in the stories, as they become terrified at the deaths and want to know why and how these deaths have taken place.
Doyle’s characters also used sensational writing to help create the essential atmosphere quicker. Examples of sensational writing are present in The Speckled Band, ‘You may advice me how to walk amid the dangers which encompass me.’ And ‘A vague feeling of impending misfortune impressed me.’ This language exaggerates things and maybe makes them seem a lot worse then they are. To ensure that the mystery itself is properly described, no detail is left out and this creates vivid images. Doyle puts across horrific details this makes the story seem more believable. He goes to great lengths to describe everything so that a full picture can be constructed without leaving anything to the imagination. Whilst this is a fairly aggressive way of treating the reader, it ensures that they read the story in exactly the right way.
The Devils foot and The Speckled Band are locked room cases. Locked room cases are cases where murder has been committed but there is no sign of forced entry, no wounds or marks on the dead bodies and no possible ways to murder are visible. ‘ …the flooring and walls are sound, and that the door and chimney are impassable, then the sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her mysterious end.’ The locked room cases give the story a feeling of supernatural, which again interests the reader. Doyles locked room case stories are influenced by Poe’s story; ‘Murder on the rue Morgue. This shows us that there is no way that any person could have entered the room and committed the murder, this creates more suspense and a element of supernatural as the readers think there has to be some sort of magic involved in the murder. Another example of this is ‘There was no sign of the presence of any one…Nothing had been stolen or disarranged..’ this shows us again that there is no forced entry, and leaves us thinking how could the murder have been committed.
Every detective story has clues and red herrings. The red herrings keep the reader misguided, but the interest remains aroused till the end. Again it is another way of making the detective look intelligent, as he was not misguided from the red herrings. The clues help the reader try to solve the mystery like a detective while they are reading these stories. One of the conventions for writing a detective story is that no clue must be hidden from the reader and that the clues must be in chronological order so readers can try and solve the mystery correctly and so that they are more involved with the story. Doyle follows this convention very well as while reading his stories the reader feels involved hence creating more interest.
In every detective story there needs to be a victim or victims. In detective stories set about Victorian times these victims tended to be women. Women were seen as the weaker sex in Victorian times and this is displayed in all of Doyle’s stories, ‘ How could she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surround him?’ This quote taken from The Man With The Twisted Lip shows Watson’s views towards women, he finds them feeble and weak and fragile. This is not only Watson’s view but other men’s as well. A woman being the weaker sex is exhibited in all of Doyle’ s stories. ‘…in the first case a woman, who had presumably the more sensitive organism, was killed, the others exhibiting the temporary or permanent lunacy.’ This quote was taken from The Devils Foot and it shows again that the women are seen as fragile and feeble in the eyes of Victorians and they need protecting by men.
Just as you need a victim in every detective story you also need a villain. One of the conventions for writing a detective genre is to introduce the villain at the beginning of the story rather than the end. Doyle does this perfectly as in every story he writes he makes sure he introduces the villain at the start. Social values such as an evil person looks evil and is also evil physically are depicted be Doyle’s villains. They all have a gothic look about them, such as deformed bodies and faces. ‘...was thin, dark, spectacled man, with a stoop which gave the impression of actual, physical deformity.’ That quote was taken from The Devils Foot and it shows the villain as an evil looking person. This again depicts the Social values that were viewed by the Victorians. Other examples of this are, ‘…save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect.’ and
‘A large face, seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun,
and marked with every evil passion, … bile-shot blue eyes, and his high, thin,
fleshless nose, gave him a somewhat resemblance to a fierce old bird of prey’.
These descriptions succeed in describing a really evil looking person, and almost from the start you know that this person will be the villain. Another social value that was believed in Victorian times was that the working classes were the criminals, the gypsies were viewed this way as well. They both were thought to be poor in wealth and spirits. However in Doyle’s stories the villain were always from the middle class or the upper class. This depicts that the working classes are not only the criminals but the middle and upper class are as well. This stereotype acts as red herring in Doyle’s stories. In The Speckled Band the villain is a doctor, while in The Devils Foot it was a clergyman and in The Man With The Twisted Lip it was a middle class gentleman. These men are all of either wealth or profession and them being criminals goes totally against the Social values during the Victorian times. This shocks the readers and demonstrates that crime is everywhere and any one can be a criminal not just the working class.
Another important part of a detective story is the denouemont. A denouemont is when Holmes explains how the crime was committed and the motive so that the readers can understand. He also explains how he solved it and what clues he had. This also tells the readers what the red herrings were. An example of a denouemont
‘… there is a single common point of resemblance in the varying reports…
This concerns the atmosphere of the room in each case upon those who
had first entered it…You will admit, Watson, that these facts are very
suggestive. In each case there is evidence of a poisonous atmosphere.
In each case, also, there is combustion going on in the room - - in the
one case a fire, in the other a lamp.’
This quote taken from The Devils Foot shows us how Holmes sums up the clues relevant for this case, also how these murders have been committed. Another example of Holmes denouemont is present in The Speckled Band,
‘ I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his room. An
inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in a habit of standing
on it, which of course would be necessary in order that he should reach the
ventilator… …The metallic clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused
by her stepfather hastily closing the door of his safe upon it’s terrible occupant…’
Again Holmes sums up how this crime took place and the clues that led to him solving this case. The readers are not as clever as Holmes and will need him to explain what has happened and why.
Doyle’s stories follow a set pattern, they all follow the rules of the detective genre, in fact that the rules of detective genre were set on Doyle’s stories. His stories were really popular during Victorian times as they represented justice and made people feel secure that some one was out there cleaning up the streets of crime. However a lot has changed since the Victorian times. These days detectives and villains can be women. The villains do not necessary look evil and often the people you expect to be villains are not the actual villains. During the Victorian period Doyle had to base his stories on the Middle class values, as middle class people read his stories most. Also as he was the member of the class himself. In conclusion Doyle has used a lot of different elements and techniques to make his stories interesting and gripping. Hence writing stories based on the conventions will ensure an absorbing and a thrilling read until the end.
