“The Speckled Band” and, “The Red-Headed League” are both very interesting stories. The structures of both are much the same, but that accounts for all of Conan Doyle’s creations in accordance to the Sherlock Holmes stories.
In accordance to this structure, “The Speckled Band” begins with a visit to the house from someone needing Holmes’s help.
An element included right at the beginning of the story is the deduction Holmes makes of Helen. This is extremely typical of Conan Doyle as it is a feature he nearly always adds as each of his stories unfold. In “The Speckled Band” Holmes instantly deduces that she travelled early by dog cart on heavy roads to the station before travelling by train to London. The next lines describe Helen giving ‘a violent start’ and staring at Holmes in bewilderment. This is also underlyingly very typical of Conan Doyle to include such a description, as it what he includes in all of his stories at this point. In direct comparison, “The Red Headed League” features a swift deduction of Jabez Wilson in which he concludes that the man done at some point manual labour, takes snuff, has a freemason, has been in China, and has done a considerable amount of writing recently. The line directly following on from that is set out exactly the same as in “The Speckled Band” and describes Jabez to “Start up in his chair, with his forefinger upon the paper, but his eyes upon Holmes” So we can conclude from this that this is an element Conan Doyle likes to include in his stories which also suitably gives a first time reader an idea of the way Holmes’s mind works.
Following on from that, a long monologue is heard which tells every detail of the story. This is unusual in stories written now. We can note that in real life no one tells a story in such detail, uninterrupted, and this reflects tracts of today. But it is actually very typical of writings at the time.
After all is told, Holmes asks a few questions, and then Miss Helen leaves to go back home, to later be joined by Watson and Holmes.
This is a very typical beginning to one of Conan Doyle’s stories. The story then unfolds in fitting with the rest of the usual structure, which is that Sherlock and Holmes proceed to the location of investigation, before waiting, and catching out the culprit. A lengthy explanation is then provided for Watson, which finishes the story. Throughout, only hints and clues are given, leaving the reader to work it out for themselves, until the very end. This gives a definite air of mystery, and successfully keeps the reader interested.
The tale of “The Red Headed League is the same sort of structure, but not exactly the same timing. Someone does not come to the house – they are already there when Watson comes in. It is also not just a stranger that has heard of Holmes – it is an old friend of his. But as ever, the person needing assistance tells them the story, and then leaves. Holmes ponders it, then as ever both Watson and Holmes leave to investigate the area where everything is going on. Then, settling themselves in as in “The Speckled Band” they wait to catch the guilty party. When they do so successfully, yet another of Holmes’s explanations is presented to Watson.
Although both of these stories have entirely different storylines, they have very similar structures. Another very evident similarity is that both stories are based on greed;
The uncle in, “The Speckled Band” killed one of his step-daughters, and also attempted to kill the other step-daughter, simply for his own priorities in preserving his little lot of money which would have evaporated when both were successfully married off.
Whereas in “The Red Headed League” the main character takes a job at the League through pure vanity – the entire League was based on a certain look, and the League enticed him, by flattering him, and offering him large sums of money for doing very little work indeed! But behind his back, he was being used, as the villains were concocting plans to break into the bank near to his home, through the basement of his house! So both characters were driven by greed. The only difference being that one of them was also naïve.
Another very clear comparison is how different the clients are. In “The Speckled Band” Holmes has a clear admiration for the client, and seems to genuinely want to help her. She comes across as very sweet natured, and genteel, which I assume is meant to appeal to the reader’s sympathy. On the other hand, in “The Red Headed League” the client comes across as not an altogether very nice character and Holmes seems not to take much of a liking to him. This is shown as an example in the first page, when Holmes is talking of Jabez’s visit with Watson.
“I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor bore every mark of being an average, commonplace, British Tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow.”
Although in both stories Holmes of course comes to each conclusion in the same manner and swiftness, the woman in “The Speckled Band” comes across as a far more likeable character to the reader, rather than the vain and somewhat obstinate character of “The Red Headed League.” As we have just read, Conan Doyle uses Holmes’s speech to help portray Jabez Wilson as not an altogether likeable character, whereas at various points in “The Speckled Band” Helen is described rather complimentarily. For example, when Holmes first enters the room to meet Helen, he advises her to near herself to the fire to stop herself from shaking and even though she says she is not cold she does as she is told which may come across as a well to do lady and that of a sweet natured character;
“ ‘It is not the cold that makes me shiver’ said the woman in a low voice, changing her seat as requested.”
Also, the fact that Jabez Wilson comes on account of himself to Holmes, and Helen comes on the behalf of her sister and her murder shows a lot about the characters to begin with and this may alter how much the character is generally favoured by the reader.
Although in many ways as we have discovered these two stories are quite alike, there is a clear differentiation between the two, which is once more found in the style of writing. “The Speckled Band” is to some extent a rather sinister tale. The sister of the client has been killed without any explanation, added to which there is a very ominous visit to Holmes from the client’s uncle. So in many ways it could be accounted as a rather alarming story. Whereas the account of, “The Red Headed League” holds no murder or sinister characters as such. It is almost entirely orientated around the client who is put across as extremely vain, bringing the story to the point of humour. There is subtle comedy included in it, none of which is found in “The Speckled Band”.
Watson plays a very prevalent part in all of this – he is Holmes’s biographer, and he tells each story through his eyes, and in such a way that it is almost through our own. As each event happens in the story, we read about it, and alike to Watson, are only given the explanation right at the end. This style of writing gives us a sense of familiarity, which is withheld in both stories.
Sherlock’s stories have been hugely popular both in the time they were written, and indeed up until the present day. The reason that they are so hugely popular is for a number of reasons, some of which I have mentioned. In the present day there is another factor, in that they are very atmospheric, giving a sense of nostalgia of that time era and a fascination of how things used to be. Stories now tend not to be written in such a way, and so it is possibly this which might attract some readers of today. And many of the future I’m sure.
