Compare Doyle's presentation of the crime and the way it is solved in The Speckled Band / The Red Headed League

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Compare Doyle’s presentation of the crime and the way it is solved in The Speckled Band / The Red Headed League

All of Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories follow the same basic lines.  There is always the discovery of a crime accompanied by baffling circumstances, which attract the interest of the great detective.  His less astute assistant, Dr. Watson, always accompanies him.  Much time is spent examining clues and discarding red herrings, working out motive and opportunity, finding the solution and announcing the conclusion often to the surprise of everyone else.

Holmes takes specific notice of minute details putting together the method and motive to the enormous admiration of Watson who is totally baffled by the crime.  He always visits the scene of the crime and puts himself in personal danger.

In the two short stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Speckled Band” and “The Red Headed League”, Sherlock Holmes, as usual, demonstrates his remarkable ability to solve mind-bending mysteries. In “The Speckled Band” Holmes solves a two-year-old murder and also prevents another from taking place. In “The Red Headed League”, he manages to untangle a complicated web of events, eventually stopping a robbery from happening and captures a criminal mastermind.

The ways in which the two stories begin are very similar. Both mysteries start in Holmes’ office where Holmes is questioning the potential victims of the crimes and eliciting as much information from them as possible. In both cases the victim has sought Holmes out for assistance in their plight.  They both have very interesting stories to tell which excites Holmes’ interest. Dr Watson narrates both stories, although, at the beginning of  “The Speckled Band”, Watson points out that the story is different to any other thus ensuring that the reader knows immediately that what they are going to read will contain some incredible information unlike any other story. This serves to start the story off in a very serious note, and create tension from the very beginning.  In ‘The Red Headed League’ there is almost a humorous tone as the rather comical Jabez Wilson is actually laughed at by Holmes and Watson.

Although the victims’ initial engagement into the stories is similar, they are portrayed as very different characters. Both victims are first introduced sitting in Holmes’ office speaking about the problem at hand. The female victim in “The Speckled Band”, Helen Stoner, has arrived in the early morning causing the household to rise earlier than they normally would.  She is described as ‘in a pitiable state of agitation’. She has started to prematurely wrinkle and go grey despite the fact that her ‘features and figure were those of a woman of thirty.’  Her subsequent story indicate to the reader that this physical change was due to feeling like a ‘hunted animal. She is dressed in black and heavily veiled.  She is obviously a sensible and levelheaded woman so there must be a good reason for her terror.  This makes the reader feel sympathetic towards Helen and both Holmes and Watson treat her with respect. Her distress sets the tone for the story

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In “The Red Headed League”, the victim is a male called Jabez Wilson. Doyle is a perplexed and aggrieved man who is rather petulantly complaining that he has lost his recently acquired opportunity to make some easy money.  He is portrayed as an unintelligent and ‘average, commonplace British tradesman’ and often presented in a humorous way.  The fact that he is not in any danger and the absurdity of his story help the comic view of his character. Holmes and Watson do not respect him, and laugh, jeeringly, at the situation he describes. This contrasts completely with the respect that ...

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