Holmes, one of the more prominent characters, is much more consistent and knowledgeable in how to obtain observations, so as to formulate meticulous deductions. Doyle lets Watson narrate Holmes, so the reader does not solve the case through Holmes’s eyes, straight away, but through Watson’s, as he is more accessible to the readers’ understanding. This is an imperative aspect in the story as the reader would be able to solve the case almost immediately, if Holmes’ had let out the assumptions and interpretations, from the beginning seeing that he has the aptitude to unravel the crime before anyone else, ‘I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his room.’ Holmes is portrayed as an intellectual and astute person with expert awareness of the issue at hand. Not only is he good at solving cases, he also has professional understanding pertaining to other fields such as chemistry, ‘a formidable array of bottles and test-tubes…the chemical work which was so dear to him.’ Holmes, himself, depicts his intellectual approach, by working out cases with a rational state of mind, ‘my suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in typewriting his signature, which of course, inferred that his handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognize even the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same direction.’ He has the essence of all trivial details, and this is where the main difference between him and Watson occurs, the fact that Watson just looks at the ordinary and the obvious, whereas Holmes delves into matters as deep as they can go. Holmes goes through any risk at hand, for the sake of his ‘job’, as well as Watson. They are both exceptionally devoted in issues like these, therefore they are both seen to be valiant.
The protagonist in the story ‘Tell Tale Heart,’ written by Edgar Allan Poe, is depicted entirely differently from the way Sherlock Holmes is portrayed. In this story, the main character is anonymous, and the murder of the victim is seen through the criminal’s eyes, which is the central character himself. The anonymous character expresses himself through the emotion he feels at the moment of the crime. The reader would view him as an obsessed criminal, who is portrayed as being an irrational character, unlike Holmes. He seems to be obsessed with his own actions as he notes everything in precise detail, ‘I moved it slowly – very, very slowly.’ Through out the whole story, the delinquent tries to prove to the reader that he is not insane, though the matter, the ‘eye of a vulture’, that initiates the criminal deed literally explains that he is. The fact that he starts of like ‘TRUE! – Nervous…but why will you say that I am mad?’ instantaneously, causes the reader to realize that he is what he is denying. Most of the time he boasts about his own ‘sagacity,’ clearly endeavoring to emphasize the fact that he is sane, and is seen to be heartless as he commits the murder and smiles ‘gaily’ and ‘I heard a slight groan and I knew it was the groan of mortal terror…although I chuckled at heart.’
The authors, Conan Doyle and Allan Poe, express the state of mind of their characters, by the approach of language they utilize. The way they achieve it is going to be discussed.
The way Watson narrates Holmes’ outlook on matters through vocal communication is seen to be deferential, but when Holmes speaks himself, he is seen to be formal along with being coherent. When Holmes’ converses, his observations are explicable, along with the fact that his deductions are linked with logical reasons behind them, ‘The left arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less then seven places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you sit on the left-hand side of the driver.’ (The Adventure Of The Speckled Band.) To the reader, Holmes’ portrays his own intellect through the long sentences he uses to verbalize his thoughts on a case, ‘I can only claim that I instantly reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not come either from the window or the door’. With a combination of intricate terminology, ‘indulge in ferocious quarrels’ and long sentence lengths, Holmes’, plus with the style of Watson’s narrating techniques, is able to augment his own image as being a rational thinker. This also creates a slow effect, when being read, which is comprehensible for the reader, though not as accessible to Watson’s way of thinking. Overall, it could be seen that Watson depicts Holmes as a honourable person, even through language, and Holmes’ speech articulates his image.
On the other hand, Watson seems to be not so rational, dissimilar to his partner, Holmes, in formulating observations and deductions. When read, Watson’s observations and deductions do not seem to come from rational grounds, ‘I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine,’ but his sentence length, like Holmes, is moderately long. When narrating, Watson uses inverted word order in speech, ‘the name is familiar to me,’ said he,’ and this makes the style of the story seem more sophisticated to the reader. Watson’s use of adjectives is reasonably refined, ‘somber errand,’ but it does not seems so, due to the way Watson tends to think, that is to say Watson is not as sharp-minded as his partner Holmes, therefore lowering down his sophisticated image. When observing, Watson, at times, describes things through comparison, ‘fleshless nose…resemblance to a fierce old bird prey,’ showing that he has a great view of things when observing but not as such a strong mind to formulate rational deductions. ` Even though his speech contains long sentences, he is, most of the time, perplexed by the case or by his partner’s aptitude, therefore, there can be a relation between the reader’s mind and his mind.
The protagonist, who is anonymous in the story, ‘Tell Tale Heart,’ has been depicted as an obsessive individual. This can be seen, through the use of different techniques Poe has used, such as the utilization of repetition, with the intention of accentuating his own actions, during the murder. ‘…I kept pushing it on steadily, steadily,’ and the use of the pronoun, ‘I,’ and the determiner, ‘my’ augments his obsession with himself. He uses rhetorical questions in order to make the reader believe that he is not mad, ‘why will you say that I am mad?’ The sentence length, contradicting to the way Holmes’ speaks, is exceptionally short, causing the reader to pace through the story. Poe also uses sub-ordinate clauses, ‘so you see he would have been a very profound old man, indeed, to suspect that every night, just at twelve, I looked upon him while he slept,’ and this also facilitates to speed up the story, when read. The protagonist attempts to convey his disturbance through the use of hyphens, ‘TRUE! – Nervous – very…’ and ‘…my senses – not destroyed – not dulled them.’ Poe, compared to Doyle, uses more expressive and self-obsessed words that portray the criminal’s emotions, ‘I went boldly’ and ‘…spoke courageously.’ The utilization of inverted word order accentuates the protagonist’s expressive thoughts, ‘Object there is none….’ The adjectives used by Poe is intricate, ‘sagacity’ and ‘suppositions,’ but it does not seem so because Poe combined the use of short sentences, therefore it could be suggested that Poe ought to use a varied sentence length to sustain his sophistication. Compared to Doyle’s way of writing, the adjectives used by Poe tend to describe the emotions of the protagonist, whereas the adjectives used by Doyle describe how everything looks, ‘dressed in black.’ Poe also uses many adverbs, such as ‘wisely,’ ‘gently,’ and ‘cautiously,’ to portray the actions of the protagonist as something right, therefore trying to prove to the reader that the main character of his story was sane.
Both Poe and Doyle lay out their story in the general method, starting from an introduction, leading onto a problem, development, followed with a crisis and eventually ending with a resolution. Although both authors wrote their stories following the common formulaic plot, the way crime has been portrayed and how it is solved can be compared, within their stories.
A common introduction, written by Doyle, would begin with Watson commenting on previous cases that have been deciphered by Holmes or either he would compliment his devoted partner, ‘I find many tragic, some comic, a large number merely strange, but none commonplace…’ Within the introduction the case, which the story is going to be based on, is phased in as well by Watson.
The problem tends to start with a distraught woman, who comes to Holmes with the case concerning herself or a relative of hers, ‘…she was…in a pitiable state of agitation.’ It is apparent that Holmes converse with the client more formally, ‘Pray be precise as to details,’ than his partner, Watson, and is very reassuring, ‘You must not fear…soon set matters right.’
The problem leads into the development, where Holmes and Watson go to the crime scene and gather up clues as to formulate deductions. The way Watson and Holmes solve the case at hand can also be compare. As discussed before, Holmes solves the case submitted to him almost instantaneously whereas it takes Watson a while to do so. This is because Holmes has an eye for the most negligible details related to a case whereas Watson tends to observe or deduce the obvious, for example Holmes said ‘You saw the ventilator too?’ and Watson replies ‘Yes, but I do not think that it is a very unusual thing to have….’ Though in fact, at the end, the ‘ventilator’ was the cause of the victim’s death. Holmes works his way through the case logically while Watson jumps from one piece of evidence to the other and due to this fact, they differ the most. Both Watson and Holmes are severely devoted to their work and they undertake any risks in order to get to the bottom of a case as in ‘The Adventure of the Speckled Band’ they stay overnight at the residence of the crime scene, knowing that their ‘life may depend on it’, waiting for something extraordinary to ensue.
The development leads onto the crisis of the plot, which, in the case of ‘The Adventure of the Speckled Band,’ a snake called the ‘swamp adder’ is the “weapon” exploited to murder the victim. Holmes captures the snake and locks it in ‘an iron safe,’ once more showing his gallantry. Eventually, the resolution ends with a rational explanation, linking observations with deductions, from Holmes, and Watson is left perplexed, as he always is, ‘bed was clamped to the floor…something passing through the hole and coming to the bed….’
Poe introduces, through a first person perspective, the protagonist attempting to prove to the reader that he is sane, ‘…but why will you say that I am mad?’ The difference between Poe and Doyle is that Doyle tends to give in some information about the plot, whenever Watson gives a background about the plot. It seems to be more self-obsessive than Sherlock Holmes stories.
The problem in the plot is what initiated the idea of a murderer, which further proves to the reader that the protagonist is insane, as in ‘Tell Tale Heart’ the motive of the murder was the ‘Evil Eye.’ The protagonist himself says he had nothing against the ‘old man’ but he still proceeded with the deed, ‘Passion there was none. I loved the old man.’ He goes further into his emotive experiences when the ‘eye’ rested upon him, ‘whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold, and so by degrees…’ and this accentuates his self-obsessive attitude.
The development contains information for the reader on how the protagonist proceeded with the crime. As the story goes further into the murder, the protagonist develops his actions prior to the crime, ‘I turned the latch of his door and opened it – oh so gently!’ Whilst describing his actions, he continues to convey the reader that he is not mad, with the use of rhetorical questions, ‘would a madman have been so wise as this?’ The development is mainly focused on the actions and feelings of the protagonist and how he progressed into the murder but it does not describe, in detail, how he actually committed the crime, ‘in an instant I dragged him to the floor, and pulled the heavy bed over him.’
The crisis of the story occurs when the ‘officers’ arrive in order to search the protagonist’s premises. Though at first he is satisfied with the fact that he had left no signs of the deed and that he will not be caught, ‘no blood spot whatever. I had been too wary for that,’ his conscience starts to takeover, ‘I felt myself getting pale…my head ached…ringing in my ears. I gasped for breathe…more vehemently,’ and at this point, his reaction seems disproportional to the event. Ultimately, the resolution ends with the protagonist assuming that the ‘ringing’ he is hearing is from the beating of the ‘old man’s’ heart, and due to that, he confesses his crime, ‘I admit the deed! – Tear up the planks! Here, here! – It is the beating of his hideous heart.’
Overall, comparing the structure of the two stories, ‘Tell Tale Heart’ and “The Adventure of the Speckled Band,’ it could be seen that they both follow a formulaic plot, but the authors accentuate on different parts of the plot, such as the problem or development, in different proportions, either emphasizing more or less on it. For example, Poe emphasizes the self-obsessive actions and feelings of the protagonist in the development more than the others, whereas Doyle emphasizes more on the problem, which is discussed between the client and Holmes. In Doyle’s stories there are many characters, which are significant in the plot in their own way, such as Holmes, Watson, the convict and the victim, whereas in Poe’s stories the protagonist is the victim himself. The language is intricate, in both stories, from their own point of views, but because of Holmes’ logical reasoning behind everything and Poe’s self-obsessive actions, it does not seem so.
