“Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, remarked the driver.”
This shows quite well the Victorian class structure, because of when the driver calls Sherlock Holmes “sir”, meaning that he is “above” the driver and is more important. It also shows that the driver is not as important because he knows who owns the house, as Dr. Grimesby Roylott is rich and therefore has power, meaning that in Victorian times, the wealthier you were, the more power you had. This leads me on to my next point about the various “minority” groups of the time. These were the people that were seen as less important in the class system, normally the workers and as seen in this story gypsies and women.
“Ha, I am glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the fire.”
Throughout the story the only women we meet are the servant, Mrs. Hudson, and Helen Stoner, who is the “damsel in distress, all the rest of the characters are men. This shows quite well, that the attitudes towards women in Victorian times, were, that they were less important than the men. Of course there are also the gypsies:
“It must be those wretched gypsies in the plantation”
This shows how much gypsies were looked down upon in Victorian times. At first the gypsies seem to be just another addition to the story, but actually they are quite important to the plot as they are used as a “red herring”. These are used a lot throughout the story to deceive and slightly confuse the reader so that they don’t figure the ending out straight away. This helps to keep the reader enthralled and excited as they try to figure out who committed the crime and how they did it.
“I do not know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which o many of them wear over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which she used”
This throws the reader completely off track and makes the ending and the build up towards the ending, a lot more exciting for the reader. This is the same in almost all of the Sherlock Holmes stories, where the layout is simple; an introduction to the case and the person in need of help, the gathering of clues and evidence, the build up to the capture of the suspect and then the actual capture of the person and a description of how he or she did it.
1:The introduction:
“My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in England.
This introduces the person in distress and makes it clear straight away that her and her family are rich and quite high up in the class system.
2:The gathering of clues:
“They seem to have been of a most interesting character-dummy bell ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate.”
These clues are told to the reader so that he or she is involved with the story as they try and figure out how the crime was committed and by whom. This helps to draw the reader in and keep them reading, whilst red herrings keep them from finding out the truth before it is told in the story.
3:The build up:
“You have evidently seen more in these rooms than was visible to me.”
“No, but I fancy I have deduced a little more.”
In this part Sherlock Holmes always tells both Watson and the reader very little about what he has found out and what he thinks, which is always delayed until the very end of the story. This helps keep the reader interested and makes sure that they read to the end because then they find out how the crime was committed.
4:The capture and explanation:
“The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was furnished with a supply of creatures, I felt I was on the right track.”
In the final section Holmes lets the reader and Watson in on how the crime was committed and how he solved it. The way by which the crime was committed is normally quite simple and not fancy so that the reader will believe it and understand it. By this time the reader is normally way off of the track of how it was done, thanks mainly to the red herrings and the few things that Holmes has said. This is the same with Watson, as he is also left in the dark throughout the story, like the reader. This helps a bond to be established between Watson and the reader, which helps because Watson is the narrator:
“It was early in April, in the year ’83, that I woke one morning to find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my bed.”
This immediately establishes Watson as the narrator and that he is recalling past events that have already happened. Also, throughout the story a bond is established with Watson, as he tries to solve the crimes along with the reader:
“I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose that could answer I confess is more than I could imagine.”
Watson’s failure to solve parts of the crimes not only establishes a bond between him and the reader, but also helps to emphasise Holmes’ intelligence when he makes his denouncements. This in turn amazes the reader further and helps create a certain trait in Sherlock Holmes that people find fun and exciting. This leads me on to my final point of why I think that not only “The Speckled Band” is so appealing to the modern reader, but also all of the other Sherlock Holmes stories. This is the simple fact that Conan Doyle has spent so much time in creating a character that we can both relate to, and enjoy reading about:
“I am not so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him that my grip was not much more feeble than his own.”
This shows a fun “laugh in the face of danger” side of Holmes which is a trait that a lot of people like to see. There are also other sides of Holmes that we see throughout the story, like the caring one:
“You must not fear, we shall soon set matters right, I have no doubt.”
This side of Holmes makes the reader like him even more as he is a “good guy” and cares about people. Also, Conan Doyle has spent time considering Sherlock Holmes’ habits, like smoking a pipe as he sits in a chair, and his overall intelligence that the reader finds both exciting and fascinating, making an overall picture of a suave and sophisticated person. Also, because Holmes is in all of the stories, we get to learn about him over a number of stories and so the character develops further. This keeps the reader enthralled in the series and so helps to make the stories more exciting, because we wonder how Holmes is going to solve the crime this time, and we like to see the developments in his character. This development in character is what held such a grip on people, for example, when Conan Doyle tried to kill Sherlock Holmes off in “The Adventure of the Final Problem”, there was a public outcry and people were so upset that more than twenty thousand cancelled their subscription to the Strand magazine (where the stories were printed). This shows how much people loved the character and how much they had come to believe in him because of the amount of believable thinking that had gone into him. This is what I think makes the story “The Speckled Band” so popular in modern times, and what made it so popular in Victorian times.
