The author cleverly structured “The Speckled Band” as it gives out a series of red herrings, the cheetah, the baboon, and the gypsies are all used to play on the readers prejudice by creating mystery and suspense about whether they cause the death of Julia Stoner. The purposes of this these red herrings are to miss lead the reader. The gypsies do this in a particular way, as they are known to cause trouble and commit theft. The effect of this technique is that the readers end up wanting to solve the crime themselves and want to unfold the mysterious case. The gypsies are used in the same way the cheetah is, as they have been branded as vicious, so one can say that they are a stereotype. Although these clues are given out, we get ideas of what really happened to Julia Stoner, and so we follow the clues and try to play the roll of Sherlock Holmes, detective.
Furthermore in ‘The Speckled Band’, the author presents a stereotypical villain in the character of Dr Roylott.
‘In a fit of anger…...he beat his native butler to death’
The reader now anticipates that due to this violence, Dr Roylott is possibly capable of a murder. This intrigues us and we now fear for the female protagonist, Helen Stoner. If we were to find out the villain of the story from the beginning it wouldn’t be as effective. The effect of this technique is we are often making our own judgements of the case, because we want to find out whom the villain actually is this amplifies mystery and tension. However in some of his stories Conan Doyle cunningly creates characters that we expect to be a villain but turn out to be innocent. The reason for this is just his attempt to confuse and mislead us. For example in ‘The man with the twisted lip’ the character Isa misleads us from the start he is used to introduce the location for the case. This is another example of a redherring that the author has used to intrigue us. The impact of this is that we are often surprised why we were misled or we have a sense of achievement because the device did not mislead us.
Throughout the beginning of the story the credibility of the narrator, Dr Watson, is built up to ensure a relationship of trust between him and the reader. This means that everything he says is instantly believable and this amplifies the mystery and suspense. I think the story is in the first person narrative, so a lot more information is disclosed about the murder case before the murder story is told properly. The sentences,
"He refused to associate himself with any investigation which did not tend towards the unusual" and "but a promise of secrecy was made at the time"
Create a lot of tension and excitement for the reader. You begin to wonder what the investigation might concern and self-opinions are often formed due to the element of secrecy in these cases.
The author creates suspense in the first paragraph of many of his short stories.
For example in ‘The Speckled Band’ by adding the sentence,
'Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which present more singular features than that which was associated with the well-known Surrey Family of the Roylott's of Stoke Moran.'
As a reader you are immediately engaged because you begin to wonder what the singular features of this case may be and how the case could possibly be so different. Therefore it is an intriguing way of starting the story.
Another example of this technique is
The setting of ‘The Speckled Band’ is used to create suspense because the boarded up house of Stoke Moran is built on the top of a hill, in a remote location in the countryside. The remote isolated house is a gothic convention as it fits the gothic genre this is very intriguing. Therefore this technique is effective.
‘Repairs were made in the left wing, and I have to move into the chambers in which my sister died’
This statement is mysterious and as a reader you get anxious about Helen having to move into her sisters room in which she died.
Another technique Conan Doyle uses to amplify the mystery is the manner of the characters he crafts. For example in ‘The Speckled band’ the manner of Helen Stoner is effective. The readers' first impression of Helen Stoner is that she is grieving over someone's death, due to her appearance. She is "dressed in black and heavily veiled". The reader is encouraged to feel sympathy for Helen Stoner and anxious to find out who has died and how, as she is clearly in mourning. The simile used to portray her fear and agitation suggests she is weak and vulnerable, maybe even the next victim. These are typical features of the Gothic genre, a helpless women in danger with nobody to seek help from.
"Restless frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal"
This powerful simile conveys to the reader how she is being "hunted" like some kind of prey. This assists in building up tension and suspense, as the reader is unaware of the details of the death, it is still a mystery.
Conan Doyle's use of nouns, when Helen is speaking suggests how scared she is.
"It is fear, Mr Holmes. It is terror"
This displays that either Helen Stoner is exaggerating the situation, or something terrible has happened to cause this extreme horror. The reader is intrigued, as it is not yet understandable why she is so upset. Therefore the nouns used create suspense, by controlling the emotions of the reader.
