From reading “The Speckled Band” by Arthur Conan Doyle, what do we learn about Victorian times?
In “The Speckled Band” we learn about daily life in Victorian times from the description of transport, clothes and houses. We also learn about Victorian society from the characters and their relationships with each other.
From the beginning of the story we are told about the manner of which Holmes and Watson lived. . The author tells us that they are two bachelors and that they live independently. We come across this in the text when it says, “Sharing rooms as bachelors”. This could propose that the two men lived separately but in the same mansion. Perhaps because they lived together, they were able to do things effortlessly and more independently. We see that Holmes and Watson have obviously inherited money. Mr Conan Doyle tells us “An acquirement of wealth” from this he implies that they have definitely inherited a fortune therefore they have no need to work. This suggests the their ancestors were very wealthy which tells us that Victorian times was lavish for some people. Dr. Roylott’s lose of wealth meant that he was required to “Obtain a medical degree”. This is verification of inferior status of paid employment and could suggest that having some sort of connection with the medical group was a lower position in the Victorian society and maybe Dr. Roylott’s is a bit jealous of Watson and Holmes wealth as they do not work whereas he has to. Holmes usually got up late, so he had a lot of freedom and leisure time. The narrator portrays Holmes’s feelings to crime fighting as, “The love of his art” which indicates that his hobby is a voluntary obsession. This enforces the idea that in Victorian culture, prosperous citizens can be able to pursue their hobbies thoroughly without being concerned about their money. Holmes and Watson are very wealthy and when Holmes says “Good-morning, madam” this proves that they are, as none of them have a partner so he must be speaking to their housekeeper. This shows how rich they are as they can afford a housekeeper. This gives them even more leisure time, as they don’t have to do any cooking or cleaning. This must mean that in Victorian times people had too much freedom and did not do much labour. You could say in Victorian times certain people were very lazy. From the passage, we can see that affluent citizens had vast lavish houses with servants in Victorian times. We can assume this when the author illustrates Helen’s mansion. Conan Doyle describes it as, “The manor-house”. The word manor also means mansion so you can assume that she is living in a mansion. This implies that she also might have had a rich family. All the bedrooms are on the ground floor this can suggest that Victorian people are lazy. The sitting rooms were in the central building this gives you an idea of how huge the houses are during thee Victorian times. All the buildings had many rooms inside because maybe they had a big family. Perhaps in Victorian times people lived with enormous family’s.
