People love to see how a supposedly unsolvable mystery is solved. ‘“You speak of danger, you have evidently seen more in these rooms than was visible to me” “no but I fancy I may have deduced a little more”’. At this point in the story Holmes has already solved the mystery but we still have no idea how Holmes has done it. Like Watson who is also confused as to how Holmes has done this. We think that Holmes knows because he says ‘“I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind,” said Miss Stoner … “Perhaps I have”/ “then for pity’s sake tell me what was the cause of my sister’s death.”/ “I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak.”’ Because you now know that the mystery is solvable you try to work out how it all happened but you realise that it is still totally oblivious to you as to how it can be solved. This is why murder mysteries were so popular in Conan Doyle’s days. “The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me” at the end of the story we find out what killed Miss Stoner and now Dr. Roylott as well. I found this part of the story very exciting because suddenly all the clues fit into place, like how Miss Stoner died, that the speckled band was a deadly snake, the whistle was how Dr. Roylott controlled the snake, the metallic sound was the safe door closing as Dr. Roylott put the snake in it before it bit him, and Miss Stoner pointed to the doctors room because she had realised that it was him who had killed her, all of these were clues that were given earlier on in the story and finally they all slot in to place and make sense.
Conan Doyle Creates red herrings in his Sherlock Holmes stories to lead us astray, and give us an exciting and unexpected ending, for example when Holmes says “I do not know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of the gypsies wear on their heads might have suggested the strange adjective that she used.” This is supposed to lead us astray from the true ending by putting lots of thoughts into our heads as to who it could be, with clues that are quite convincing but not hard evidence, and I think that it is a very effective method of creating mystery because you don’t know which clues are true and which are false. Conan Doyle also implies that it might be the exotic animals that caused the death of Miss Stoner.
Conan Doyle uses atmosphere to allow the reader to understand what is happening in the story more easily and to make it more exciting and gripping to read. One way Doyle creates atmosphere is through setting. This produces a clearer image of what the setting inside the story looks like which can add atmosphere “yellow light twinkling in front of us through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand” this sentence generates a very good atmosphere because the twinkling light suggests that Holmes and Watson are still a long distance from their destination, hinting that something might come out of the ‘gloom’ and attack or kill them which makes the atmosphere very intense.
Conan Doyle establishes a good atmosphere by using grotesque descriptions, “a large face seared with a thousand wrinkles… gave him some what the look of a fierce old bird of prey.” This image, if pictured is a very unpleasant sight to see, or even imagine. ‘Seared’ sounds like he has been cut many times with a knife that is red hot and has burnt the wrinkles into his face. This makes the man sound like a very vicious and dangerous person. Seared is a very nasty word because it is sometimes used to say ‘searing pain’ or similar so the word has connotations of death and pain. We are shown that he is violent another time when “He beat his native butler to death” this quote makes it sound as if this man is racist because Doyle could have just said ‘beat his butler’ but he decided to add that the butler was native just to show that Dr. Roylott is a racist man. It also shows how the doctor is devoid of normal feelings because to beat someone to death is very inhumane.
Conan Doyle uses the pets of the household to create atmosphere. This is shown in the story when Holmes and Watson are walking up to house at night and they get a shock; “A hideous and distorted child, who threw itself on the grass with writhing limbs.” This sounds really awful and is quite scary and detailed in its description, the ‘child’ actually turns out to be the Doctors baboon. This creates atmosphere because you don’t know what has appeared and whether or not it will hurt or kill Holmes or Watson. We are told about the animals at another time, Conan Doyle intends on us realising how dangerous the animals are when he tells us that “The cheetah was indeed at liberty.” This shows what could have happened if Holmes and Watson had stayed outside in the dark and again creates atmosphere through the possibility of death and mystery. We are told that there is something in the room, but we don’t realise what the animal is because its just referred to as ‘it’ so that a sense of mystery is held on to for a little bit longer, we are shown this when Holmes says; “You see it Watson, you see it?!” here Holmes and Watson are sitting in the dark and Holmes has spotted Dr. Roylott’s snake but Watson hasn’t seen it yet which makes the scene very tense because what if the snake bit Watson, seeing as he doesn’t know where it is? The animals are first mentioned in one of the beginning scenes when Miss Stoner tells Holmes that the village people are scared of the exotic animals that Dr. Roylott keeps. We expect Holmes and Watson to encounter the animals because Miss Stoner tells us that they run free around the grounds, which adds fear to the story because we then know that if Holmes and Watson so much as set foot on Dr. Roylott’s land then there could be one of the exotic animals there.
Through out the story the reader is engaged by tension until the climax at the end. Conan Doyle does this to keep us interested in his writing so that we read on. He also creates tension with surroundings and hints of danger. We are shown Watson’s feelings when he says; “How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil?” in this quote Holmes and Watson are waiting in pitch black darkness to find out who or what the killer is. It is very tense because you don’t know when it or they are going to come into the room, and whether or not it might kill them. We are shown how shocked Watson is when he says; ‘“Oh my god!” I whispered “did you see it?!”’ you don’t know what is in front of them so you become more interested in what is happening because you want to find out what “it” is. “It” turns out to be the Doctors baboon running around the grounds at night which is a relief but in a way it makes you tenser because you remember the cheetah which will also be hanging around in the grounds, and is a much more deadly animal. We are told that Dr. Roylott is a violent man when we are told that he “Beat his native butler to death” this shows that Dr. Roylott is a very vicious and dangerous person which worries us because Holmes and Watson are sneaking around his property behind his back and this makes us think that if Holmes and Watson are caught they might be beaten to death as well as the butler.
Tension is created through time when Conan Doyle puts Holmes and Watson in the dark waiting for Miss Stoner’s killer, and we are shown how the time passes; “twelve o’clock and one and two and three” the and’s that Doyle adds instead of just saying one, two, three seems to draw out the time and make the steak out seem even longer than it already is, increasing the tension while holes and Watson sit in the dark. Doyle adds tension to the story when he writes “How long they seemed, those quarters.” Here they are talking about how the clock chimes every 15 minutes but saying that they seemed longer, thus adds tension because get the feeling that they are getting tired and could fall asleep soon which could kill them if the killer arrived while they were sleeping or ‘off their guard’ and if they didn’t die they would have to repeat the process in order to solve he mystery which could be dangerous because there is a risk that the Doctor would catch them.
Conan Doyle creates tension through characters to keep us interested. We are shown that Dr. Roylott is not a very nice man when he says “I am a dangerous man to fall foul of!… see that you keep yourself out of my grip!” Dr. Roylott finds Holmes and threatens him with strength because he has followed his daughter to Holmes and wants to know why she was visiting him. The tension here makes us want to read on because you don’t know how Holmes is going to react to this treat and what will happen in the future between these two characters. Holmes and Watson are at the Doctors house and are troubled, we are shown this when Miss Stoner says “good heavens he has followed us” Miss Stoner has spotted Dr. Roylott and doesn’t want him to find out that Holmes and Watson are there. We are interested by this because we don’t know what is going to happen and whether or not the doctor will notice Holmes and Watson’s presence. When Miss Stoner says this you get the feeling that she is shocked and scared of what might happen because she knows that he is a very strong and dangerous man.
Conan Doyle engages the readers’ interest and imagination in many different ways in this story. I think that the most successful way though was without a doubt the characters. This is because is it weren’t for the interesting way that Watson wrote his diary, the descriptions of things wouldn’t be nearly as interesting. If it wasn’t for the way that Holmes is so clever and entertaining then the mysteries would not be able to be so complex and the story wouldn’t flow as well as it does, because Holmes would not solve them so quickly.
