Tim Oliver 10p
Looking at ‘The Final Problem’ and two
other stories, explore the way in
which villains are presented
I have chosen to look at three villains from three different stories. These are Dr Roylott from ‘The Speckled Band’, Professor Moriarty from ‘The Final Problem’ and Jim Browner from ‘The Cardboard Box’. Each of these villains has his own distinctive qualities. One is a victim but also a villain, one is just plain horrible, and one is the most cunning head of crime in the world. They are all diverse in the way they go about their ‘dirty work’ and they all have completely different motives.
Jim Browner in ‘The Cardboard Box’ isn’t described in detail until the end of the story. At the beginning all we are told is that he was a sailor so was probably very strong and good with his hands. Where as in the other two stories the appearance of the man is important in this book it isn’t. Jim seems to be a law abiding character who tries to keep a low profile.. He also seems to be a good and loyal husband. We know both of these things because Jim voluntarily owns up to the fact that he did kill his wife and Alec Faibain. He also doesn’t try to conceal his guilt and is not afraid of what will happen to him ‘you can hang me, or do what you like with me, but you cannot punish me as I have been punished already.’ This shows that he knows he has done wrong but he doesn’t care anymore. He then goes on to say that he had been taken over by some mysterious power, ‘I was like a wild beast that had tasted blood.’ Although Jim may seem to have been ill-treated we actually know that when he knew about Alec and his wife he began to drink again. This had something to do with his temper and the murder. Throughout the story, Watson, the narrator, doesn’t give us room to suspect browner when he is described as ‘a fairly nice man’. We also don’t suspect him as he seems to be doing normal things until the end when we hear Jims side of the story through his confession. He makes us feel sorry for Browner and the way he has been treated (implying he is not the villain but the victim) when he tells us how he observed ‘the two chatting and laughing together, with never a thought for me.’ Because of this we know that Holmes thinks he is a victim. Although there is a lot to say that he is a victim there are also passages to suggest he is a villain, ‘Crushed his head like an egg’, and ‘if I could have seen him, I should have killed him’ talking about Alec Faibain earlier on in the book. These two quotations seem to broaden out the view of him. All of this helps the reader to build up a broad picture of what Jim was like.
