Sherlock Holmes

Authors Avatar

Matthew Pike                23/04/2008

In “The Speckled Band”, Sherlock Holmes refers to Dr. Watson as his “intimate friend”. Show how Sir Arthur Conan Doyle explores the characters of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson through this close relationship.

“The Speckled Band” is written by Arthur Conan Doyle part of the 56 Sherlock Holmes stories. It was the eighth of twelve stories collected in the book “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” first published in 1892. I will also be referring to other stories.

“The Speckled Band” written by Doyle is about a young woman, Helen Stoner, who comes to Sherlock Holmes for help about the bizarre death of her sister, Julia. Julia was engaged to be married as well as about to earn 250 pounds every year, which in Victorian days was a lot of money, from her late mother’s income. But, after she and her sister had conversed in Julia’s bedroom, Helen rushed back to her sister as she lay there struggling to breathe; final words being ‘the speckled band’ dying soon after. The feeling from Miss Stoner is that since she is engaged, she could have the same fate.

Holmes soon realises that the value of the mother’s estate if far more decreased than was originally expected; as a result, Holmes deduces that if the two sisters were to marry, Dr. Roylatt, the impetuous father and surveyor of the estate, would be left with very little, even if one were to marry. This gave Holmes his first inclination as to who may have murdered Julia, this being Dr. Roylatt as he had a strong motive to stop the marriages. Therefore Dr. Roylatt had become Holmes’ main suspect and adjoined with this is the fact that this would not be Roylatt’s first murder as he drowned a man when out in India.  

Join now!

Several facts about Stoke Moran, the Roylatt’s domicile, are both inexplicable and alarming. First is the sounds heard on the night, as well as the nights leading up to Julia’s death. Late at night a metallic clunking sound could be heard in addition to a low whistling sound. The sounds were initially thought to be the animals that Dr. Roylatt keeps in his gardens, or the gypsies that Roylatt keeps on the estate as well. In addition, over Julia’s bed was a bell cord, which did not have a bell on the other end, confusing everyone. Miss Stoner has already ...

This is a preview of the whole essay