Jack the Ripper was a deadly man that lived in the Victorian Age and this is a typical example of the crime that was being committed during that Age. Throughout the books, Doyle uses stereotypical heroes and villains. One good example of a villain is in ‘The speckled Band’. We are told of a tall dark man that wore ‘a black top hat, a long frock coat, and a pair of high gaiters, with a hunting crop swinging in his hand.’ Not only can you picture a villain straight away from the clothes, his ‘large face, seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and marked with every evil passion’, his physical appearance was somewhat scary. The role of the police in the Victorian age, was looked upon by many as ‘nothing’. Doyle picked up on this and introduced Holmes as a character that dislikes the police(just as the Victorians did) and picked up on cases that the police had either dropped or thought unimportant.
Crime was committed and social norms were broken due to great difference in society (social class systems). In ‘The Scandal in Bohemia’ there is an insight in Royals. The crimes were usually committed by those of the lower classes, hoping for a better life, and the crimes committed were done on those of the higher, richer classes. People committed the crimes because crime in the Victorian age was very serious, and nothing could match up to Jack the Ripper so stealing a jewel or some money was nothing.
Crime would have interested a Victorian audience as they disliked the police force, and were probably intrigued by the idea of a detective. In their lives he may have almost come a part of them, and Doyle produced more and more Holmes stories. It interests us because its all about revolutionary ideals – ‘breaking out of the mould’.In the 19th century, women were excepted to stay at home ,so therefore women would have been interested, maybe they were shocked at what their doing and now in the 21st century women would be pleased that women were standing up for themselves.
In the 1890’s, Sherlock Holmes provided people of London with a hope that one day Jack the Ripper may be caught, they also saw him as an idol and someone to look up to, being a figure of high social status, many people would have aspired to him. Today we view Holmes as pompous, arrogant and slightly big-headed, as we can see how he looks down upon people, and how he treats Watson badly, using him as an accessory, rather than a co-partner or assistant.
A stereotypical detective has a sharp mind, is observant, occasionally odd or strange. They like to be in charge and have a dislike of authority and seem to never fail. They have a lack of home life or family and do not care about others options. From looking at these key characteristics, it can easily be seen that Holmes has all or more of these; he is well known for he incredible observation skills. All of the Sherlock Holmes Stories and detective cases are written in first person narrative. It shows this in ‘The specked band’ "In glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend Sherlock Holmes" In Sherlock Holmes, most of the cases have a touch of melodrama in it. You can tell this by the layout of each story.He views his job as‘time filler’ which saves him from “ennui”; this suggests he doesn’t have a life outside of detective work, and that his work is his life. He doesn’t encounter love, as he feels it will interfere with his job, and cloud his judgement in a role which he sees as being vital within the area he lived. Holmes and his relationship with Watson is very similar to Inspector Morse who was described as often miserable and cranky; he would rather drink beer than talk to you. Middle-aged with white hair, he enjoys opera and classical music. A thinker and worker, he is ably assisted by Sergeant Lewis. As I have already said, Holmes used Watson as an accessory rather than an assistant, but I think deep down, there is a slight element of real friendship. Holmes, like most Victorians disliked the police; he thought they were pointless as he was always picking up crimes they had dropped. He had a specific way of working and many methods, a very popular one was deduction and conjecture (guess work), and this was mainly performed by observation.
Holmes was known for his use of disguise to get more background information. In a scandal in Bohemia, Holmes acts as “a drunken-looking groom”. Watson exclaims “I had to look three times before I was certain that it was indeed he”.
He takes on un-usual cases, which are slightly abnormal and bizarre. This is part of the attraction of the mysteries, as normal cases wouldn’t attract readers and there would be less scope for unusual endings or twists. To solve this crimes, Holmes performs a ‘formula’, which is started by the person who the crime has been committed against explains all they have to tell him, he takes in every small detail. He then looks at the victim and can tell many things by the way the sit and hands and small things. We can see this in ‘The Red-Headed League’, where Holmes is talking about what he observed about the victim. “You hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger than your left.” As you can see from that quote, he picked up on very small things but could tell a lot from them. Although he uses conventional detective methods mainly, his ability to notice and catalogue smaller insignificant facts is somewhat unusual, this adds to his power because he alone understands the answer, leaving the reader guessing. In this respect, he can be compared to Hercule Poirot who was known as ‘extremely observant’. After the observation is over, he will usually schedule a visit to the site of the crime to add to his vast amount of information. Then through conjecture, deduction and proof he finally solves the crime. We can see this in the story of ‘The man with the twisted lip’- ‘I am staying there while I conduct the inquiry’. Here is talking about staying at the victim’s house, with the wife of the victim, whilst looking further into the matter.
‘Red herrings’ are used to provide suspense, excitement and tension, making the reader want to read on. Many ‘red herrings’ are used in ‘The Speckled Band’. We are told of a baboon and a cheetah in the grounds, which may have had a link with the deaths. However, when we are told about a mysterious speckled band, we immediately assume that the gypsies with speckled head bands, who also camp on the grounds, could have been associated with the death. Doyle uses these red herrings very effectively, and uses them so it gives the reader the wrong impression of the crime but yet again, Holmes knows the real truth of the crime. It makes Holmes appear as a far superior character because he looks at the facts, whilst the reader can become so involved with these side-plots or ‘red herrings’ that they are blinded to the truth. Also, due to the fact that Watson, as our narrator, falls for these ‘red herrings’ means we believe him, because we are “closer, in a sense, to him.
Conan Doyle uses suspense to keep his reader interested in many various ways. One of these is the opening- some of which can be very dramatic. His description of people are very detailed which builds up a mental picture of the scenario. Sherlock constantly refuses to reveal the answer to the end, but says things that intrigue the reader. In the mysteries, Holmes provides a driving wagon for the cases, solving them whilst also making them seem realistic - rather than a far-fetched idea which could only happen within literature, and not within the modern world. He also concludes each story with a ‘summing up’ of how the plot has developed, and how he has been crucial to the case. In this, we find out the final resolution to the case, which we have been unaware of up until the end. It keeps the reader in suspense and makes people read the entire story just to find out the ending, which is usually different to how they imagined it, due to the red-herrings within Sherlock Holmes’ adventures.
I think that the stories show classic detective genre as all the stories have a classic villain. Also Doyle uses short, dramatic sentences. He shows a lot of expression through his punctuation. Doyle creates suspense (making it a classic detective genre) by using the word ‘suddenly’.
