Arthur Conan Doyle used very detailed descriptions of the setting and location in the two stories to create a certain atmosphere. “The Head Headed League” was set in London, mainly around Saxe-Couburg Square, in 1891. Arthur Conan Doyle created an atmosphere by saying that Saxe-Couburg Square is a “pokey, little, shabby-genteel place”, which immediately makes the reader imagine a worn out and cramped place, also it makes the reader suspect that something bad happens there, because there is often trouble in such places. The Square is described as being “dingy”, which makes the reader think that the place is dark and dirty with smoke and grime. The writer even describes the atmosphere as being “uncongenial” so obviously it is not a very pleasant place to live in. This atmosphere is created so that the reader can deduct that Jabez Wilson wasn’t very well off and that he desperately needed the money that Mr Duncan Ross gave him to look after his home and business.
“The Speckled Band” was mainly set in Stoke Moran, Surrey, in 1883. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created an atmosphere by saying that the house is half renovated and half in a ruin. The building itself is described as having a “high central portion” and “two wings”. This sounds like it once was a very big and grand house, but over the past couple of years Dr Roylott didn’t have enough money to look after it. He didn’t have enough money to look after the whole house so he modernized half of the house, so the left half was left with broken windows “blocked with wooden boards” and with the roof being “partly caved in”. In contrast, the right part of the house was “comparatively modern”. This atmosphere is created so that the reader can deduct that Dr Roylott didn’t have enough money to look after the house, and the extra sum of money that would go to Helen Stoner after her marriage would have ruined him.
The main characters in all of the Sherlock Holmes stories are Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson.
Dr Watson is Holmes’ colleague, who appears to be a lot weaker then him in solving crimes. The main reason for this, seems that Dr Watson doesn’t notice things that Holmes does, like when they were both observing Mr Jabez Wilson in “The Red Headed League” Watson noticed the outside appearance, such as that he was wearing “baggy grey shepherd’s check trousers”, whereas Holmes noticed much deeper things, such as that he’s done manual labour because his right hand is bigger than his left. Also the language that Holmes uses is a lot more mysterious then the language that Watson uses which suggests to the reader that Watson is less educated then Holmes.
Holmes uses many different techniques to solve the crimes in both stories, mainly he follows clues and uses his own intelligence. Holmes is very skilful, he is not only a great detective but also a master of disguise. This was shown in both “The Man With The Twisted Lip” and “A Scandal in Bohemia”, where Holmes disguised himself as a drug addict and an old man.
Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson are similar to a few modern day detectives like Inspector Morse and Detective Lewis because they too follow clues to solve the crime and they work as a duo.
Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson follow clues to make deductions and solve the crimes. The first clue in “The Red Headed League” was that the clerk agreed to work for half wages which meant that he was either not very clever of he had a special reason for wanting to work at the pawnbrokers. Holmes assumes the second is true. The advertisement for the Red Headed League was another clue because it seemed almost as though it was targeted at Jabez Wilson, which was very suspicious. The nature of the job was another clue because it was use-less therefore we could deduct that the job was merely an activity that would get Jabez Wilson out of the shop. Then when Jabez Wilson described his assistant Vincent Spaulding, Holmes instantly recognized the description and realized that his real name is John Clay and he’s a murderer. Spaulding’s interest in photography and his stained wrinkled trousers suggested that he did something dirty in the seller, like maybe he was digging a tunnel. Then Holmes tapped on the payment in front of Jabez Wilson’s shop and the tunnel wasn’t there, so he went to the back of the shop to find a City and Suburban bank, which is probably the place were the tunnel is going to. The fact that the Red Headed League was dissolved was a clue to that the digging had finished. And the fact that nineteenth-century banks were closed on weekends and Mondays so Holmes knew that John Clay would rob the bank on Saturday, leaving plenty of time to get away.
Sherlock Holmes also follows clues in “The Speckled Band”. The first clue is that a fraction of Dr Roylott’s money would go to Helen Stoner if she got married. Dr Roylott was very in need of money. He is also a very bad-tempered character so we are led to believe that he could do something terrible. Sherlock Holmes also inspected the house to find clues in Helen’s room, which were the bell-rope, which wasn’t connected to a wire and a ventilator, which couldn’t ventilate because it led into Dr Roylott’s room. This led Holmes to think that the thing that killed Julia must have been small enough to fit through a ventilator and then it would climb back up the rope and through the ventilator into Dr Roylott’s room. Then when Holmes examined Dr Roylott’s room he found a safe and a small saucer of milk. This led Holmes to believe that there has to be a small creature in the safe, which drinks the milk out of the saucer. So Holmes could predict that an unknown creature caused the death of Julia Stoner, maybe a creature Dr Roylott brought back with him from India, who’s poison the doctors couldn’t detect.
Red herrings are used to lead the detective into the wrong direction. There are no red herrings in “The Red Headed League” but in “The Speckled Band” there are a few. The first red herring in “The Speckled Band” is that at first Sherlock Holmes is led to believe that the gypsies killed Julia Stoner but he soon realised that Dr Roylott had a strong motive. Also at first Holmes was led to believe that the mystery was a lock room mystery, but after further investigation he realised that that’s not the case.
These clues make the reader involved in the story because they can themselves try to solve the mystery by following the clues. This aspect would appeal to a modern reader a lot because there aren’t many modern detective stories around now which have the clues so clearly explained.
The language used in the Sherlock Holmes’ stories is very different from the language used today because the stories were written over 100 years ago and language has developed a lot since then. For example instead of “erroneous” we would now say wrong and instead of saying “cordially” we would say in a friendly way. A lot of the old words used in the stories is very different from the language we use now therefore some parts are extremely difficult for a modern reader to read, but the reader can always guess what things mean or look then up in a dictionary. The use of language in the two stories shows that people a Victorian society were very different. There were some people who were very rich and some extremely poor. Only the richest people could be educated so the people who were showed everyone that they were educated through the use of posh language. So the difference in language between different classes in Victorian England was very big.
The suspects in the two stories are John Clay and Dr Roylott. Suspects play the main role in mystery short stories because they provide the mystery/murder and the storyline, without them there would be no story. The characters of the suspects are created through very detailed descriptions of them. The description of the suspects makes the reader think that the suspects are very evil and makes the reader dislike the characters.
The victims in the two stories are Jabez Wilson and Helen and Julia Stoner. The victims are very innocent which makes the reader feel very sorry for them, and shows us that people were very trusting in the Victorian society.
Each suspect must have a motive in order to commit a crime. John Clay’s motive for making up the Red Headed League was to distract Jabez Wilson while digging the tunnel and then rob the bank. Dr Roylott’s motive for killing Julia Stoner and trying to kill Helen Stoner was to keep getting the full amount of money. These motives make us fell less sympathy for the suspects because they seem very greedy wanting lots of money. In contrast, Sherlock Holmes seems very generous because he doesn’t even want to accept money for his service, he said that his “profession is the reward” so he obviously really enjoys what he does. These motives reveal that Victorian society people were very worried about money, and people had money problems just like today.
So, in conclusion, I think that the Sherlock Holmes stories are some of the best detective stories ever written and I really recommend then to everyone, especially people who like pre 1900s stories and people who like the detective genre. I think the key parts of the stories that would appeal to a modern reader are the denouements in the two stories, because it is very interesting at the end to find out how Sherlock Holmes solved the mystery or crime. These are the parts where the suspect is revealed and the reader is told how Sherlock Holmes solved the mystery. Out of the two stories I think I preferred the Speckled Band because it has many twists and red herrings in it, which makes it very interesting. I would also very strongly recommend “The Man With The Twisted Lip”, because it is a great story with a very big twist at the end, I really enjoyed reading it.
By Olga Kalashnikova
