The setting in The Speckled Band is typical of this genre. Stoke Moran is described as ominous and threatening, Dr Watson comments on its “two curving wings, like the claws of a crab”. This simile evokes ideas of entrapment which an audience would find threatening. The animal theme runs throughout the entire story as they are used to frighten the reader by creating a powerful image. The alliteration is used to make the phrase much more powerful and make it stand out as how readers will remember Stoke Moran.
In The Man with the Twisted Lip one of the main settings is the opium den. This is a spooky setting, in a seedy area makes a direct reference to social and historical issues at the time. It is between a gin shop, making references to the alcohol use and a slop shop which was a cheap clothes shop reflecting the poverty of the times. Slop shop is alliterated; alliteration is commonly used in prose, particularly to highlight short phrases. Then as well as alcohol use and poverty, people used drugs more often, with cocaine in coca-cola, recipes for cocaine pudding in cookbooks and drugs used for pain relief. In fact opium was the cause of a war between China and England and legislation was being put in place to deal with the growing abuse of opium and laudanum in the later part of the 19th century. However at the time of The Man with the Twisted Lip, opium dens were still legal and where one could go to smoke the drug. The entrance is described by Dr Watson as “a black gap like the mouth of a cave” and the atmosphere “thick and heavy with brown opium smoke”. It is clear that this is a rough place with “bodies lying in strange fantastic poses”. This quote reflects the feelings triggered by taking opium, fantastic but strange. The combination of words shows it’s not all what it seems and to me reflects the addictiveness of it, the bodies unidentified as they are not sane. The opium itself is described as “burning poison” reflecting the dangers and health problems with taking opium and also the way it poisons your soul.
At Briony Lodge in A Scandal in Bohemia it is not really a typical setting for a crime. It is the home of Irene Adler who is the unconventional villain in this story. It is an ordinary English house, with Sherlock Holmes describing it as “A bijou villa . . . large sitting room on the right side, well furnished, with long windows almost to the floor”. There is nothing really abnormal about it. There are not really any negative adjectives used in the description of Briony Lodge meaning that it’s certainly not a sinister place.
Overall for it to be a typical setting for a crime novel, the setting should have something memorable about it, something slightly abnormal. In the case of the opium den in The Man with the Twisted Lip it is a drug den something which most readers will not have experienced. In The Speckled Band, Stoke Moran is a dilapidated and isolated house.
In the case of criminals, The Speckled Band criminal, Dr Roylott is the one of the most typical. He is very noticeable; being “a huge man” with a face “seared with 1000 wrinkles” and “bile-shot eyes”. Dr Watson seems to continue the animal theme again, using “he resembled an old, fierce bird of prey” to describe the overall menacing look of the man. He apparently has a history of violence it is revealed as he “beat his native butler to death” and “a violence of temper approaching to mania is hereditary in the men of the family”. This compared with Dr Moriarty in The Final Problem shows that the typical villains tend to inherit their violence and setting them up as prime suspects. I get the impression that Sherlock Holmes does not think very highly of Dr Roylott, calling him “a brute” which is in contrast to Irene Adler and Dr Moriarty who are both described as Sherlock Holmes equals, on his level.
The villain in the A Scandal in Bohemia is Hugh Boone (aka Neville St Clair). This is an interesting one because the villain is the same person as the victim! Mr. St. Clair created Hugh Boone the beggar to make money begging as he found the rich loved his extensive knowledge of poetry. To create the sympathy, he used makeup to disfigure himself. This is important because at the time, maimed and disabled people were shunned out of society, they were the underclass. It is because of this that Hugh Boone earnt so much money because people felt sorry for him. With Hugh Boone being so repellant looking he is also highly noticeable. He is described by using plenty of negative adjectives, “the grime which covered his face could not conceal its repulsive ugliness” and “three teeth were exposed in a perpetual snarl”. The words repulsive and snarl conjure up a very ugly character as the words are at the height of unattractive English words.
The villain in A Scandal in Bohemia is atypical, as it is a woman! This is interesting because at the time of the stories, the role of women was very much under that of men. Women stayed at home to bring up the kids, rarely having jobs. They had very few rights and virtually the possessions of men. So for a woman to be the one Sherlock Holmes is against is unusual. We are made aware that this woman is not an ordinary woman, her name is Irene Adler, with Dr Watson describing her significance to Holmes as “to Sherlock Holmes she was always the woman”. In fact in the end, the great Sherlock Holmes is beaten by her and Sherlock Holmes respects this. However Sherlock Holmes was not in love with her, as many were, “she is the daintiest thing under a bonnet” he says. This again suggests that she is highly noticeable. Dr Watson says that to Sherlock Holmes “all emotions and that one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but admirably balanced mind”. Irene Adler is also a victim in his story, she has been victim to the King of Bohemia’s messing around with love and as a result has been hurt and simply wants to pay him back. So in a way, it could be argued that she is a victim too. I think that is why in the end she is allowed to get away quietly with her word that she will not interfere again.
In The Final Problem, Sherlock Holmes faces his equal, Dr Moriarty. He is an extremely clever man, with Sherlock Holmes describing him as “a man of good birth and excellent education.”, “But the man had hereditary tendencies of a most diabolical kind, a criminal strain ran in his blood”. Again he is noticeable, being “extremely tall and thin” with “2 eyes deeply sunken in his head”. The most interesting description of him is “pale and ascetic-looking”. The word sounds a bit like acidic which is an unpleasant word. Because of this if the readers don’t understand what the word means; they will still get the gist. Dr Moriarty is Holmes' greatest opponent, a criminal mastermind. He is clearly Holmes' greatest challenge and was created as a plausible and fitting end to Sherlock Holmes. Conan Doyle sought to sweeten his end by letting Holmes go in a blaze of glory, having rid the world of a criminal so powerful and dangerous that any further task would be trivial in comparison (Holmes says as much in the story itself).
Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson are a great literary pairing. They work as a team, each having different roles. Sherlock Holmes is a fantastic detective, seen by many as the best. This is demonstrated when the King of Bohemia asks his help and many of the villain’s have heard of his skill so are wary, like Irene Adler and Dr Moriarty. Sherlock Holmes often holds back on his chain of reasoning, not revealing it or only giving cryptic hints until the very end, when he can explain all of his deductions at once. It is known that Sherlock Holmes is the occasional user (a habitual user when lacking in stimulating cases) of cocaine and morphine, though Watson describes this as Holmes' "only vice". The thing I really like about Sherlock Holmes is he has a clear reason to do what he does. Sherlock Holmes is such a good detective because he distrusts the police. He rarely uses the police in the stories we have read except for The Man with the Twisted Lip when he visits Hugh Boone in police custody. At the time period the police were showing their lack of control, capability and incompetence with the case of “Jack the Ripper”. Jack the Ripper is an alias given to an unidentified serial killer active in the largely impoverished Whitechapel area and adjacent districts of London in the latter half of 1888. It is generally agreed that he killed 5 victims all prostitutes, called “The canonical five victims” however he may have killed as many as 13 others. The police proved themselves completely hopeless in this case, arresting the wrong man completely and failing to catch the Jack at all. In fact Sherlock Holmes seems to have such a low opinion of them that when he is called a “Scotland Yard Jack-in-office” (an insolent fellow in authority, in this case Scotland Yard) he says, “Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official detective force!”
Conan Doyle portrays Dr Watson as a capable and brave individual, whom Holmes does not hesitate to call upon for both moral and physical assistance. Dr Watson undoubtedly has much admiration for Sherlock Holmes as in A Scandal in Bohemia he says “endeavouring to imitate my companion’s processes” indicating he has a very high regard for Sherlock Holmes. He is very loyal to Sherlock Holmes too with him saying, “so accustomed was I to his invariable success that they very possibility of his failing had ceased to enter into my mind”.
Dr Watson is naturally open and straightforward, while Holmes can be devious and secretive. As readers and outsiders we do get the feeling that the pair is the best of friends, almost like brothers. I think that the literary partnership works so well because Dr Watson serves as a foil to Holmes: the ordinary man against the brilliant, emotionally-detached analytical machine that Holmes can sometimes be. With the two, Conan Doyle created a clever literary pairing: two vivid characters, so different in their functions and needs.
I thought The Speckled Band was a really good story. It was interesting and had an unusual solution. We were kept guessing even after Sherlock Holmes had solved the mystery! It did have a slightly odd ending with a snake being the solution. However I liked the way Dr Roylott got his comeuppance at the end. Despite all this, it faced fierce competition from the other stories and in the end I decided I like this one least. I am not a huge fan of detective stories and because this one was such a text book story, I decided I like more unconventional stories.
I thought that The Man with the Twisted Lip was also good and I loved the twist at the end, with Hugh Boone being Mr. St. Clair, although I had guessed as much. I felt sorry for them both and although it wasn’t a conventional detective story I enjoyed it just the same.
I also enjoyed A Scandal in Bohemia because of its atypical villain. Irene Adler was unusual and I enjoyed reading about a woman rather than Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson all the time.
Overall my favorite of the 4 stories that we have studied together is probably The Final Problem. I like it because it is so different. The story is unconventional in the sense that it subverts the typical detective storyline. It is in essence another adventure of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson but ends with the death of Sherlock Holmes. There is no crime as such, only the tracking down and fleeing from a villain, Dr Moriarty. It is the story which shows the relationship at its best between the pair and is sad at the end. A boy appears and hands Watson a note, saying that there is a sick Englishwoman back at the hotel who wants an English doctor. Holmes realizes at once, although he does not say so, that it is a hoax. Watson goes to see about the patient, leaving Holmes alone. When he reaches the Englischer Hof, the innkeeper has no idea about any sick Englishwoman. Realizing at last what has happened, Watson rushes back to Reichenbach Falls only to find no-one there, although he does see two sets of footprints going out onto the muddy dead-end path, but none coming back. There is also a note from Holmes, explaining that he knew the report Watson was given to be a hoax and that he is about to fight Moriarty, who has graciously given him enough time to pen this last letter. Watson sees that towards the end of the path, there are signs that a violent struggle has taken place. It is all too clear: Holmes and Moriarty have both died, falling to their deaths down the gorge whilst locked in mortal combat. This bit is so sad and shows Sherlock Holmes’ respect for Dr Watson as he lets him go back. Sherlock Holmes is a noble man in this scene and tries to protect Dr Watson from the pain of his death. However Dr Watson is left clearly upset saying he will forever regard Sherlock Holmes was “the best and the wisest man whom I have ever known”. This did choke me up a little as I read the last words of the story.
I think overall the 1st person narrative by Dr Watson really works. There are a few problems but they have been solved by the way that the stories are written. For a setting to be typical of that of a detective story it needs to be a little scary and quirky, with the most successful murder mysteries taking place in dilapidated and isolated old houses. There is one striking resemblance of all the villains in the stories we have studied, they are all very noticeable. Dr Roylott and Dr Moriarty both tall and imposing, Irene Adler is beautiful and dainty and Hugh Boone is ugly and repulsive. The two most evil villains, Dr Roylott and Dr Moriarty it says have both inherited their evil tendencies. The literary pairing of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson works well because they are different, two vivid characters, so different in their functions and needs and as all partnerships should be, based on a great friendship.
I think generally there is only one story which we have read which could be described as a typical murder mystery or detective story and that is The Speckled Band. This is the only one with a typical setting, villain and story sequence. The others are not so, with A Scandal in Bohemia not having a typical setting, The Man with the Twisted Lip having a villain who is the same person as the victim and The Final Problem resulting in the death of the detective. So I think that you can categorize stories into genres but it is much harder to say “this is a typical detective story” or “this isn’t because …” In the end each story is different.
