The people couldn’t trust the police at this time as they were making mistakes. Then along comes Sherlock Holmes, the dream detective.
I will be basing this essay on three stories; The Adventure of speckled band, The Adventure of black Peter and the Red-Headed League. I will now be focusing on how theses crime stories engaged the readers. With the main ingredient being a twisted plot in speckled band, the mystery hooks the readers especially when Conan Doyle has the readers asking questions like “what’s the small hole the wall?” and “why is the bed nailed to the floor?” The twist in this story involves the reader and gets the reader to try and solve the mystery.
In the first few pages of speckled band, the readers know straight away who the killer is because when Conan Doyle describes to the readers the features of the villain, it is mentioned to the readers that the killer is “somewhat a resemblance to a fierce old bird of prey”. This suggests to the reader that he is hunting and from earlier on in the story the daughter was described as a “hunted animal”. This shows the readers who the killer is but unfortunately the reader is not interested in who done it but how he did it.
Conan Doyle uses the same technique in Red-Headed League by getting the reader to ask weird questions like “why have they hired a man with red hair?” and “why is he getting paid hundreds of pounds just to copy out an encyclopaedia?” At this point Conan Doyle has the readers confused. This is just one of the ways Conan Doyle misleads us deliberately and then cleverly covers up the clues in different ways.
Conan Doyle shows the audience another aspect of Holmes which is observation as Holmes sees things you or I may not see, he looks into things much deeper as he is far more intelligent than most detectives like when Watson asked him why he was tapping on the pavement with the stick and Holmes replied “why dear doctor, this is a time for observation not for talk”. Simple things like not giving a reason make the story more effective and so this hooks the readers once again. As the story progresses we the audience start to share this skill with him. Holmes is intensifyingly passionate about his work and it is a huge part of his life, this is shown when he says `it is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of London’. There is an important clue that Conan Doyle covers up and this is when Holmes lists what shops are on a street `the tobacconist the little newspaper shop, the coburg brunch of the city and the suburban bank’. The reason why Conan Doyle has Holmes listed the shops and the bank to confuse the reader to lead them away from the word bank. At the moment during the story the audience don’t realize the relevance of the bank but as the story comes together the audience realize what is going on. Mr Jabez Willson owns a house across the road from the bank. So the reason why the people hired him was to get Jabez Willson out of his house so that they could dig a tunnel across to the bank so that they could rob it. The readers start to put the case together because the readers are endoughtly hooked to the mysterious and misleading plot.
The readers at this stage in the story start to ask more questions such as: how is it going to end? Are they going to get away with it? We the readers are now playing detective. We the readers are so engrossed in Holmes’s passion for weird and mysterious mysteries that we start to share this passion with Holmes.
In the third story, the adventure of Black Peter there is a huge amount of tension that is being built up and so there is a lot of suspense which engages the reader further. Black Peter has an excellent plot and excites the reader when they find out about the murder. Conan Doyle has thoughts going through our heads. The whole story is twisted but n a good way especially when we find out about the man being hooked up on a wall with a harpoon, this disturbs the reader and sends a shiver up their spine just by thinking about it, this encourages the reader to carry on so that they can find out why, and who it was. By now the reader likes the story and wants to read on, so the readers are hooked to the story. “He was pinned like a beetle on a card” this puts an image of the man into the readers head that is disturbing and grotesque but in a good way so that the reader like it so that they will read on. We the readers are trying to play a role in the story as we are hooked to the story and we can not wait to find out who it is. The readers are hooked and interested because of the essence of violence and because it is so sick and horrific. The readers can not help themselves; they have to read on, they want to find out the reason why someone would do something so outrageous. As the readers are reading the story they are picturing the case in their minds while also considering the clues that are given to us by Conan Doyle. While we get the clues we try to put the pieces together to try and find out why done it and so the reader is now playing detective alongside Holmes.
Conan Doyle uses many different ways in order to engage his readers. Language is a key feature in Conan Doyle’s stories; he uses interesting and formal language when Holmes is talking. He uses this language like this to make the reader keep on reading. One of the smartest things that Conan Doyle Done when writing was to keep the readers attention focused on the story without the reader getting bored, Conan Doyle accomplished this by getting the reader to laugh at the most exciting and tense life and death situations.
In Speckled Band Holmes points out that it is going to be very dangerous. Holmes and Dr Watson are friends and when they talk in dangerous situations they both talk very calmly and very formally like when Holmes said to Watson “if they fire, Watson, have no compunction about shooting them down”. Another occasion is when Watson asks “can I be of assistance?” and Holmes replies “your presence might be invaluable”. This takes the fear away from the reader and so the readers get even more excited as they know that Holmes and Watson will be dealing with this extremely dangerous event.
In Red-Headed League, Conan Doyle has the readers laughing. The language that is being used is amusing for the readers for example when John Clay was caught by Holmes he says “you may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have the goodness also when you address me to always call me ‘Sir’ and ‘Please’. This immediately makes the audience laugh, and when John Clay was caught he complements Holmes for catching him, this makes the reader laugh even more even in this tense situation. The tension and atmosphere at this moment is overwhelming. Conan Doyle cleverly calms the atmosphere down by making us laugh at the formality of Holmes and Mr Clay. I think that this is one of the main reasons why Conan Doyle's stories are so popular.
In the Adventure of Black Peter, Conan Doyle has the audience laughing once again. Conan Doyle throws different elements of Holmes’s personality, once again Conan Doyle
Is showing the reader how incredibly smart and intelligent Holmes is. This is show when the case was first thought to be solved by another detective and Holmes tells him “don’t be so sure” and the detective replied to him “as to this terrible person of yours, where is he?” and because Conan Doyle had Holmes work out from the mystery from the beginning Holmes then said “I rather fancy that he is on the stair”. The readers are suddenly shocked by this and think surly not and thinks to themselves Holmes had known who the murderer was all along and now the reader now wants to know how he knew who it was. The audience are extremely excited at this point and so the reader reads on because they want to know why he did it.
Conan Doyle has us shocked but also has the reader laughing in this third story. We the readers know who the killer is in the first few pages, but when the killer confronts Holmes the readers are shocked, excited and in suspense. When the killer enters with violence it is extremely effective towards the reader, he charges at Holmes which builds up the tension and for a short time put the reader into suspense. “I know you, you scoundrel” this causes a lot of tension in the atmosphere between Holmes and Mr Clay and get the audience thinking ‘how is Holmes going to react’, but Holmes replies to him “your conversation is most entertaining, when you go out close the door, for there is a decided draught”. There could of quite easily of been a fight but because Holmes was extremely calm he dealt with the situation the right way. The reader can’t wait to see what’s coming up next on the next page.
Conan Doyle uses different techniques of language which all have different effects on the reader. This is why Conan Doyle’s crime stories are so popular and interesting. The readers react in many different ways under many weird and mysterious situations. This is one of Conan Doyle's intensions when he was writing and this is why his stories are still among the best. In all of Conan Doyle's there is all ways some sort of twist and a lot of tension in the plot, all of these things are lurking in the background and are part of a successful crime story
Holmes has different personalities; he’s funny, intelligent and humorous. He also has the ability to talk to different people at different levels. Holmes has many different hobbies such as listening to a lot of music and frequently going to halls but above all solving mysteries is Holmes’s main hobby. People are interested in Holmes simply because of his level of intelligence and because he sticks up for weaker people especially women as most women were treated wrongly back then. These things keep the reader interested in Holmes and the story. It is pointed out a number of times that Holmes is not interested in the money that is involved, he is interested in the mystery as he has a passion for mysterious crime. As the story progresses it is clearly show that the reader starts to share this passion with Holmes
When Conan Doyle wrote his stories his intensions were clear; these were to engage the reader with an excellent plot and to build up tension and suspense as the story progresses. A successful crime story must have something to hook the reader, a mystery that keeps the reader hooked to the story, clues as the story continues, a surprise that the reader like so that they read on and the solution at the end which tell the reader who and why the person done the crime. These are the elements that are needed for a successful crime story. I also think that the language is used well as an image is automatically put into the readers head by reading through the story and so the reader takes a bit at a time to bring themselves to their own conclusions. Another reason why I think Conan Doyle's stories have been so popular is because the reader interacts with the story and so they try and solve the mystery themselves. This is why I think Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's crime stories have been so popular.
