At the opening of the story Mary behaves very normal and ordinary towards her husband, this makes you think that there isn’t anything going to happen. It doesn’t seem like a murder story at the beginning but it could almost be a love story as Mary was making her husband dinner and getting him drinks. But when her husband turned around and said he was leaving her and was going out for a meal this then turned the story round. After he said this Mary carried on as if nothing had happened, she got the lamb out of the freezer ready to cook, when she walks up behind Mr Maloney and hits him over the back of his head with the leg of lamb. Mr Maloney sways gently and falls to the floor dead. Mary did not think about what she was going to do, as she didn’t know he was leaving her.
Mary went into a state of shock as she has actually killed him. After the shock had come out she felt cold and surprised. She was still holding the piece of meat tight with both hands and didn’t care if she was caught but she was worried what would happen to her baby as the death penalty was still around but she still acted normal. She finished cooking the dinner, which got rid of the evidence when the police eat it.
This story is twentieth century, as Helen Stoner needed Sherlock Holmes to help her whereas after the murder Mary did it all on her own, she was far more independent than Helen was.
Dr Roylott is a very tall man, he has a large face, seared with a thousand wrinkles and a burned yellow with the sun, he has deep set bile shot eyes, a high thin fleshy nose that had the resemblance to a fierce old bird of prey. Dr Roylott is a typical villain as his description tells you this as then no one pretty looking could do anything bad. Dr Roylott is also very violent as he has already killed his native butler and narrowly escaped a capital sentence “last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a stream” This shows that he is and has been very violent. He seems very protective about his affairs and is a hard man towards Helen. He is very dominant towards her and he expects to be obeyed. Sherlock Holmes appears to know the answer and he decides what to do, Helen listens to him and does what he says even though she knows her stepfather will be angry. Mr Maloney always has monosyllabic conversations. He shows this when he said that he was leaving Helen, He uses very short sentences as if he doesn’t care ‘ as he went further and further away from her with each word’ from this quote I can tell that Mr Maloney is leaving her and the story says ‘and he told her’. This shows that there was no discussion of this and therefore he expects her to put up with it. Mr Maloney is very cold towards Helen and is cruel. He is also very domineering as he expects her to put up with it. From this story I can see that Mr Maloney is very selfish as he is leaving her when she is having his baby, this shows that he doesn’t really care for her or the baby. This is totally different compared to how he was at the beginning of the story.
The speckled band is a 19th century short story, I know this from the type of transport there is, they have steam trains and dog carts. There are also no lights only lamps that have to be lit with matches. You can see that this story is 19th century, as there is no use of electricity. And lack of modern forensic skills, you can tell this from when the take a long time to try and find out who the killer was, this would be made a lot quicker if they had these modern day skills. The bell rope is old fashioned as they are not around now days. There clothes are definitely Victorian, as in the story Dr Roylotts costume was a peculiar mixture of the professional and agricultural. He was wearing a black top hat, a long frock coat and a pair of high gaiters. He had a hunting crop swinging in his hand. This outfit is very old fashioned as people do not wear this type of clothing anymore.
The language is 19th century as well for example ‘said he’ instead of he said. The language is very formal and uses very old vocabulary like metropolis, encompass. The story uses long complex sentences and lots of adjectives to describe the house Stoke Moran. The speckled band is a murder mystery story; there are many things that you can tell this from. It is set in Stoke Moran ”The building was of grey, lynched blotched stone, with a high central portion and two curving wings the windows were broken and blocked with wooden boards while the roof was partly caved in, a picture of a ruin” from this description it doesn’t show any sign of colour and would be a typical murder setting. The fact that the story
is using Sherlock Holmes it makes it a mystery, as he is a detective. You don’t know whom the killer is this also shows that it is a mystery.
There is tension in the speckled band
‘“My god I whispered, did you see it? “Holmes was for the moment as startled as I, his hand closed like a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low laugh and put his lips to my ear’ this shows tension as Dr Watson doesn’t know what he is suppose to be seeing
‘”It is a nice household “ he murmured ”that is the baboon”’
This tells us that they were scared and didn’t know what the baboon was this makes the story more tense. There is also more tension when “Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp and we were left in darkness”
This made the story tense as Dr Watson didn’t know what was going to happen in the dark.
“Shall I forget that dreadful vigil? I could hear no sound not even the drawing of a breath and yet I knew that my companion sat opened eyed, within a few feet of me in the state of nervous tension”
This shows that Dr Watson was nervous.
There is more tension when Sherlock Holmes saw something
“you see it Watson” he yelled “ you see it“
Dr watson didn’t see anything apart from Sherlocks face deadly pale and filled with horror.