Conan Doyle's hero Sherlock Holmes was popular in Victorian and Edwardian society for many reasons. What in your opinion ,makes the stories

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Comparative essays on Sherlock Holmes

Conan Doyle´s hero Sherlock Holmes was popular in Victorian and Edwardian society for many reasons. What in your opinion ,makes the stories "The Red Headed League "and "The Speckled Band"exciting and successful ?

Sherlock Holmes stories are some of the best detective stories ever written . They were written by Sir. Arthur Conan Doyle (1850-1930) who was a medical doctor . "The Red Headed League" was published in 1891 and "The Speckled Band" was published in 1892 in a magazine called The Strand Magazine . "The Red Headed League" is about a mysterious organisation which Mr. Holmes´ client , Mr. Wilson was working for until it dissolved . Finally this strange league turns out to be simply a cover up to distract Mr . Wilson while the criminals dig a secret passage from his cellar intending to rob gold from the "City and Suburban Bank" . " The Speckled Band" is about a cruel stepfather (Dr. Roylott) with an intention of murdering his step daughters to acquire their property. He succeeds in murdering his elder stepdaughter, Julia, in a mysterious way . When his younger stepdaughter, Helen, gets suspicious about everything as the mysterious circumstances repeated themselves she contacts Mr. Holmes in fear to help her to find out whether her sister´s death was a murder and if it was to find the murderer. Mr. Roylott then tried to use an Indian snake to murder Helen Stoner and during the climax the snake bit Mr . Roylott himself.

The first thing we should notice is that always the criminal is punished . During Victorian and Edwardian times people were confused about all the theories they had on justice as Charles Darwin (1809-1882) proposed the evolution theory which made many feel that God did not exist . Edwardian people had doubts in believing that God will punish offenders in hell . Therefore they wanted the criminal to be punished in this life itself. That is why Conan Doyle makes sure that the criminal is punished and justice is upheld . At this point we should remember that many during Victorian and Edwardian times believed that Sherlock Holmes did exist and for them the fact that Holmes always finds the criminal gave a sense of security. Conan Doyle has created Sherlock Holmes a believable hero by creating him with both strengths and weaknesses. For example Holmes´ excellent reasoning skill is his strength while his moody personality is his weakness. The time when this story was written was in the 1890s. People were feeling insecure as the end of 19th century was approaching. There were rumours that the world was going to end. The arrival of their crime detecting new hero, Sherlock Holmes, would have definitely provided reassurance.

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Sherlock Holmes is described as "the relentless, keen- witted, ready-handed criminal agent" . He is shown as the best in the detective field with every skill that a detective needs.. He has a "brilliant reasoning power" and it amazes the readers in ways how he draws correct conclusions from small observations . For example, in "The Red Headed League" , by looking at John Clay´s "worn wrinkled and stained " knees he realises that John Clay has been digging a passage to the bank . On the other hand he is also shown as a lonely man without a family ...

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