Characterisation is one of the many things that Arthur Conan Doyle is excellent at, he goes into great detail into what the characters personalities are like. For example “Carriage driver: ’he is a man of immense strength and absolute uncontrollable anger...” This quote taken from ‘The Speckled Band’ and is describing Dr. Roylott, I think it is trying to help you to imagine what Dr. Roylott’s personality is like without actually going into great detail. Arthur Conan Doyle seems to use this technique of giving you a brief idea of what the characters are like before going into great detail. Here is a quote taken from ‘The Copper Beeches’: “I am very anxious to consult you of to whether I should or should not accept a situation that has been offered to me as governess...” This quote shows Violet (the woman consulting Holmes) is anxious and indecisive, polite and educated, As you can see it is very easy to gather lots of information from such short quotes that is just one of the many things I love about Arthur Conan Doyle’s work.
The structure of the stories is pretty much what makes or breaks the stories for you because the structure of all the three stories I read are all the same. For example they all start off with an introduction which gets the base of the story followed by the development in which the story just goes a bit further on and Sherlock has an idea of the suspects. After the development is the denouement where the crime is solved and everybody is given justice. The reason why I think the structure of the stories makes or breaks them is because some people might like to know how it is going to end but others may not like knowing the fact that the crime is always going to be solved.
The descriptive writing helps to set the scene and helps the reader to visualise what the place is like or what the people or objects are like. For example, “the building was of gray...stone, ...and the curling wings like the claws of a crab,” This quote was taken from “The Speckled Band” and it is describing the house that they are approaching, I think this quote is one of the best descriptions out of all three stories I read because it is trying to put the point across that the house looks very aggressive and gives you the feeling of being trapped. It is also a great example of how to use a simile. Another use of descriptive writing is from “The Man with the Twisted Lip”, “A thick fog...dark, shapeless burs...yellow wreaths.” I love this descriptive writing quote in the story it is describing an alley way.
Without the clues or red herrings there would be no Sherlock Holmes so that is why I personally think clues and red herrings are the most important things in the Sherlock Holmes stories. Red herrings may lead you astray into thinking that it was somebody/something else when in fact it is not and sometimes can be quite the opposite. For example, “I may add that his whole debts... use far as we have been to ascertain, amount of £88 10s, while he has £220 standing to his credit.” This quote is taken from “The Man with the Twisted Lip” and the person speaking in this quote is St Clair’s wife, and I think this red herring is very miss leading because it is making you think that he has stolen the money and doesn’t want to use it yet or something else along those lines but it is very misleading. However clues help you to understand the story more and sometimes build up the tension, for example “The centre door was closed... be in fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed.” This clue is taken from “The Copper Beeches” where it is telling you that the door was closed and had been fastened with an iron bar so this clue is telling you that there must be something behind that door that nobody should know about.
So in conclusion, my opinion the most important thing out of the four main points is the clues and red herrings because without them there would be no Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock Holmes is renowned for its great misleading red herrings and mysterious clues that keep you thinking.
