The Speckled Band - Arthur Conan Doyle :: English Literature

The Speckled Band - Arthur Conan DoyleWhat appeal would the trading floor the speckled band have had for a blue(a) sense of hearingThe story The Speckled Band was written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,and published in The Strand Magazine in 1892. The story contains thevery famous and popular parting Sherlock Holmes. In this essay Iwill discuss the popularity of the Holmes stories for a Victorianaudience. To do this I will look at the use of lifelike locations,the originality of the Holmes character and the use of a first personnarrator (Dr. Watson).The Speckled Band is a story that portrays life in the Victorianaudience. In this story a woman pleas for help from Holmes about thedeath of her baby Julia. The story goes on to look for the audienceto convict the womans stepfather. Holmes finds out the stepfather is training to kill her and finds out that the stepfather was the causeof her sisters death. The only motive Holmes had foe the stepfatherfor killing his stepdaughter was for the inheritance. He also commitsthe murders by cleverly training a snake to climb down a rope bell andon to the bed and poisoning the victim.The Victorian readers thought that Holmes was a real person in thosedays. This realism is created because Holmes lived at a real addressin the stories, at Baker St. 221B and the stories are written as realcases. Holmes is a very attractive and mysterious. In one of thestories he is called the most perfect reasoning and observingmachine in A scandal in Bohemia. He is shown as the Victorian newman, who uses his brains and scientific deductions to solve things.We are told how he makes deductions as swift as intuitions.He is also chivalrous and often helps women in distress, and he neveraccepts payment for his heroics, whilst he helps people within theVictorian community. He calculates to be a loner and is seen as anindividual and he doesnt seem to like other people.Helen Stoner is the daughter of a tyrant of a stepfather where she iswoman in angui sh and agony. She is worried about becoming a victim asher sister was before her. Being a woman in distress is a key elementin Victorian stories as come up as the Holmes stories. She is seen asvulnerable and scared like a hunted animal. Helen appears to bemelodramatic, for example she wears a black veil when she visitsHolmes, years after her sisters death, and shows the audience thatshe is deeply distressed.