Analysis of “The Adventure of the Speckled Band”
For an overview of the annotations and an explanation of rationale for the annotations
Sherlock Holmes is one of the most famous detective characters ever created
and his popularity remains today. With over 60 cases written by Conan Doyle himself and more than 250 screen adaptations, Sherlock Holmes has lasted the test of time. The character’s observational and deduction abilities has been able to captivate audiences for over 125 years now, changing platforms of media but keeping his popularity. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle could have never imagined that this character would gain the fandom that he has when he first created the character in the short story “The Study of Scarlett”. While this project’s goal was mainly to answer the question if Conan Doyle’s contempt for his most famous character affected the quality of work in the short stories, it was impossible to complete it without annotating Doyle’s favorite story he ever created. “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” follows Watson and Holmes as they help their client Helen Stoner at Stoke Moran. This short sensation story tells a fascinating tale of murder and conveys a message about the thoughts of Victorian people at the same time.
The intended audience for this project was mostly directed toward high school students with an interest in Conan Doyle. However, it is very hard to look at work from this time period without mentioning the historical context of the Victorian Era and stereotypes and other societal norms that appear in the text. Because of this, annotations include some information about Conan Doyle and his background, a TV episode adaptation of the case, but also tropes that can be seen in this text and other sensation novels of the time. My hope was to be able to annotate a passage of this lengthy short story in a way that would allow for students to not only learn about Conan Doyle, but also educate the viewer about the themes that can be seen in literature from this time.
I included the TV episode adaptation at the top of the passage, because I hoped that if the viewer was not familiar with the case, it would give them a chance to. I also thought it would be interesting for those who had read the story to watch an adaptation of the case, as I found it very enjoyable to see the story in a different way. I did my best to include illustrations of Stoke Moran manor and the layout of the rooms as it helps the viewer better imagine the setting of this case. When this short story was originally published, these illustrations were not included and I believed that it was beneficial to the viewer to see what other readers imagined the manor would be like. Finally, I added an article about Conan Doyle’s background in botany because Holmes’ knowledge of poison comes straight from the authors knowledge. I thought it was an interesting fun fact about Holmes that would benefit the viewer in learning something new about the character and his creator.
The rest of the annotations, I tried to educate the viewer about sensation novels and an underlying trope that can be seen throughout the short story. I think it is very important to connect the history of the time period with the literature that was created during it. One of the main tropes that can be seen in this text, is the idea of the Fear of the Foreign. While it is not necessarily Doyle’s fault that this societal idea was very prominent in this text, it does say a lot about the Victorian people and their society. The idea of Fear of the Foreign can be seen in other Victorian literature such as Dracula. It is hard to discuss the literature of this time without mentioning the historical context of it. Being 100+ years removed from this era of literature allows us to give the story a read with a different perspective and pick up some of the stereotypes and societal norms that are not seen as much today. Social Darwinism was something that was a new idea during this time, and seeing that England had imperial control of many smaller countries the idea of white superiority shines through in Victorian literature. Fearing unknown and foreign influenced things was very common at the time with industrialization booming and different groups of people arriving in the area. The Victorian people had a societal norm of respectability and foreign influences did not fit in. This meant that the temptation of these influences was often written about and in a negative light – as can be seen at the end of this short story when Holmes describes Roylott’s death saying, “I cannot say that is likely to weigh very heavily upon my conscience”. His death came from his foreign influences and this can be interpreted as a reason to stay away from these contaminations.
Another thing I found important to annotate, was the sensationalism of Sherlock Holmes. Sensation novels were very popular during this time period and Holmes embodied a sensational character due to his ability to observe small details and deduce what occurred in almost a supernatural way that no one else would be able to do. This is a big part of why Sherlock Holmes is so popular and is still relevant today and I found it important to highlight moments in the passage that showed his observational skills, as well as times where he picked up hints on the case that would have easily been skipped by.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his character Sherlock Holmes are both impressive people. Doyle’s ability to create this character and narrate it in a way that highlights the sensational ability of Holmes is one of the reasons why the character has stayed relevant for so long. It is also one of the main reasons why Sherlock Holmes was able to obscure the rest of his work, even though he did not find these novels and short stories to be as serious or important as his historical essays. While annotating this passage of “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” the historical context of Victorian society was hard to ignore and the implementation of illustrations and articles about Holmes and Doyle was meant to help create an educational annotation that let the viewer learn about Holmes’ favorite story before diving into the affect of his contempt toward his most popular character had on his writing.