“It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror.” She raised her veil as she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless, frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard.”
This specific passage in the text felt quite sensational, as this is the first instance in which we are able to gauge the magnitude of the problem that Ms. Stoner is facing. By the descriptive nature of the text we can infer that Ms. Stoner has obviously been very shaken up by what’s going on, and the premature grayness/ expression points to something serious. At this point in the story we can take these adjectives to be anything, which is what I consider to be the possibility of a monster or madness. From what we know about Sherlock Holmes stories in general, they usually deal with identifying problems and solving them in the name of social justice. He helps all kinds of people, and the mysteries he solves are not one that an average person would be able to crack. It must be a sensational problem in order for someone to go to him, and this problem turned out to be unsolvable to the nonwatchful eye. The words “It is fear Mr. Holmes. It is terror.”, followed by a description of a ghostly looking human is the definition of madness. I inferred that Holmes and Watson’s first impression of Ms. Stoner was one that pointed towards her having mental health problems, as they did not take the case seriously at first (jokes were mentioned) and Holmes didn’t fill in Watson as to what his thoughts were until later in the book once the premise of Ms. Stoner’s story became a reality. Meeting Dr. Roylott was a turning point in the story, as the way he was described was something of a very powerful person. This can also be considered sensational or mad, because he is seen as more than a normal man.
2 thoughts on “Fear and Terror, Holmes has to take this seriously.”
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I really like how you said when Sherlock is called to solve a crime, it is usually a complex and serious case. I love the words monstrous and madness relating to Miss Stoner. Until you made this claim, I never thought of her as a monster or mad because the novel depicts her as the innocent lady seeking justice. This description of Miss Stoner makes the reader understand how monstrous Doctor Roylott is to put Stoner into this mad state of mind. If you think about it, there are technically two monsters in the Speckled Band!
What I have found in the gothics we have read so far is that the authors often mention something that is normal and then through description they make it irregular. For instance, in the quote you chose, Doyle writes, “Her features and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard.” This woman is expected to look thirty and at first, she might even appear that way at first glance, yet, something is off, she has greying hair, and her expression is weary, she is not what she seems to be. This theme of irregularity in supposedly regular things can also be seen in Lady Audley’s secret. One would expect Lady Audley to be a gentle and caring Victorian lady, yet she turns out to be an evil mastermind. This trait of gothic novels is not only found in their characters but everything. In my response I analyzed how Holmes describes something as simple as a house, he makes it seems just as unusual and unsettling as the woman that is being described here.