Category: 2023 Blog Post

“It swelled up louder and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the sleepers from their beds” (Doyle 150).

This passage is taken from page 150 of Arthur Conan Doyle’s, The Speckled Band. To start, a small phrase that stood out to me was “that cry raised the sleepers from the bed.” This dark imagery allows the reader to fully understand how loud Doctor Roylott’s scream was. (When I closely read this passage, it instantly made me think of Disney Pixar’s, Monster’s Inc, and how sleeping robots would vertically sit up due to the intensity of the Monster’s screams.) But what is Sir Doyle’s purpose for even including the villagers reaction from the distance? This might be crazy, but I think Doyle wanted the readers to believe that everyone in the village was afraid of Doctor Roylott, not just his two step-daughters. When it raises the sleepers from their bed, it portrays the trauma everyone has from his evil crimes. The author wants us to know that Doctor Roylott was evil enough to traumatize people outside of his family. This relates to the plot of the novel as a whole, because it adds the question of whom the scream may be from? There is a chance it is from the man who deserves to die, and that would give a thrill to the reader. That thrill is the exact purpose Conan has when writing a sensational novel, thus his reason for including the villagers awakening. 

Another interesting part of this excerpt is the way the word “anger” is being used. There was anger in the Doctor’s scream right before he died. Doyle’s decision to sneak in this word helps the reader to better understand Doctor Roylott’s short-tempered personality throughout the story. There were several other instances where Roylott lost his mind quickly. For example, when he finds out Holmes and Watson are investigating Miss. Stoner, he flips instantly. Anger is included in this description, and matters, because it amplifies the grand finale on the Doctor’s demise. As a reader, Conan writes this story to make out Roylott to be the antagonist, with flawed morals, and an evil fixation with killing people. The reader starts to hate him, because who wouldn’t? The author includes that one final lengthy scream because when it finally stops, and the reader realizes the evil man is dead- they feel a sense of relief! This excited feeling the reader now gets along with Roylott’s noticeable anger from his failure boosts the “sensation” we get as readers seeing the antagonist fall.

“Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in his house, and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the family, and in my stepfather’s case it had, I believe, been intensified by his long residence in the tropics” (Conan Doyle, 134).

In this passage, from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s short story, “The Speckled Band”, we see the character of Helen Stoner indulging Watson and Holmes in the background of her stepfather, which is relevant in understanding the unfortunate events that led to her sister’s untimely demise. Similarly, to the story that we find in, Lady Audley’s secret, we see an explicit reference to a potential, “hereditary madness”; for Dr. Roylott found in the men of his line, and for Lady Audley through her mother. In my fascination with binaries in gothic literature, it is interesting to see another example of the binary of wealthy, upstanding professionals/citizens juxtaposed with the concept of “madness”. Lady Audley is a credit to her profession before she is proposed to by Lord Michael, and therefore, her eventual downfall and “alternative side”, is emphasized as all the worse. The same could be said for Dr. Roylott as his stepdaughters wanted for nothing, and he was generally proficient at his job, in conjunction with having lineage of noble standing, that his fits of anger were all the more terrifying to the reader. We can then ask ourselves, what does this mean to the text as whole? I would assert that the authors of both of these works are making claims about the hidden elements of higher society, even the “God-like” standards that we may impart on noble and wealthy individuals, compared to our expectations of madness in those that may come from lower-class backgrounds or of certain undesirable professions. Do we expect those in lower positions to be driven mad by their unsavory conditions and therefore it is all the more shocking when they appear more sane than their privileged and protected counterparts? I think that is a question that emerges throughout gothic literature when characters of different class standing are introduced. Furthermore, we see that Dr. Roylott’s illness is hypothesized to be heightened largely due to his time in India. We can then extend our expectations and reactions from merely class discussions to those of race and place. This “foreign” world is a synonym for danger and madness and the authors expectations of people who fit in these class and race categories defy the behavioral expectations set by Victorian societal standards.

“… It’s an ugly business, Watson, an ugly, dangerous business, and the more I see of it the less I like it. Yes, my dear fellow, you may laugh but I give you my word that I shall be very glad to have you back safe and sound in Baker Street once more” (Doyle, 53). 

Here, at the end of chapter 5 of The Hound of the Baskervilles, we get a new glimpse into Sherlock Holmes’ personality. Where he usually appears to be analytical and emotionally detached, Holmes is now genuinely frightened by what he has experienced. Not only that, but Holmes actually wants Watson’s company because he is so disturbed by the developments in the Baskerville case that have come to pass. Before, Holmes had made it clear that he really mainly enjoys having Watson around because his “stupidity” encourages Holmes to more quickly deduce the truth in any of his cases. However, after uncovering the fact that someone is trailing Holmes and those involved in the Baskerville case, as well as impersonating Holmes himself, it becomes clear that Holmes is frightened, and he wants the company of Watson to make him feel safer. While initially appearing out of character for Holmes, this situation reveals something interesting about his relationship between himself and Watson.

This interaction demonstrates that Watson serves as more than a mundane, average-joe sidekick for Sherlock Holmes. In his fright, Holmes somewhat indirectly reveals that he views Watson as a friend and true companion. Although he usually behaves condescendingly towards Watson, Holmes genuinely needs him around for the simple reason that Watson is a good friend to him. This, to me, seems adjacent to the idea of the homosocial relationship and the erotic triangle that we saw between Robert, George, and Clara in Lady Audley’s Secret. While there is no woman in The Hound of the Baskervilles yet to complete the erotic triangle, Holmes and Watson’s work relationship and dysfunctional friendship is best understood through the lens of Victorian male homosocial desire.

“Dr. Grimesby Roylott’s chamber was larger than that of his step- daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp bed, a small wooden shelf full of books, mostly ofa technical character, an arm-chair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things which met the eye. Holmes walked slowly round and examined each and all of them with the keenest interest.” (Doyle, p. 145).

The passage explains Holmes as he examines Dr. Grimesby Roylott’s chamber. Roylott has already built up a strange reputation throughout the story, and this is one of the first times Holmes has really started to examine his belongings. Everything about Roylott’s room would suggest nothing alarming. He has a large, neat room that is described as “plainly furnished”(Doyle, p. 145). Nothing about Roylott’s room would stand out to the average person. For instance, everyone sees the furniture, a bookshelf, and thinks nothing of it. Contrarily, Holmes walked slowly through the room and examined every object as if it were the clue that would solve the mystery. Instead of seeing a plain room, Holmes finds objects that seem normal but are really out of place after his examinations.
The passage does more than just explain how Holmes examined Roylott’s room. It highlights the exact reason people find Holmes interesting. Everyone loves to solve the puzzle. Nobody is better at solving the puzzle than Holmes. The passage gives a scenario in which the regular person would think nothing of, but since Holmes takes an interest in Roylott’s room, the reader grows suspicious. Now that Holmes has helped the reader by directing their attention, the reader is now actively trying to solve the case with Holmes. Holmes engages with the audience in this manner numerous times throughout the book, and it keeps the audience enticed with the story. It is passages like the one above that give the Sherlock Holmes stories so much success because they allow the audience to play detective with Holmes.

“Of all the wonderful faculties that help to tell us we are immortal, which speaks the sublime truth more eloquently than memory”

The beauty of memory is much like the beauty of art. It captures a moment in time and allows one to feel emotions that they would not have already. This short story is a story within a story. What is actually happening is an artist painting someone and having him talk to get more natural expressions. There are pieces of artwork in museums that were made thousands of years ago. There are stories passed down from generation to generation spanning hundreds of generations. The lure of this is that these art forms immortalize the subject. The art forms of storytelling and painting are one and the same. They both have alike effects. A painting is an image of a memory, and the words coming out of this man’s mouth are the retelling of a memory. They both teleport people into a world they would have before been unknown to. This embedded narrative is a comment on the beauty of human storytelling. Storytelling is what connects humans throughout the world, in all of its cultures and allurements. The fact that this traveler is a sailor and is getting this painting done to give to his mother because she has not seen him in a long time and wants her to have something that reminds her of him is further proof of the connections these art forms give. This sailor’s immortality will live on through the artist, and then the artist will pass the story on, and the mother will pass the painting on. The loveliness and horrificness of immortality is the fact we never know what ours will be, by the time it comes, we have left. Memory is one way we can control our immortality. We are the tellers of our own stories. For all the artist knew, this man could have made the whole account up, however, this story is how the artist will remember the traveler. We just read that story and that’s how we will remember the character that is the traveler. Human immortality is an angelic gift, and whatever one we may have, however long it may last, is a blessing of humanity.

In “The Speckled Band” by Arthur Conan Doyle, Dr. Roylott’s sensationalized persona is an interesting deviation from one of the typical elements of the sensation genre. He is not a seemingly average but wealthy neighbor with horrible secrets to be discovered underneath (though maybe in his wealthy eccentricism he still fits the wealthy bachelor stereotype in a different way). His reputation is entirely based on his exoticism and extreme temper—the cheetah and baboon he keeps as pets, the blacksmith he “threw over a parapet into a stream” (Doyle 134), and the gypsies he harbors on his property. Everything about how he is characterized is larger than life and almost mythological. From the get-go, he is the primary suspect, with only the method left really in doubt. The piece of his character that makes this writing decision particularly interesting is his connection with India. “The Speckled Band” was first published in 1892, during the height of imperial bureaucracy in India. Dr. Roylott is a colonizer himself, stealing native animals from their natural habitats and setting them loose in his yard. But the degree to which his exoticism is described others him, making it seem as though his travels and connections with India mark him as different, more frightening, and less predictable than the rest of the local wealth. It is therefore telling that he is inevitably killed by the swamp adder, a product of his colonial overreach—assuming he could tame and control such a dangerous creature just because he was given the power to try. He is violent and uncouth, the prime suspect and eventual proven murderer, and is directly associated with travel and familiarity with the Indian colonies. By 1892 there had been multiple mutinies and small-scale rebellions against the East India Company and later when it was supplanted against the British Empire itself. Through this lens, the adder can be symbolic of the public and the readership’s perception of India: dangerous, exotic, and lethal. There is an evident fear of the unknown or a stereotyped fear of the ethnic other that is inseparable from the text, derived from the British relationship with colonization at the time, and personified through Dr. Roylott’s character.

 

“The night was clear and fine above us. The stars shone cold and bright, while a half-moon bathed the whole scene in a soft, uncertain light. Before us lay the dark bulk of the house, its serrated roof and bristling chimneys hard outlined against the silver-spangled sky. Broad bars of golden light from the lower windows stretched across the orchard and the moor. One of them was suddenly shut off. The servants had left the kitchen” (Doyle 1). 

 

 

This passage encapsulates exactly what the sensation genre is. The sensation genre is meant to make the regular extraordinary. The reason for this is because it applies to people’s lives. Lady Audley’s is a deeply normal Victorian setting. A man is set to marry a woman, she appears to be the classic innocent and docile Victorian woman, yet she turns out to be the exact opposite. This fascinates the reader because it makes the normal absurd, the excitement they lack in their everyday life is found through the sensation novel. This quote is the perfect example of this, “The stars shone cold and bright, while a half-moon bathed the whole scene in a soft, uncertain light.” The setting Doyle talks about is normal but the way he describes it makes it seem haunting, this can be seen when he describes the light from the stars as “uncertain”, he makes the stars seem uncanny when he calls the “cold and bright” as if the stars themselves are setting the scene for what’s about to take place. Next, he says, “Before us lay the dark bulk of the house, its serrated roof and bristling chimneys hard outlined against the silver-spangled sky.” While one might expect a house to be the most normal aspect of a story he describes it as, “Before us lay the dark bulk of the house.” Yet he calls it a “dark bulk” making its presence daunting and unpleasant. Finally, he says, “One of them was suddenly shut off. The servants had left the kitchen.” A normal action such as shutting off a light one might expect not to make one sit up in fear but by using “suddenly” he makes the normal action of a servant turning off the lights for the night seem threatening. This quote demonstrates the purposeful irregularity of supposedly normal circumstances, which is the purpose of a sensation novel at its core. Doyle makes what should be a normal nighttime setting feel like the beginning of a horror movie.  

The Speckled Band had a lot of intriguing moments including the high-level description of particular items or places and the repetition of certain words. This makes sense for a detective story since every detail is vital, but the emphasis on foreignness is what I discovered to be most revealing. When the mystery is solved, it is the result of an exotic snake, even the people first accused were “a band of gipsies.” The fear evoked from the speckled band seemed caused by a fear of otherness or the unknown rather than something familiar. “The presence of gipsies, and the use if the word ‘band,’ which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to explain the appearance which she had caught a horrid glimpse of by light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an entirely wrong scent.” (Conan Doyle 151) The word band is even recognized here as being an odd descriptor but it’s important since it is a multifaceted word that also can describe a group or “band” of people; hence Sherlock Holmes being thrown off the scent. The mention of the brief firelight also lends to the idea of fear being caused by the unknown. The dark setting, young frightful woman, mysterious sounds, and unidentified speckled band all curate a perfectly disastrous atmosphere lightly illuminated with a match. When it all unravels, the reader can finally discover why certain words such as band or certain motifs such as the exotic animals are stressed throughout the story. 

“…nor yet was it that of the body of Hugo Baskerville lying near her, which raised the hair upon the heads of these three dare devil roysterers, but it was that, standing over Hugo, and plucking at his throat, there stood a foul thing, a great, black beast, shaped like a hound, yet larger than any hound that ever mortal eye has rested upon…”

This passage is an excerpt from Dr. Mortimer’s manuscript, detailing the curse of the Baskervilles, and how it originated. Here he describes the hound like creature attacking Hugo Baskerville. It is a supernatural and frightening tale, and as he reads it to Sherlock Holmes and Watson, the message and the depth of the story really set in for the reader. This passage explains the first time the curse of the Baskervilles has ever taken place, and then later goes on to say that each heir of Hugo Baskerville has met similar fates, usually a bloody death, or a mysterious one. Dr. Mortimer believes that the hound is behind the deaths of the heirs. This origin story is already, in the next few chapters, very important in relation to the characters and their actions. Holmes, Watson and Dr. Mortimer meet with Sir Henry Baskerville, the last Baskerville left, and warn him about this curse, which he previously knew nothing about, being in London, far away from the dreaded moor.

“Snap goes our third thread, and we end where we began,” said he. “The cunning rascal! He knew our number, knew that Sir Henry Baskerville had consulted me, spotted who I was in Regent Street, conjectured that I had got the number of the cab and would lay my hands on the driver, and so sent back this audacious message. I tell you, Watson, this time we have got a foeman who is worthy of our steel. I’ve been checkmated in London. I can only wish you better luck in Devonshire. But I’m not easy in my mind about it.”

“About what?”

“About sending you. It’s an ugly business, Watson, an ugly dangerous business, and the more I see of it the less I like it. Yes, my dear fellow, you may laugh, but I give you my word that I shall be very glad to have you back safe and sound in Baker Street once more.”

(Doyle chapter 5)

 

In the first five chapters of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Hound of the Baskervilles,” readers find themselves into the enigmatic world of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson. This story follows the duo as they confront a strange case that revolves around the eerie legend of the Baskerville curse, a ghastly hound said to haunt the family. I thought the passage in question was captivating, especially because we are given an insight into Holmes’ mind which helps us understand his character even more. Sherlock Holmes is renowned for his remarkable intellect and keen sense of observation. However, what truly fascinates Holmes, is the prospect of facing a cunning and intelligent antagonist. In the text, Holmes’ exclamation, “The cunning rascal!” reveals his admiration for the adversary they are up against, this unveils how Holmes thrives on challenges that test the limits of his deductive abilities, and a worthy opponent excites his intellectual curiosity. This fascination goes beyond mere solving of cases; it’s a battle of wits that truly engages his mind. Holmes’ analysis of their opponent’s actions highlights his appreciation for the antagonist’s intelligence. The adversary not only deduced Holmes and Watson’s involvement but also anticipated their moves, such as tracking the cab and telling John Clayton “It might interest you to know that you have been driving Mr. Sherlock Holmes” because he knew Holmes would’ve tracked John down. This level of sophistication elevates the mystery and, in Holmes’ eyes, makes their adversary “worthy of our steel.”. The words used in this passage are quite well thought in my opinion: the term “checkmated”, of course, reflects Holmes’ recognition of defeat and demonstrates his respect for the adversary, but if you look at it from another point of view the meaning could take a turn. Any position in chess in which a player’s king is in check, and there is no way out, is known as a checkmate. The choice of this word is not casual: this is a game for Holmes, a sick game that he loves. I truly think this is what the passage is all about, how madly in love Holmes is with these mind games that stimulates his intellect. At the same time we find out Holmes’ unease about Watson’s involvement. Words like “ugly” and “dangerous” emphasize the risky nature of their work, but they also underscore the depth of their friendship, as Holmes expresses a genuine desire for Watson’s well-being.