Comparing Words In Sherlock Holmes And The Moonstone
A commonly quoted aphorism states that actions speak louder than words. Who is to say that actions and words do not have equal value? In many detective stories, spanning from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous Sherlock Holmes, to Wilkie Collins’s The Moonstone, the detective weighs each witness’s actions and words equally and compare these two sets of information to see if the witness’s actions align with their account of events. Of course, the detective must possess keen observational skills in order to discern any differences between the witness’s actions and their words to catch the culprit. Dashiell Hammett, author of the short story “One Hour”, is familiar with this particular prerequisite in detective characters, having held a previous
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The protagonist is in a parlous predicament, where he is surrounded by four men in the printing shop. Upon the arrival of the newcomer, he believes that he may be able to subdue the threat of the men by asking him for assistance and using the newcomer’s presence as a distraction. However, he prompts the newcomer to call the police, and the newcomer replies “‘Yes! Yes!’[...] - and in the blurred sound of the ‘s’ there was evidence of foreign birth. Keyed up as [the protagonist] was, [he] didn't need any more warning than that”(Hammett 368).The protagonist realizes that the newcomer is Hendrik Van Pelt, who is an associate of the men in the printing shop. It registers in his mind that the newcomer is also a potential threat. Subsequently, he is able to dodge the incoming attack from Van Pelt, and it is through Van Pelt’s actions that the detective is able to confirm that Van Pelt is indeed involved in the hit and run case, and associated with the men in the printing shop. Otherwise, he would have had no excuse to attack the protagonist. Through the detection of Hendrik’s accent and the ensuing chaos that follows his arrival, the protagonist confirms that Hendrik and the men of the printing shop are the culprits behind the hit-and-run
The protagonist is in a parlous predicament, where he is surrounded by four men in the printing shop. Upon the arrival of the newcomer, he believes that he may be able to subdue the threat of the men by asking him for assistance and using the newcomer’s presence as a distraction. However, he prompts the newcomer to call the police, and the newcomer replies “‘Yes! Yes!’[...] - and in the blurred sound of the ‘s’ there was evidence of foreign birth. Keyed up as [the protagonist] was, [he] didn't need any more warning than that”(Hammett 368).The protagonist realizes that the newcomer is Hendrik Van Pelt, who is an associate of the men in the printing shop. It registers in his mind that the newcomer is also a potential threat. Subsequently, he is able to dodge the incoming attack from Van Pelt, and it is through Van Pelt’s actions that the detective is able to confirm that Van Pelt is indeed involved in the hit and run case, and associated with the men in the printing shop. Otherwise, he would have had no excuse to attack the protagonist. Through the detection of Hendrik’s accent and the ensuing chaos that follows his arrival, the protagonist confirms that Hendrik and the men of the printing shop are the culprits behind the hit-and-run