Preview

Evil in Sherlock Holmes "The Speckled Band"

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1595 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Evil in Sherlock Holmes "The Speckled Band"
Good vs. Evil, in “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” This essay will examine the concept of “good vs. evil” as appears in the mystery story “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1892. Speckled Band is a Sherlock Holmes mystery and one of the twelve stories that Doyle wrote in his “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” series (Wikipedia). Doyle was said to have felt that “Speckled Band” was his best Sherlock Holmes story (Wikipedia). When I first read “The Speckled Band”, I thought this was a basic “good vs. evil” type story, with Sherlock Holmes and his partner, Dr. Watson, being the good guys and the mad doctor, Grimesby Roylott, being the evil side. It seemed natural that Sherlock Holmes stories would be basically about good and evil, as I have seen a movie or two about Sherlock Holmes and he was always battling some villain that was obviously evil. In this essay, however, I will argue that “The Speckled Band” is not a simple story of good and evil, but a more complex story that focuses on money and greed rather than evil, as its key themes. This story is about the mysterious death of a young woman, whose sister approaches Sherlock Holmes to seek help because she is afraid that whatever happened to her sister may be happening to her as well. The villain in the story is Dr. Grimesby Roylott, the stepfather to two daughters who were left a sizable estate by their mother who died in a railroad accident. Dr. Roylott manages this trust fund until the daughters get married, at which time, the estate is split into thirds with each daughter getting a one-third share when they marry. The main plot is built around the earlier death of one of the sisters, Julia Stoner, and the surviving sister, Helen Stoner, who is planning to be married and now worries about her own safety. As Helen Stoner describes the events around her sister’s death, this mystery looks to be a classic “locked room” type mystery, with a sealed room


Cited: Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan. “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” First published in “Strand Magazine” (February 1892). Reprinted for class handout: University of New Orleans, English Literature (ENGL 2020-005), Fall Semester 2011. Wikipedia contributors. "The Adventure of the Speckled Band." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia Foundation, Inc.. 3 Oct. 2011. Web. 12 Oct. 2011.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Holmes had offered rooms to young women arriving to attend the fair, but many of those women associated with him had disappeared. In addition, he had employed a number of young women, who also had disappeared. From what could be reconstructed, it seemed that Holmes had tortured and murdered these women, disposing of their corpses in his furnace in the cellar or defleshing them and selling the skeletons to medical schools.…

    • 5132 Words
    • 21 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    For every man who devotes his effort and intelligence into enriching the world, there will be an equally powerful man who intends to counterbalance the goodness with malevolence. In The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson, the intertwining tales of Henry H. Holmes and Daniel Burnham show that good cannot exist without evil, just as evil cannot exist without good. In the midst of one of Chicago’s finest architectural happenings, one man is working meticulously to create the most extravagant architectural endeavors of the time, whilst another man is working equally hard to be detrimental to those who are drawn in by the 1893 World’s Fair. Although the two characters seem paradoxical, they are similar in their people skills and obsession – but differ in their relationships and legacies.…

    • 642 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A cultural issue that has led to many controversial topics is the stature of good versus evil. In other words, the argument suggests that novels and history itself demonstrates the blurred lines of good versus evil. In my opinion, good versus evil can never just be “good” or “evil”, but instead should be determined on the effect that the situation causes as a whole. Throughout society and in literature, the evidence to support my viewpoint is pervasive.…

    • 1030 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Every person is an individual in his or her own way and form. Be it their way of thinking or the decisions they make, no one person is the same. The characters in the story’s The Possibility of Evil by Shirley Jackson and The bolt of white cloth By Leon Rooke are all influenced by the society, environment and people they are surrounded with. They must take into consideration the feelings of others to be given the result they truly deserve.…

    • 791 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Golding’s’ wartime novel, human nature is put under the microscope by a Misanthropist, dead set on exposing Humanity for what it holds; Innate evil. Evil in what way you ask? In ambition. For in our world, Shakespeare’s, and Golding’s, Ambition truly is the source of all evil. In Macbeth, Shakespeare does well to disguise ambition as the true source of villainy, behind the façade that is Lady Macbeth and the witches. Without ambition, there would never be any action, no good, no evil, would Eve have picked the apple from the garden of Eden, without the ambition to gain further knowledge? The two traits of evil and ambition are well aligned in both pieces of literature, and too in real life, and this essay aims to explore the link they share.…

    • 978 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Evil in Dante and Chaucer

    • 467 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Nonetheless, it must be recognized that in earlier times evil was not only real but palpable. This paper will look at evil as it is portrayed in two different works -- Dante's Divine Comedy, and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales -- and analyze what the nature of evil meant to each of these authors. The Divine Comedy is an epic poem in which the author, Dante, takes a visionary journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. The purpose of Dante's visit to Hell is to learn about the true nature of evil.…

    • 467 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    May, R. (1982). “The Problem of Evil: An Open Letter to Carl Rogers.” Journal of Humanistic Psychology. Vol. 22 (3). Pg. 10-21.…

    • 2922 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The elements of evil live among the population. It has been that way since the creation of time. One can neither run nor hide from something so malicious. Unfortunately, the avoidance of evil can only be accomplished through instinct. On the other hand, the nature of evil is often neglected. As a result, the usage of evil can be misjudged or unaccredited by the human race. “Young Goodman Brown” and “The Minister’s Black Veil” are apparent to these essences of wickedness. In these works by Nathanial Hawthorne, the reader must analyze how evil coexists in everyday life. Even though individuals are subject to glance over evil and the concealing it holds, the presence of it should still be taken with appropriate measures.…

    • 534 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the novel Jack Stapleton, the other villain that I will be discussing, is trying to kill off all other heirs to Baskerville family estate and money so that he becomes the sole heir. Sherlock Holmes is hired to try and solve the mystery behind the death of Sir Charles Baskerville whom Jack Stapleton killed. Jack Stapleton, even though as black-hearted and clever as he is, proves no match for the great Sherlock Holmes who cracks the case. While these two novels are both seemingly different, both have a villain who is all-consumed with greed. In both of the stories Jack Merridew and Jack Stapleton let greed control their actions, thoughts, and how they lived, which drove them to kill and manipulate others and we should all learn from their…

    • 790 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In Nathaniel Hawthorne's “Young Goodman Brown” and Shirley Jackson's “The Lottery”, we are given a picture of seemingly normal people who are capable of incredible evil.…

    • 973 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    This paper will discuss the Logical and Evidential Argument from Evil, Peter Wykstra's Unknown Purpose Defense, and William Rowe's rebuttals in an attempt to ....…

    • 450 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The case of Brown vs. Board of Education, was one of the biggest turning points for African Americans to becoming accepted into the white society at the time. Brown vs board of education is one of the most important cases that african americans has brought upon the united states for the better. The case Brown vs. Board of Education wasn't just about the children and the education; it was about being equal in a society that says african and americans are treated equal, in fact they were definitely not. This case was the reason that blacks and whites no longer have separate restrooms, and water fountains, this was the case that truly destroyed the saying separate but equal. It started in Topeka, Kansas, a african american third-grader named Linda Brown had to walk one mile through a railroad switchyard to get to her african american elementary school. Linda's father Oliver Brown, tried to enroll her in the white elementary school seven blocks from her house, but the principal of the school refused simply because the child was african american. That didn't stop Oliver Brown from fighting for his daughters education. There were 13 other parents wanting their african american children enrolled to the white school. The parents filed suit against Topeka Board of Education for their children. Oliver Brown was the first name listed in the lawsuit. During the time of the lawsuits african americans were treated very unfairly. Oliver Brown had went to NAACP(National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) to fight to get Linda in the white school. The NAACP hired lawyers to fight for dark skin children all around the United States to be able to go to the same schools as white children. The 14 Amendment was violated by this case. It states that anyone colored or not born in the US is equal. The states referred this case as the Plessy vs. Ferguson which had allowed separate but equal school systems for whites and african americans…

    • 449 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story is a about determinant beliefs and an epic struggle between good and evil. Young Goodman Brown faces some real evils, but also has to face his own devilish side, his temptations, his anger and his family's history of cruelty. Hawthorne’s character, Young Goodman Brown, leaves the reader with the impression that "GOOD-MAN" is the focal character that symbolizes his will to be the noble person, in the battle between good and evil. Young Goodman Brown’s faith is tested, and only his walk through the woods will tell how he alters his beliefs and makes changes in his life insistently. Within the in short story, Goodman Brown encounters a journey that takes him through the realization between saints and sinners that later leads him into the woods to encounter a man posed as Satan and a journey back home that leads to delusional thoughts about his community.…

    • 942 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The topic of evil is discussed in multiple ways within the stories of Beowulf, Paradise Lost, Lord of the Flies, and “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”. These writers’ opinions on evil vary. Evil is portrayed in many different ways. Is evil a choice that is made by an individual? Or is it merely a concept that humans have no control over? Although these writers may disagree on who will be defeated in the battle between good and evil and whether evil lives within every man, they agree on the concept that evil always brings negative consequences.…

    • 881 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Giant Wistaria

    • 364 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The second part of the story, which takes place a hundred years after the first, is both disturbing and mysterious. It involves a group of young people, Mr. and Mrs. Jenny, their pretty sisters and their sisters’ lovers who talk about the possibility of having a ghost inside their house and eventually discover the house’s dreadful secret. This part reveals the secret from the first part. Without it, the first part would have been very vague and incomplete. Along with the characters from the second part, we must attempt to read across a hundred years of silence to reconstruct the first woman’s story. We are forced to discover what traditions, what historical and cultural continuities link the two halves of the story together.…

    • 364 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays