In What Ways Is Roylott Presented as a Typical Villain?

In what ways is Roylott presented as a typical villain? The speckled band is a short story from the adventures of Sherlock Holmes and is written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It is a typical traditional detective story, of which there was a raise in demand during the Victorian era, as there were famous murders happening such as Jack the Ripper and Sweeny Todd as London was consumed with crime at this time. There developed a stereotypical image of villains in detective genres and they were meant to have an evil and eerie personality and characteristics. In this essay I will explore the character of one, Dr Grimesby Roylott, and identify how he fits that stereotypical image. Dr Grimesby Roylott is portrayed as a stereotypical villain during the Speckled Band. The reader first meets his character through the first person view of Dr Watson, Sherlock’s’ slightly amateur apprentice. He is described as someone who is intimidating and has motive along with the past form of murder. One of the reasons he is such a good villain is the incredible contrast between him and his innocent victim, Miss Stoner, and the clever and cunning detective, Sherlock Holmes. The physical description of Roylott sounds like that of a traditional villain. When the reader first meets Roylott he is described as having ‘bile-shot eyes’ and ‘a large face, seared with a thousand wrinkles’. This immediately gives us a negative impression of him and he is also described as having a ‘high thin fleshed nose’ that gave him the ‘resemblance to a fierce old bird of prey’. This image suggests that he is the kind of thing that hunts on the innocent. This makes us feel intimidated by him as everyone he met was sure to have felt. Doyle also makes Roylott sound more vicious by saying that he ‘snarled’ at Sherlock which is a verb normally applied to vicious animals, once again suggesting that he is the kind of person that would hurt the innocent. Roylott is presented as a typical villain as he has good motive to kill Miss Stoner and her sister, in addition to his past form of murder. When he lived in India he was sent to prison as he aggressively beat his own butler to death ‘in a fit of anger’. Also Miss Stoner’s mother had quite a bit of money ‘not less than a thousand a year’ and when she died she left it to Roylott so long as he looked the girls. When each girl married they were to get £250 each which would have left Roylott with just £250 (due to the £1000 declining in value to just £750) and both girls where due to marry. From Africa he bought back a Cheetah and a Baboon and kept them in the gardens of Stoke Moran. This shows his strange behaviour since he returned from Africa with the girls. He is described completely different to Miss Stoner. In comparison to her, Roylott is portrayed as a huge intimidating person of which to be afraid of. Helen is described as having ‘restless, frightened eyes’ that were ‘like those of some hunted animal’. This is in direct comparison to Roylott who is referred to as ‘a fierce old bird of prey’. This suggests that he is the one hunting her. She is described as ‘weary and haggard’ and is portrayed as innocent whilst Roylott is presented as a monster that is big and strong. Another reason that he conforms to the traditional villain image is the fact that he is no match for the traditional detective, Sherlock Holmes. In the tradition detective genre the evil villain never wins and can never outwit the detective. Roylott is presented as cunning and evil but Sherlock is better and can’t be outwitted by the evil villain. Throughout the story the structure is basically a series of clues ‘a ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the bed dies’ which Sherlock unravels and which eventually lead to the truth coming out. Sherlock is so clever that he knows most things before Watson and the reader; this is why the reader is sure that Roylott can’t outwit Sherlock. The fact that Roylott is a traditional villain shines through in the way he perpetrates his crime. He acts the same way that every typical villain acts and takes the same steps towards his carefully constructed plan. To show how clever he is Sherlock says ‘when a doctor does go wrong he is the first of criminals’. Roylott is very smart as he has installed a ventilator into the room as well as a pull rope for the snake to reach its victim. Doyle uses pathetic fallacy to convey the atmosphere throughout the story, this deepens the mood and portrays it more strongly to us. In the end, Roylott gets what is coming to him as all typical traditional villains do. He ends up being killed by his own snakes instead of it killing Helen as it was meant to. To conclude, Roylott is obviously a typical villain in many ways such as how he acts and how he works. My investigation into him has showed that he possess’ all of the traits of a typical villain. The story the Speckled Band is a very good story as it is very interesting and has lots of twists and turns within it. Of all the villains in English literature I believe that he is one of the greatest as he was a doctor and turned all of the knowledge that he possessed into evil and turned to crime, however he killed so well that he shouldn’t have become a suspect. He fits the criteria of a typical villain completely and fills the apart very well.