Murder Mystery story Essay

This is also securing the readers perspective on Sherlock Holmes. All through the Speckled Band Sherlock Holmes displays his distinct ability to decipher the exact meaning of a situation. At the same time that Holmes is doing this, the reader becomes more and more confused about the situation in hand. This is where Conan Doyle’s first person narrative becomes crucial to the story. He uses Dr. Watson as a translator of Holmes’ genius. Watson helps the readers understand exactly what’s going on and, in a way, puts their minds at ease. This is typical of Arthur Conan Doyle. He creates a psychological battle in the minds of the reader. He uses Holmes to create a trouble with interpretation of sequences past and to come and then simplifies it through Watson. This is what makes all Conan Doyle’s stories so brilliant for the reader. Conan Doyle uses Holmes to build up suspense with a possible flaw in Holmes’ brilliance when he declares that the committer of the crime is more cunning than himself. This is essential to the story. Holmes has been portrayed as the best detective in England up to this point and now he himself declares that he has been defeated. This creates extreme suspense for the reader. Also among Holmes’ abilities is his ability to disguise himself. He makes himself appear to be a person with distinct business at the Roylott estate. â€Å"This fellow should think that we had come as architects or on some definite business. † This adds to Holmes’ list of excellencies. He is now toying with the mind of the villain in order to accomplish he task he has been set. The unexpected ending. By the end of the Speckled band Doyle has created such suspense and confusion in the minds of the readers that they are waiting in dire anticipation to find out how it will end. The Speckled Band is, in fact, a poisonous snake native to India, the living place of Dr. Roylott for several years. Roylott used the snake to make its way through the ventilation and into the bedroom of Miss Stoner and poison her. No matter how intelligent the reader they would not have the ability to predict this ending. This is a classic ending because it surprises the reader and although the identity of the villain was obvious all the way through the story, it was never clear how he would have murdered his stepdaughter. This is again excellent writing by Conan Doyle. He builds up tension by repeating the events of the past death of Julia Stoner when Holmes re-enacts the sequences of that fateful night with Helen Stoner as a trap for Dr. Roylott. Arthur Conan Doyle uses vast imagery and description to keep the reader glued. It is with this imagery that he creates the tension and creates a sense of tragedy in the mind of the reader. The word black is repeated several times, and this gives a feeling of doom and imbalance. This, paired with nocturnal, silence, darkness and all the other words of sinister imagery creates more tension for the reader. It all builds up and gives the reader an incentive to carry on, to find out what will occur in the next sequence. All the way through there is a mysterious atmosphere and this only pushes the story further into the classic murder mystery genre. Everything down to he scenery and especially the buildings create a tense atmosphere. Conan Doyle wants to put a picture into the mind of the reader, such that they can almost see exactly they are reading about. â€Å"Grey, lichen-blotched stone†¦ windows broken†¦ picture of ruin. † All these are distinct factors of a house that can be picture in an infinite number of different ways for each individual reader. As this essay concludes the Speckled Band by sir Arthur Conan Doyle is a classic murder mystery story. All the criteria in the second paragraph have been fulfilled. There can be no argument that Sherlock Holmes is the greatest fictional detective in the whole of English literature and Arthur Conan Doyle is, without doubt, the most memorable writer of classic Murder Mystery stories up to the present day. Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Arthur Conan Doyle section.