arthur conan doyle the adventure of the speckled band

As a threat, Roylott takes the poker from the fireplace and bends it into a curve. His first name, Grimesby, is almost laughably dark and his appearance-so tall and broad that he fills the door frame, his face “seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and marked with every evil passion”-makes it clear that he is the story’s villain. Roylott enters into Holmes and Watson’s apartment, for instance, he is made to appear inherently foreboding. In Doyle’s cosmology, bad people are obviously bad, which contributes to the sense that they are fated for a downfall. Holmes then stares pensively into the fire and the reader can see that he feels it is imperative for him to take up this case to ensure that Roylott does no further harm.Īs much as Holmes’ intellect and ambition to do good propel him to solve crimes, Doyle seems to suggest that evildoers being brought to justice is a matter of fate. When he tells her that she has been “cruelly used” by her stepfather, Helen tries to defend him by saying he just doesn’t understand his own strength. Furthermore, during Helen’s explanation of her sister’s mysterious death, Holmes notices five small bruises on her wrist, left by the grip of Roylott’s fingers. This shows that Holmes is less concerned about any financial incentives than doing good in the world. “As to reward, my profession is its own reward,” he claims.

When Helen visits Holmes and Watson, for instance, she asks whether she can pay him at a later point for his detective services. This is clear in his constant ruminations about the nature of justice and his personal concern for Helen’s safety. In this particular case, his ambition is less to make sure that whoever murdered Julia Stoner is caught and taken to court than it is to personally stop an inherently evil person from doing harm again. More than a mere detective solving crimes, Holmes see himself as a conduit for justice.

Roylott, Doyle suggests that justice is a natural condition of human life and that goodness or fairness will always prevail in the end. Through the triumph of the eminently good Holmes and Watson over the evil Dr. Doyle’s stories depict a straightforward division between good and evil, in which characters are generally not nuanced blends of both characteristics, but rather embodiments of either extreme. One of the overarching ideas of most Sherlock Holmes stories, including “The Adventure of the Speckled Band,” is that justice and goodness must triumph over evil and injustice.

Arthur conan doyle the adventure of the speckled band