 The Speckled Band
 Synopsis
HELEN STONER begs Holmes to save her from her violent stepfather GRIMESBY
ROYLOTT. Under the terms of her mother’s will, he inherited everything,
but a certain sum would be due to Helen and her sister JULIA upon their
marriages. However, Julia died two years ago under mysterious circumstances,
just after becoming engaged. For a few nights, Helen had heard a clear,
low whistle. Then one night, Julia screamed. Rushing to her sister’s
aid, Helen found her dying in agony, crying “It was the band –
the speckled band”. The doctors could find no mark of violence or
trace of poison.
Now Helen is herself engaged, and her stepfather’s renovation work
has forced her into Julia’s old room – where she has heard
the mysterious whistle. Holmes agrees to help her – and Roylott
turns up at Baker Street and threatens him. Investigating Roylott’s
house, Holmes finds an unused bell-pull in Helen’s room, and a lash
and a saucer of milk in Roylott’s. He and Watson keep a vigil in
Helen’s room, and are attacked by a poisonous swamp adder. Roylott
had kept it as a pet, had trained it, and had enticed it into Helen’s
room nightly, hoping to kill her and keep her share of the inheritance.
Holmes forces the adder back into Roylott’s room, where it bites
and kills him.
Comments
With its atmospheric evocation of Holmes and Watson’s night vigil,
and its melodramatic solution, The Speckled Band is one of the most famous
short stories about Sherlock Holmes. It was certainly one of Conan Doyle’s
favourite stories. Conan Doyle himself wrote a stage adaptation of this
story. He was pleased by the success of the play, but disappointed that
the real snake which the company used was dismissed by the critics as
unconvincing!
Under the laws of Victorian England, women’s money was held in charge
for them by a parent or guardian, until they found a husband. Then all
their money and property belonged to their husband absolutely. These laws
were a rich source of inspiration to Arthur Conan Doyle, and the Sherlock
Holmes contain various examples of girls being abused by desperate cads
who are determined to get their hands on their inheritance. Roylott is
probably the worst of them all, but for other examples see The
Copper Beaches, A Case of
Identity and The Solitary
Cyclist. |
Accueil >> The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes >> Dossier pédagogique >> The Speckled Band 
