Sherlock Holmes (The Speckled Band)

Question 1

what are the key themes of the story?

Answer 1

1) Justice
2) Greed
3) The danger of decline
4) The unknown and exotic

Question 2

what is justice?

Answer 2

Goodness always triumphs over evil/ injustice and bad people (the villains) will eventually be punished- even if this takes some time

Question 3

what is the theme of greed?

Answer 3

Greed makes people act selfishly; it leads to misery and the eventual downfall of greedy characters

Question 4

what is the danger of decline?

Answer 4

A loss in wealth and a weakening of morals (what’s right and wrong) stirs up violent emotions and behaviour in people

Question 5

what is the unknown and exotic?

Answer 5

Unfamiliar things or places could be seen as dangerous and sinister by people who’s understanding of them is limited to none

Question 6

what is a convention?

Answer 6

Key elements that we usually expect to see in a specific genre (type of story)

Question 7

list some key conventions of detective fiction

Answer 7

1) The key message is that justice will prevail in the end as good always defeats evil
2) The story often starts with a mysterious incident or death
3) There is a victim who is in danger from a greedy villain
4) To solve the crime, the hero must solve some sort of mystery with the help of their sidekick

Question 8

what is a victim?

who is the victim of ‘The Speckled Band’?

Answer 8

1) a victim is the person targeted by the villain or prone to being hurt or killed in the story
2) Helen Stoner is the victim

Question 9

what is the structure of a conventional detective fiction story?

Answer 9

1) beginning/ exposition
2) inciting incident
3) rising action
4) climax
5) falling action
6) resolution

Question 10

what happens in the exposition?

how does this match up to ‘The Speckled Band’?

Answer 10

1) the introduction to the setting, the main characters, and the background of the story
2) Doyle introduces the detective hero Holmes, his sidekick Watson, and the victim Ms. Stoner

Question 11

what happens in the inciting incident?

how does this match up to ‘The Speckled Band’?

Answer 11

1) an event or happening that thrusts the hero (detective) into taking action
2) Ms. Stoner explains the reason for her visit and gives the background to the crime

Question 12

what happens in the rising action?

how does this match up to ‘The Speckled Band’?

Answer 12

1) a series of events and actions that move the story towards the climax- the build up of tension
2) the villain appears and Holmes visits the scene of the crime to explore the clues

Question 13

what happens in the climax?

how does this match up to ‘The Speckled Band’?

Answer 13

1) the peak of tension and the turning point where everything changes
2) the villain is caught red-handed and Ms. Stoner’s life is saved (the point where justice wins against greed and good defeats evil)

Question 14

what happens in the falling action?

how does this match up to ‘The Speckled Band’?

Answer 14

1) a series of events and actions that move the story down towards a resolution
2) the mystery of the crime is revealed (in this case, the Speckled Band)

Question 15

what happens in the resolution?

how does this match up to ‘The Speckled Band’?

Answer 15

1) the conclusion in which all the problems of the story are fixed
2) Sherlock explains how he pieced the clues together to foil the crime

Question 16

list every character in the story

Answer 16

Sherlock Holmes
John Watson
Dr. Grimseby Roylott 
Ms. Helen Stoner
Ms. Julia Stoner
Mrs. Hudson

Question 17

who is Sherlock Holmes? (9)

Answer 17

• The hero
• A very perceptive detective
• Is able to make rational decisions
• Deducts complex conclusions from subtle clues
• Friends with John Watson
• Believes in justice
• Often seen smoking a pipe, wearing a cape and hat, holding a magnifying glass
• Lives in 221b Baker Street in London
• Brave and unafraid

Question 18

‘my profession is its own reward’
‘I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm of your left hand’
‘he picked out the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, straightened it out again’

Answer 18

1) Holmes enjoys his job, he is good at being a detective, he is a good person who likes to help others, he strongly believes in justice, he works hard to help others despite it not necessarily financially benefiting him
2) He is very perceptive/ intelligent/ clever, he notices things that others do not, he can draw complex deductions from subtle clues, very rational and has a good sense of logic
3) He is physically strong as well as mentally gifted, he is not worried to show his strength in front of intimidating people, is not easily scared, respects justice and is able to allocate order to situations made chaotic by a lack of justice

Question 19

who is John Wastson? (6)

Answer 19

• The sidekick of the story
• Sherlock Holmes’ close friend, assistant and biographer
• The narrator of the story
• Smart but not as perceptive as Sherlock is
• Narrates the story because he has some idea of the situation, is kept in suspense by his partner, is intelligent enough to express words well, is a good and reliable character, but won’t reveal too much of the plot to the point where the story will become boring
• a highly-educated and experienced physician

Question 20

who is Dr. Grimseby Roylott? (11)

Answer 20

• The villain of the story
• Killed Julia Stoner and tried to murder Helen Stoner
• Had a fascination in exotic creatures like Indian animals
• Ruined by the danger of decline
• Very arrogant and extremely violent
• Intimidating, short-tempered man
• Selfish and greedy
• Was willing to kill to acquire wealth
• Stepfather of Helen/ Julia Stoner
• Met their mother in India
• owner of Stoke Moran (the run-down family mansion of the Saxon house, Roylott)

Question 21

‘he shut himself up in his house and seldom came out, save to indulge in ferocious quarrels with whoever might cross his path’
‘last week, he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a stream’

Answer 21

1) Roylott despises social interactions with other people, and therefore deliberately isolates himself from the rest of town- however, he is willing to show his face through disputes with anyone who vexes him
2) Dr. Roylott’s violent personality is displayed by his actions of physically harming a living being

Question 22

who is Julia Stoner?

Answer 22

the twin sister of Helen Stoner, who died as part of the hideous murder-crime committed by her step-father.

Question 23

who is Mrs Hudson?

Answer 23

the owner of where Watson and Holmes lived in 221b of Baker Street, London

Question 24

who is Helen Stoner? (9)

Answer 24

• the victim of the story
• presented as scared and paranoid in the exposition of ‘The Speckled Band’
• typical Victorian woman
• her freedom was limited by her father, who restricted her journeys, rights, and choices
• around 30 years old
• the twin sister of the dead Julia Stoner
• defied her step-father by covertly journeying to London in the middle of the night to seek help from a detective
• she relied on Roylott for wealth and accommodation
• she was not employed because she was the daughter of a Victorian doctor

Question 25

‘restless, frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal’
‘hair was shot with premature grey’

Answer 25

1) is paranoid as she is always checking her surroundings for potential threats, as if she were prey being targeted by something stronger, or darker than she could herself comprehend
2) the stressful, impending doom of her situation is affecting her physical appearance and weakening her health

Question 26

what is tension?

Answer 26

a feeling of foreboding that makes the reader unable to relax because there is something ominous or unclear that could threaten the characters’ lives

Question 27

what are the four narrative perspectives?

which one is the story written in?

Answer 27

1) First person perspective
2) Second person perspective
3) Third person perspective
4) Fourth person perspective

‘The Speckled Band’ was written in the first person perspective e.g. me/my/we/our/I

Question 28

what observations does Holmes make when he first sees Ms. Stoner?

Answer 28

Ms. Stoner shivers.
She is dressed all in black and wears a veil.
There is a train ticket in the palm of her left glove.
There are seven splatters of mud the arm of her coat
jacket.
She has arrived into central London at a very early hour.

From these clues, Holmes makes two deductions:

Ms. Stoner is cold.
Ms. Stoner has travelled a long distance, partly by horse cart and partly by train

Question 29

what clue did he misinterpret?

what does this show about his character?

Answer 29

1) that Ms. Stoner is shivering from fear, not from the cold

2) there are bounds regarding Holmes’ perceptiveness.

Question 30

how does Holmes’ personality match with the context and time of Doyle’s life?

Answer 30

his understanding of human emotion is limited. Holmes is a good, and intelligent individual but he rarely expresses feelings of his own and is unfamiliar with those of other people.

Question 31

how is Helen Stoner portrayed as a conventional victim?

how might you say that she is braver than other victims in detective fiction?

Answer 31

1) she is terrified/ paranoid and defenceless against harm. She seeks help from stronger, smarter characters against her fears.
2) she defies her step-father who hurts and scares her by journeying from Stoke Moran without his permission. Despite being terrified of ending up dead like her sister, Ms. Stoner returns to the house and gets ready to sleep in her new room in order for Sherlock to carry out his plan.

Question 32

what makes a chapter tense?

Answer 32

• Doyle sets the chapter at night
• Sherlock Holmes grabs Dr. Watson’s wrists in fright at seeing the baboon
• There are strange sounds, smells and lights coming through the vent
• There is a sudden struggle with Holmes thrashing the bell-rope with a cane
• The chapter ends with Dr. Watson readying his gun

Question 33

what is the difference between tension and suspense?

Answer 33

tension is a feeling of nervousness or worry for the character, whereas suspense is the state of waiting to know something

Question 34

what techniques to writers use to create tension?

Answer 34

darkness
sound/ silence
character’s feelings

Question 35

how does darkness create tension?

Answer 35

when you cannot see your surroundings, you feel threatened by potential monstrosities that could be hiding and waiting to attack at a point of disorientation or vulnerability

Question 36

how does sound/ silence create tension?

Answer 36

the state of silence is unnerving/ unnatural. Silence amplifies the sound of noises and makes them scarier/ louder. You might also be tense because you are anticipating a scary sound to break the silence, like a scream or gunshot

Question 37

how does the character’s feelings create tension?

Answer 37

writers describe the physical and mental affects of fear using their characters- when the character is worried, the reader feels worried for them too

Question 38

give three examples of moments in the story where tension was created?

Answer 38

1) ‘I could not hear a sound, not even the drawing of a breath’- silence
2) ‘we waited in absolute darkness’ - darkness
3) ‘From outside came the occasional cry of a night bird’- symbolism implies that Stoke Moran is like a hunting ground

Question 39

list the different settings in the story

Answer 39

Stoke Moran
The crab wing
India

Question 40

what does Stoke Moran represent?

Answer 40

Dr. Roylott’s house, Stoke Moran is run-down from the exterior and interior of the building. This state of dilapidation might represent the villain’s decline of morals from the perspective of his personality.

Question 41

how does Doyle use pathetic fallacy?

Answer 41

During the account of Julia Stoner’s death, Helen describes the rain pouring against the window panes. The violence displayed by the rain might indicate the impending ferocity of Julia’s situation, and the grievous emotions being experienced by Helen in the near-future.