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The Speckled Band

Page history last edited by William Patrick Wend 11 years, 11 months ago

Biography 

  •  

Journal

  • How does Holmes' early understanding of the solution affect how narrative is portrayed and/or structured?

About

  • Written in 1892 as part of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes 
  • Narrated by Watson
  • Set in 1883
  • Doyle thought this was his best story 
  • The Married Women's Property Act is passed in 1885 

Summary


Questions?


Analysis

  • Holmes doesn't need payment...solving the case is enough for him...

  • Another damsel in distress. Hennessy and Mohan argue that this story:

 

...dramatizes the sexual economy of patriarchy: the equation of woman and property. At the same time, it presents Holmes as woman's protector, rescuing her from the villainous patriarch's domination and defending her right to control her own property and person. 

 

  • Clues (low whistle, cigar smoke, metallic clang)

  • Sisters locked their doors because of exotic animals?

  • Typical of the time period, mentions of gypsies and the far east make these things sound dangerous

  • Gypsies used to throw us off as a suspect

  • Holmes' cocaine addiction humanizes him


Characters


Symbolism


Gender


Point of View


Irony


Ending

  • Holmes shows no guilt for Roycott's death "violence does...recoil upon the violent...the schemer falls into the pit which he digs for another"  

Adaptations

  • Adapted as a play called The Stonor Case in 1910.

Wordle


Bibliography  

  • Belsey, Catherine. "Deconstructing The Text: Sherlock Holmes." Critical Practice. London: Methuen, 1980. Print. 
  • Caprettini, Gian Paolo. "Sherlock Holmes: Ethics, Logic, & The Mask." Ed. Umberto Eco and Thomas A. Sebeok. The Sign of Three: Dupin, Holmes, Peirce. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1983. Print.
  • Doyle, Arthur Conan. Sherlock Holmes: the Major Stories with Contemporary Critical Essays. Ed. John A. Hodgson. Boston: Bedford of St. Martin, 1994. Print.  
  • Hennessy, Rosemary, and Rajeswari Mohan. "The Construction of Woman in Three Popular Texts of Empire: Towards a Critique of Materialist Feminism." Textual Practice 3.3 (1989): 323-59. Print. 
  • Hodgson, John A. "The Recoil of "The Speckled Band": Detective Story & Detective Discourse." Poetics Today 13 (1992): 309-24. Print.
  • Knight, Stephen. "The Case Of The Great Detective." Meanjin 40.2 (1981): 175-85. Print. 

 

  1. Something we discussed in class was the role of colonialism and how it affected British writers like Doyle. Is there prejudice in the stories we read? Talk about how that affects your close reading.  
  2. Do a psychoanalytic close reading of at least two characters in the stories we read. How does this psychological character analysis affect how you close read the stories?
  3. How does the restrictions placed on women during this time period play a role in the stories we read. How is gender depicted?
  4. How does modern ideas about the role of men and women in marriage change how we close read these stories?   

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