A Typical Victorian Villian in The Speckled Band

Coursework-The Speckled Band How does Conan Doyle present Dr. Grimesby

Roylott as a typical Victorian Villain.

Having now read this book I feel I am now able to complete this essay

about Roylott. The main constituents of a typical classic murder

mystery invariably consist of a body, a motive, a weapon, a suspect,

an alibi and a detective. Conan Doyle’s,The Speckled Band

demonstrates all those typical characteristics.

I am now going to briefly summarise the story and identify each of the

ingredients of the murder mystery, The Speckled Band, to help the

reader understand the elements of the story. I will then analyse how

Conan Doyle presents Dr. Roylett as a typical Victorian villain.

The story begins with Holmes and Watson in conversation. They are

reminiscing about their past cases over the last eight years and talk

about the mysterious death of a Miss Julia Stoner. This case

commences when Holmes wakes Watson up very early in the morning. This

is because they have a client, a young lady, Helen Stoner. She is

about to be married and is scared because her sister, Julia was due to

be married and just before her marriage day, she died. It was an awful

shock to all the family. The coroner said she was unable to find any

satisfactory cause of death but Helen thought Julia had died of fear

and nervous shock. Consequently Helen Stoner sought the help of

Holmes. Helen then tells us a little bit about the history of her

family. Helen and Julia are twins who have lost their mother and are

living with their stepfather Dr Grimesby Roylott. Roylott stopped

working when the twin’s mother died. We then hear about the night

when Julia Stoner died. We know that Roylott had retired to his room

early but had not gone...

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...1824. He was heavily in debt, guilty of

attempted bribery, fraud, forgery and overly fond of the ladies and of

gambling on the horses is beyond doubt! He was only tried for one

murder although he was found guilty of the murders by poison of his

wife and his brother. He was then found guilty of the murder of John

Parsons Cook in the ‘Talbot Arms’ in Rugeley. They tried to get him

to admit it but he wouldn’t. For this murder he was publicly executed

in saw it. He was nicknamed, “The Prince of Poisoners.”

In conclusion I say that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s fictional villain

Dr Grimesby Roylott is a lot like these two Victorian villains. Both

the real murderers were doctors, just like Roylott. The way they kill

is fairly similar as well, although Roylott was more clever and may

have escaped detection if it had not been for that super sleuth ,

Sherlock Holmes.