illustration of Sherlock Holmes in profile looking across a cityscape with a magnifying glass in the distance and a speckled band visible through the glass

The Adventure of the Speckled Band

by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

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Summary and Analysis of "The Adventure of the Speckled Band"

Summary:

"The Adventure of the Speckled Band" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle unfolds with Helen Stoner visiting Sherlock Holmes, fearing for her life after her sister's mysterious death. The rising action includes Helen's backstory and Holmes's investigation, revealing Dr. Roylott's sinister motives. The climax occurs when Holmes drives a snake back through a ventilator, leading to Roylott's death by his own snake. The resolution sees Holmes capturing the snake, with an epilogue explaining the case's details and motives.

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What are the rising action, falling action, and resolution in "The Adventure of the Speckled Band"?

The exposition sets up the problem for Holmes to unravel, understand and solve. In this story, it is brought to him by Miss Stoner who is newly engaged and deeply concerned about a recurrence of strange behavior at the home she shares with the stepfather, to whom her deceased mother left her daughters' share of wealth until the day they should be married. The rising action follows and includes the mad visit Roylott pays to Holmes and Watson, the inspection of the scene of the suspected crimes and Holmes' instructions to Miss Stoner. The falling action comes after the climax in which Holmes battles the snake and he and Watson hear Roylott's piercing screams. It includes entering the adjoining room occupied by Roylott and finding him dead from the adder attack. The resolution is how Holmes ends the case by capturing the snake and locking it back in the safe....

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The resolution is followed by anepilogue, or "afterward," in which Holmes and Watson ruminate on the case.

As [Holmes] spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man’s lap, and throwing the noose round the reptile’s neck he drew it from its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm’s length, threw it into the iron safe, which he closed upon it.

The Rising Action
The rising action comes when Holmes and Watson begin investigating the strange and alarming story Miss Stoner tells about her present concerns and and about the death of her newly engaged twin sister two years earlier. Her present situation bears so much resemblance to her late sister's situation, including metallic and whistling sounds and sudden abrupt building repair projects, that she turns for help to Holmes. The first step in the rising action is the threatening visit of her stepfather, Dr. Grimesby Roylott of Stoke Moran. He stands darkly in the doorway, an imposing figure, and demands in a loud voice that Holmes refrain from any interference with his family affairs. To prove his point that he is a dangerous man, he invades the room and bends a fire poker with his bare hands.

"Don’t you dare to meddle with my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with his huge brown hands.

The rising action continues as Holmes and Watson take a train trip to and make an inspection of Stoke Moran to investigate the premises wherein Miss Stoner and Roylott live, where they are alone as no servants will stay. In the rising action at Stoke Moran, Holmes sees that the sudden structural repairs to the building are undertaken without need; that Miss Stoner's bedroom--the one Roylott has forced her into by his building construction--window cannot be breached from the outside; and that there are several disturbing features of the interior of that room, namely, a bed that can't be moved, a bell cord that rings no bell, an air vent that provides no ventilation. He also notices a saucer of milk in the room adjoining hers, although they keep no cat.

Further suspenseful rising action occurs when Holmes directs Miss Stoner to pretend she has a headache that night and retire to bed as early as she can; to signal him with a lamp in her window that she is there and alone; to gather what she needs for the night and return to her original room (despite its disheveled condition) further down the corridor. 

Falling Action
The falling action comes after the adventure draws to a climactic close having been safely concluded, with nefarious plans thwarted, threatened people saved and the guilty disposed of (in one way or another). In this case, Holmes, sitting in a deeply dark room, listening intently, has climactically stopped the speckled band snake ("Indian swamp adder") from progressing on its murderous mission and has beaten it, turning it back upon Roylott--who had sent it through the vent from the adjoining room--where it attacks and kills Roylott.

The falling action begins when Watson gasps, "What can it mean?" and Holmes replies, "It means that it is all over." The falling action continues for a short space, while Holmes says the ending may "be for the best" and asks Watson to take his "pistol" in hand as they "enter Dr. Roylott’s room." They go down the hall, knock fruitlessly at the door, enter and are met with the chilling site of Roylott's still body, with the speckled band snake round his head.

"It is a swamp adder!” cried Holmes; “the deadliest snake in India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls into the pit which he digs for another."

Resolution and Epilogue

The resolution occurs immediately after the falling action and is when Holmes lassos and throws the still living snake back into the iron safe it was kept in. An epilogue follows the short, effective resolution. An epilogue is distinguished from the resolution in that one, the latter, concludes the mystery while the other, the epilogue, leisurely sums up what transpires afterward.

In the epilogue, on the train trip back to London, Holmes explains all things to Watson, including that he had at first been on the wrong track but had seen the problem clearly once he saw the pointless bell pull at the corner of the bed below the vent. Everything had hinged upon the will of Miss Stoner's and Lucy's mother, which left Roylott control of the wealth that would go to her daughters on the event of their marriages. Roylott was too well pleased with the life he'd constructed on that money--still in his control as long as Lucy and Miss Stoner were unwed--to allow it to depart from him. The young ladies must be prevented from marrying at all costs. His collection of animals from India provided the perfect solution in the Indian swamp adder.

Holmes explains that the odd room arrangements, the stationary bed, the useless bell pull, the ventilator that didn't ventilate, "dummy bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate," were integral to Roylott's plan of murder. The interior changes and restrictions to bedroom use kept first one sister, then the other sleeping in one carefully measured location, while the external changes constrained the bothersomely engaged sister to sleep in the murder room:

"He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but sooner or later she must fall a victim."

Holmes explains that some of the "blows" he gave the adder in the matchlight "hit home," enraging the snake which then lashed out at the first victim it encounter after dashing in retreat back up the bell pull: Roylott. Holmes admits that in an indirect way, he is responsible for Roylott's death:

"Some of the blows of my cane came home and roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. Grimesby Roylott’s death, and I cannot say that it is likely to weigh very heavily upon my conscience.”

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What is interesting about many of the stories of Sherlock Holmes is the way in which he spends a very long time interrogating the person who has come to see him at the beginning of the story before any action takes place. In a sense, then, the rising action of this short story occurs after Holmes has spoken to Helen Stoner, and includes a number of events. Firstly, the sudden appearance of Dr. Grimesby Roylott after the exit of Helen Stoner clearly signifies the beginning of the rising action. Note the way he is described:

So tall was he that his hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his breadth seemed ot span it across from side to side. A large face, seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to teh other of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old bird of prey.

Clearly this is key in setting up the conflict between Holmes and Roylott, and then leads on to the visit that Holmes makes to Stoke Moran and his investigation of the rooms, and then his plan to swap rooms with Helen Stoner for that night. This of course leads to the climax of Roylott's attempt to kill Helen (as he thinks), and the way that Holmes sends the snake back to kill its master.

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What crime occurs in "The Adventure of the Speckled Band"?

In "The Adventure of the Speckled Band," the principal crime occurred two years ago when Helen Stoner's sister Julia was murdered by their stepfather Dr. Grimesby Roylott. He was also guilty of the attempted murder of Helen on the night before she comes to see Sherlock Holmes—but that would have been impossible to prove, since Helen never even saw the "speckled band," a poisonous snake Roylott had sent through the ventilator in the expectation that it would bite and kill her, exactly as it had killed Julia in the same room and in the same bed two years before. Holmes comes down to Stoke Moran because he has agreed to help the frightened young woman who has told him that she heard the same low whistle described to her by Julia shortly before she died an agonizing death.

‘Tell me, Helen,’ said she, ‘have you ever heard anyone whistle in the dead of the night?’

‘Never,’ said I.

‘I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in your sleep?’

‘Certainly not. But why?’

‘Because during the last few nights I have always, about three in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from—perhaps from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would just ask you whether you had heard it.’

Helen tells Holmes that her stepfather has found a pretext for moving her into her dead sister's room and that she has just heard the same low, clear whistle at around three o'clock that very morning. She waited until daylight and then took a dog cart to the nearby train station and has just arrived in London to consult the great detective.

There is good reason to suspect that Dr. Roylott murdered Julia and is now trying to murder Helen. Money is the motive. Under the terms of his deceased wife's will, Roylott would have been legally obligated to pay Julia one-third of the income from her mother's estate if she married. Julia had become engaged just before she died. Now Helen has become engaged, and Roylott has the same motive for dispatching her.

"The Adventure of the Speckled Band" is in the subgenre of a "locked room murder mystery." There is no apparent way of entering the room once the door is locked and the window-shutters bolted. The big question is not "whodunit" but how it was done. Holmes deduces that Roylott sent a poisonous Indian snake through the ventilator, where it slid down a dummy bell-rope and onto the sleeping Julia's bed, which is bolted to the floor for no apparent reason. It took several nights before the snake bit Julia, and it was there on the bed with Helen only one night without biting her. But Roylott was under time pressure and was forced to send the snake back into the room adjoining his on the next night. Holmes and Watson were waiting there in the dark, and when he heard the low whistle Holmes struck a match and began whipping the slithering "speckled band" with his cane, driving it back up the bell-rope and through the ventilator, where the angered snake bit the unprepared and unexpecting Dr. Roylott and caused his instant death.

The author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, concludes his story with a bit of poetic justice. Killing Roylott with his own snake was the only way to punish the mad doctor for his real crime as well as for his intended crime, because there was no way of proving that he had murdered Julia two years ago and no way of proving that he intended to murder Helen. Doyle coined the term "speckled band" and used it in his title because he did not want to mention the word "snake," which would immediately make the reader suspect that the solution involved sending a snake into a room that was otherwise impervious.

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What events occur in the exposition of "The Adventure of the Speckled Band"?

Exposition, in literature, means the initial information given to readers that prepares them for the rest of the story. In the exposition readers get to meet the characters and see them interact in the story's setting (time and place). It leads into the rising action, where conflicts begin to emerge. Therefore, all early information provided in "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" is considered part of the exposition.

At the very beginning of the story, we find out that Dr. Watson, Sherlock Holmes's good friend, is narrating the events of this crime investigation. He tries to elevate readers' interest by explaining how unusual this particular detective case was:

Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which presented more singular features than that which was associated with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran.

We are also told that this case happens early the narrator's friendship with Sherlock Holmes; the two men are roommates at the time.

Before he begins giving details about the case of the speckled band, he tells readers how the story will end: Dr. Grimesby Roylott dies. He explains that there are rumors about his death that are inaccurate; Dr. Watson wants to curtail these rumors:

. . . for I have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even more terrible than the truth.

Next, Watson introduces a few of the main characters in the story. He gives the setting information: the story occurs in London, England in April of 1883. Watson wakes to find Sherlock Holmes standing beside Watson's bed. Sherlock explains to Watson that a client appeared (for Sherlock's detective business); he asks Watson if he is interested in helping to solve her mystery.

"Should it prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should call you and give you the chance."

Next, the two men go to meet a young lady, Helen Stoner, and to hear about her troubles. As she reveals her case, the plot moves into the rising action.

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What can you infer about the story from the title "The Adventure of the Speckled Band"?

This is an interesting question. The story turns out to be largely about a poisonous snake. But the author could not dare to mention the word "snake," especially in the beginning when Helen Stoner is telling her long back story to Holmes and Watson. Any mention of the word "snake" would immediately make the reader strongly suspect that Dr. Grimesby Roylott had used a poisonous snake to kill Julia Stoner and was using the same snake to try to kill his other stepdaughter Helen. So in Helen's back story during her consultation with Holmes, she cannot say that her sister saw a snake. Here is what she says her sister told her:

‘Oh, my God! Helen! It was the band! The speckled band!’ There was something else which she would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion seized her and choked her words. 

Assuming that Julia saw the snake and recognized it as a snake, the only explanation we can offer for her calling it a "speckled band" rather than a snake would be that she was delirious. She might have been trying to say, "It was a snake that looked like a speckled band." She was pointing at the doctor's room to indicate that she accused her stepfather of sending it through the ventilator to kill her.

Once the author had thought of the term "speckled band" he must have decided to use it in his title in order to tell what the story was about without actually telling too much. Holmes thinks the speckled band must refer to a band of gypsies who camp on the grounds at Stoke Moran. Even when Holmes is beating the snake in order to drive it back up the bell-rope, he does not say the word "snake." And when they go into Dr. Roylott's room where they find him dead, Watson does not use the word "snake" either. Here is his description of the sight both men see:

Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion.

“The band! the speckled band!” whispered Holmes.

It isn't until the snake moves that Watson sees what it really is:

I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent.

I don't believe a person reading the story for the first time could infer much of anything from the title. That must have been Arthur Conan Doyle's intention. The title piques the reader's interest without telling him too much. The whole story is built around the idea of a man using a snake to kill a woman who appears to be perfectly safe in a room with the door locked and the shutters tightly bolted. So the reader, like Holmes himself, can only guess at the meaning of the words "speckled band," and like Holmes the reader may suspect that the band of gypsies must have been involved in Julia Stoner's death. That doesn't leave Dr. Roylott in the clear. He could have paid the gypsies to kill his stepdaughter. These false clues are intended to divert the reader from guessing the actual truth. The word "band" is ambiguous, and especially so when there is a band of gypsies involved.

Arthur Conan Doyle handles his premise very well. He was an excellent writer. There is something he doesn't mention in his story because of Victorian prudery; but it must occur to most readers after having finished reading about the solution to the mystery. That snake must have been on Julia's bed at least four times, including the time it finally bit her. We know this because she tells her sister she has heard the low whistle three times before the night of her death. Holmes states early in the story, both to Helen and to Dr. Roylott, that the weather is very cold. The snake is an Indian swamp adder. It is from a hot, humid country. When it crawled down the bell-rope onto Julia's bed, it would not have tried to escape from the room and from the house because of the cold. Instead it would seek warmth. And on four nights in a row it probably crawled right under the bedcovers and curled up beside the sleeping girl's warm body. It would not have bitten her unless she did something threatening. Helen tells Holmes that when Julia died:

In her right hand was found the charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box.”

Evidently when Julia heard the low whistle she turned over in bed to reach for the box of matches and rolled right on top of the snake. The swamp adder would have bitten her through her nightgown, so the bite-mark would not have been visible. At the autopsy the bite-mark could have been overlooked because no one would have expected to find any wound down around her abdomen. Julia probably did not have matches available on the first three nights she heard the whistle. But since she was getting very concerned, as she told her sister, she must have made sure to have the box of matches and a candle right beside her bed on the night she met her death.

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What are the initial situation, conflict, complications, climax, and conclusion in "The Adventure of the Speckled Band"?

Helen Stoner comes to see Sherlock Holmes very early in the morning. She is terrified because she thinks her life is in danger. She tells Holmes and Watson a long back-story which includes an account of the mysterious death of her twin sister Julia Stoner two years ago. Julia was engaged to be married, but she died an agonizing death which was never explained because she had been sleeping in a locked room. Now Helen has been moved into that room by her violent stepfather, Dr. Roylott, under the pretext of having repairs done on her own bedroom. On the second night she was awakened by the sound of a low whistle, which was the same as the sound Julia had described to her shortly before her death. This is what frightened Helen into taking the train to London to consult Holmes.

After Helen leaves, the ferocious, half-mad Dr. Roylott bursts into Holmes and Watson's sitting room and demands to know what Helen has been telling them. Holmes cooly refuses.

Holmes chuckled heartily. “Your conversation is most entertaining,” said he. “When you go out close the door, for there is a decided draught.”

“I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here.” He stepped swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with his huge brown hands.

This is the only time that Dr. Roylott will appear alive. But his menace hangs over the remainder of the story. The author's purpose in dramatising his visit is to establish that the conflict in the story is one of man against man, Holmes against Roylott.

Before going down to Stoke Moran to examine the crumbling old building, Holmes does some research and learns that, under the terms of his deceased wife's will, Roylott is legally bound to give either girl an annual payment of one-third of the income from the large sum he inherited from their mother. Julia died shortly before she was to be married--and now Helen has become engaged. Roylott is obviously a strong suspect for the murder of Julia, and now appears to be planning to murder Helen. As is often the case in Sherlock Holmes tales, the main motivating factor turns out to be money. But the big question in this so-called "locked room murder mystery" is how anyone could have killed Julia when her door was locked and her windows bolted. This mystery provides most of the complications involved in resolving the case. Many of the complications date back two years to the time of Julia's death.

Holmes later explains his observations and deductions to Watson:

My attention was speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to the floor, instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was furnished with a supply of creatures from India [...]

Holmes and Watson spend the night in the bedroom next to Dr. Roylott's. At around three o'clock in the morning, they hear the low whistle Helen had described. 

Holmes sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with his cane at the bell-pull.

This is the climax. Holmes drives the snake back up the bell-rope and through the ventilator, where it bites Dr. Roylott and kills him instantly. Thus the conflict between Holmes and Roylott is resolved by the death of the mad doctor.

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