Short Summary Of The Red Headed League

This essay sample on Short Summary Of The Red Headed League provides all necessary basic info on this matter, including the most common “for and against” arguments. Below are the introduction, body and conclusion parts of this essay.

There are many great stories in the detective genre but my favourite has to be the stories of Sherlock Holmes. There isn’t much I like more than kicking back after a hard days work a good book. I like to curl up on the sofa in front of the warm fire and a blanket, a glass of France’s finest wine in one hand and my own copy of The Short Stories of Sherlock Holmes in the other.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born on 22nd May 1859 and was of a Scottish origin.

He is now known as Conan Doyle and is mostly recognized for his fictional stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, which are generally considered a major innovation in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger.

He was a great writer and his other work includes science fiction stories, historical novels, plays and romances, poetry, and non-fiction. Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

A brilliant London-based detective, Holmes is famous for his intellectual expertise and also for his skillful use of deductive reasoning to solve difficult cases. He is arguably one of the most famous fictional detectives ever created, and also one of the most globally recognizable fictional characters.

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Two very well known stories are The Speckled Band and also The Red Headed League. The Speckled Band is one of the 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It is the eighth of the twelve stories collected in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

The Red Headed League Characters

The story was first published in Strand Magazine in February 1892, with illustrations by Sidney Paget. It is known to be what Doyle thought was his best Holmes story. The Red Headed League was published in 1891 and was ranked by Conan Doyle as his second in his favorite list of stories out of ‘The adventures of Sherlock Holmes’. The Speckled Band is set in the late 19th Century in a large, ancestral house at Stoke Moran on the western border of Surrey. The Red Headed League is set in 1890 around the Saxe Cobourg Square in London.

There are many main locations in this area that are important to the story such as Jabez Wilsons’ pawn broker’s shop, the City of London Bank and Sherlock Holmes residence of 52 Baker Street. Conan Doyle creates a sense of atmosphere in The Speckled Band by initially creating a warm and cozy image. He enables the characters to set the atmosphere by them describing the warm fire and offering Mrs. Stoner coffee, he then changes the atmosphere quickly by Mrs. Stoner saying ‘It is not cold that makes me shiver… ‘ This suddenly changes the atmosphere from happy and warm to cold and dark.

This technique takes the reader by surprise because the sudden change in atmosphere and feelings is unexpected. This atmosphere draws the reader’s attention and interest right from the beginning of the story; this makes them want to read the rest of the story. Holmes and Watson are two very different people, for example Watson is portrayed more as the less intelligent side-kick instead of the useful accomplice. Watson appears weaker than Holmes because he only narrates the stories and is not as directly involved in the cases as Holmes is with them.

The Speckled Band shows Holmes is also physically stronger than Watson when he says, “If he had stayed he would have seen that I may not look as strong but my strength matches his own. ” This was in reference to the iron poker that Dr. Roylott had bent then thrown in Holmes’ direction. Although they appear to be very different, they also appear to be very close. In The Speckled Band Holmes introduces Watson to his client as his ‘intimate friend and associate’ of whom he feels his clients can speak as freely as before himself which implies that there is a lot of trust between the two of them.

Holmes’ techniques which he uses to solve his crimes are slightly similar in both stories however his actions in The Speckled Band are more physical than him using his knowledge of crime to solve it. For example, whilst in Miss Stoner’s room, he uses his intellect to work out the presence of the snake but then he also attacks it with his cane when it climbs across the bell rope, knowing that it will go back and kill Dr. Roylott by biting him. This is how he catches the villain in this story, however in the Red Headed League he uses knowledge and common sense to predict where the villain will go next.

Holmes and Watson are similar to some modern day detectives such as Morse and his assistant Lewis; they both follow the same principles as Holmes and Watson for detection. For example, Morse is the more recognized and well-known of the two whereas Lewis doesn’t get as much praise or acknowledgement. The clues in both stories are very discreet and sometimes go unnoticed. In The Red Headed League when Holmes talks to Jabez Wilson’s assistant in the doorway of his shop, the reader is unsure why Holmes has done it but we find out that he is checking his knees for mud.

Another clue is when Holmes is standing outside Jabez’s pawnbroker shop and taps his cane on the floor. Again the reader is confused by his actions and it is later revealed by Watson that he was checking the ground underneath to see if it was hollow; this enabled them to discover they were tunneling. The clue in The Speckled Band is the bell rope; Miss Stoner says that it is not used therefore it makes the reader think no more of it, however that is the route in which the snake uses to kill the person in the bed.

The effect of these clues is to try and make the reader see the plot of the stories and the mysteries of the crimes unravel with ease in small stages. Red herrings are constantly used throughout the story to throw the reader off the tracks of the plot and keep them guessing as to what is going to happen next. It also keeps the reader intrigued in the story so that they read until the end and it is not possible to assume what is going to happen.