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The Speckled Band Essay

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The Speckled Band “There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact”(Doyle). The story, “The Speckled Band,” by Arthur Conan Doyle, is about a woman who thinks she is in danger and comes to Holmes for protection. The element that seems to stand out is the plot. The story starts off slowly, and then it gets more interesting and dramatic as Holmes and Watson solve the case. (Thesis) Plot is the main element of the story that connects Doyle’s life to the story. Many things had influenced and inspired Doyle to pursue writing. His mother would tell Doyle many stories when he was very young. “In my early childhood, as far as I can remember anything at all, the vivid stories she would tell me stand out so clearly that they obscure the real facts of my life” (Doyle). He was also a big reader and spent much time at the library. When Doyle was away at school in England, he found comfort in storytelling. When he had a difficult time in school in his younger years, he would write.“For Doyle, the boarding-school experience …show more content…

Poe’s story, “Murders in the Rue Morgue,” influenced Doyle’s writing in “The Speckled Band.” In Poe’s story, C. Auguste Dupin is a private detective that seeks cases that interest him and often solves cases for free. Dupin and Holmes both have common character attributes. “He did not speak much German because he was surrounded by other English boys, but he discovered the short stories of Edgar Allan Poe, such as “The Gold Bug” and “The Murder in the Rue Morgue,” which later exerted a great influence on his detective fiction”(Diniejko). Furthermore, Doyle felt that “The Speckled Band,” was one of his top favorite stories. “He felt certain that “The Speckled Band”-that ‘grim snake story’-would appear on every list, and he placed it at the top of his own”(Hodgson 435). The story was a popular one out of all his stories because it stood out as

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