36 pages • 1 hour read
Arthur Conan DoyleThe Adventure of the Speckled Band
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1892A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Corrupting Nature of Greed
Detective fiction stories often depict villains capable of unthinkable acts of cruelty, and greed corrupts Dr. Grimesby Roylott until he fills this role remorselessly. Money looms large in his motivation from the beginning because of his family’s dire financial straits. As Helen Stoner explains to Holmes and Watson, the Roylotts were once one of the wealthiest families in England, but “four successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the days of the Regency” (144). These mentions of prodigality and gambling show that a disordered relationship with money is directly responsible for the Roylotts’ crumbling status. Due to their forebears’ vices, Dr. Roylott’s father suffers “the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper” (144), and Dr. Roylott himself is the family’s sole survivor. Greed clings to the Roylotts like a family curse, driving them progressively deeper into immorality and self-destruction.
Of course, Dr. Grimesby Roylott’s family history does not absolve him of his culpability for his own choices. He enters the medical profession out of a desire to amass wealth, but he shows admirable qualities in his earlier years when he graduates medical school and establishes a successful practice in India. These achievements demonstrate his industriousness, intelligence, and capacity to care for other people, at least in a professional context. However, avarice soon snuffs out whatever good he might have accomplished with these attributes. Casting aside the Hippocratic oath’s injunction to “first, do no harm,” Dr. Roylott commits his first murder during his time in India: “In a fit of anger, however, caused by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital sentence” (144). Although he evades execution for his crime, he serves a long prison sentence, loses his medical practice in Calcutta, and returns “to England a morose and disappointed man” (144). Significantly, the theft of his belongings spurs the doctor into a murderous rage. He values material possessions more than human life and so brings disaster on himself.
Dr. Roylott’s brush with death and time in prison fail to realign his priorities, and greed drives him deeper into wickedness following his return to England. After his wife’s death, he plots to keep his stepdaughters’ inheritance for himself by any means necessary. Mrs. Stoner’s inheritance used to provide an annual income of over £1100, but that amount has shrunk to £750. As Holmes explains:
Each daughter can claim an income of £250, in case of marriage. It is evident, therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to a very serious extent (149).
Dr. Roylott could open another medical practice or find a different way to supplement his portion of the dwindling inheritance. Instead, he would rather murder the only family he has left than part with even a fraction of the money his late wife bequeathed to his stepdaughters. Greed has completely corrupted him, and neither fatherly duty nor familial love have any place in his heart. Dr. Roylott’s greed makes him a foil to Sherlock Holmes. At the beginning of the story, Watson observes that the detective works “for the love of his art [rather] than for the acquirement of wealth” (142). This is soon evident when Holmes accepts Helen Stoner’s case despite her current inability to pay him. Holmes’s selflessness offers a stark contrast to Dr. Grimesby Roylott’s avarice, demonstrating that greed is a pernicious personal vice rather than a universal human failing.
The Decline of Power and Status
The erosion of Dr. Grimesby Roylott’s respectability illustrates how mutable worldly power and social status can be. Although he is an aristocrat, he was born into poor prospects. His family’s estates once stretched over three counties, but his ancestors mismanaged the property and he inherits only “a few acres of ground, and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under a heavy mortgage” (144). As the Roylotts’ property dwindles, so does their good name. When Dr. Roylott returns to Stoke Moran after his time in India, he has the opportunity to take up his place of power in the social order. His neighbors are initially “overjoyed to see a Roylott of Stoke Moran back in the old family seat” (144), but he chooses to seclude himself from society instead. On the rare occasions when he ventures forth from his home, he “indulge[s] in ferocious quarrels with whoever might cross his path” (144). These brawls deal further damage to the family’s reputation and finances by landing Dr. Roylott in the police court and forcing Helen to pay off her stepfather’s victims. In addition, the doctor’s fortunes shrink due to the declining value of his late wife’s investments. Largely due to his ancestors’ wastefulness and his own misdeeds, Dr. Grimesby Roylott loses external markers of power, namely wealth and social status.
Dr. Roylott seeks to maintain what power and status he still has by using his physical strength and intelligence to retain his control over his late wife’s fortune. This inheritance rightfully belongs to Helen and Julia, but the women occupy a vulnerable position in society: Even though Dr. Grimesby Roylott is abusive toward them, he remains their guardian until they marry and another man gains legal rights to the women and their property. This patriarchal system is indicative of the Victorian period. When Dr. Roylott’s control over his stepdaughters is threatened by their engagements, he resorts to intimidation, violence, and even murder. However, his attempts to cling to power ultimately backfire. Dr. Roylott tries to frighten Holmes with his physical power by bending a steel poker with his bare hands. After the doctor leaves Baker Street, Holmes remarks, “[I]f he had remained I might have shown him that my grip was not much more feeble than his own” (149) and quickly straightens out the poker. Roylott’s posturing only increases Holmes’s interest in the case.
The detective proves to be more than a match for Dr. Roylott in brains as well as brawn. The snake represents Dr. Roylott’s cleverest and most villainous effort to preserve his status and power over others. Holmes himself praises the ingenuity of Roylott’s plot: “It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where the poison fangs had done their work” (157). While Dr. Roylott succeeded in fooling the coroner who examined Julia’s body, he cannot fool the detective. Holmes deduces the doctor’s scheme and moves Helen to safety. Thus, he prevents Dr. Roylott from removing the last obstacle between him and total control over the inheritance. Of course, Dr. Roylott loses more than his bid for financial power when the snake turns on its master. Dr. Grimesby Roylott’s power fades as his social status and financial prospects wane into infamy and poverty. He does not rebuild his family legacy. Instead, he completes his bloodline’s downfall when his self-destructive efforts to cling to status and power fail.
The Dangers of Unreciprocated Love and Loyalty
In “The Adventure of the Speckled Band,” Doyle cautions his readers against giving their love to the undeserving while celebrating the strength of true and mutual loyalty. Mrs. Stoner’s second marriage inadvertently sets the stage for the plot’s deadly events. Her income provided sufficient funds for her to care for her family without any financial contributions from Dr. Roylott, and she decided to stay with him even though he had committed murder during his time in India. Perhaps she sincerely loved him. Whatever her reasons, Mrs. Stoner’s marriage to Dr. Roylott ultimately costs Julia her life and nearly destroys Helen as well. The terms of Mrs. Stoner’s will further deepen the connection between love and danger in this story. Her daughters can only receive their portion of the inheritance if they marry, and Dr. Roylott is determined to hold onto the money by whatever means necessary. As a result, finding love places Helen and Julia in mortal peril. Dr. Roylott murders Julia with her wedding date mere weeks away.
Because of the fate that befell her twin, Helen possesses greater awareness of the dangers that encompass her. However, like her mother and sister, she still finds herself fettered by damaging attachments. In Julia’s unnamed fiancé’s defense, he could hardly have foreseen the risk that their engagement would pose. On the contrary, Percy Armitage receives and ignores warnings of his bride-to-be’s distress. Helen describes her fiancé as “he to whom of all others I have a right to look for help and advice” (143), yet he withholds his aid and behaves condescendingly toward her. He responds to her concerns with “soothing answers and averted eyes,” dismissively assuming her dread is only “the fancies of a nervous woman” (143). This seems a rather callous way to treat the woman he has asked to marry him, a woman who is still in mourning for her beloved sister. His patronizing treatment of Helen does not paint the most auspicious picture of their future marriage either. Percy thus compounds the danger Helen faces by dismissing her fears and leaving her with no choice but to ask strangers for help. Even when she shares her story with Holmes and Watson, Helen tries to shield her stepfather from suspicion. When Holmes points out the bruises that Dr. Roylott’s grip has left on her wrist, Helen answers that “perhaps he hardly knows his own strength” (147). Fear doubtlessly influences her decision to cover for her stepfather, but loyalty also has a hand in it. This same misplaced loyalty likely explains why Helen remains at Stoke Moran after Julia’s death rather than going to live with her aunt, Miss Honoria Westphail. Even as she explains that she lives in a state of terror, Helen makes excuses for the men in her life who have condemned her to endure this fear alone.
Of course, the story’s narrator is no stranger to either loyalty or danger, and yet Watson escapes unscathed. Dr. Watson places his complete trust in Holmes, who acknowledges the risks they face and proves himself worthy of his sidekick’s loyalty. As they sit in the inn and wait for nightfall, Holmes expresses his misgivings about the task before them: “I have really some scruples as to taking you to-night. There is a distinct element of danger” (153). Without hesitation, Watson asks if he can help. When Holmes answers that his “presence might be invaluable” (153), Watson declares, “Then I shall certainly come” (153). This forthright communication demonstrates their great mutual respect and forms a stark contrast to Percy’s condescending responses to Helen’s fears. Later that night, the detective and his friend face the dangers at Stoke Moran together, and Holmes protects Watson by driving the snake back through the ventilator. While the women in this story face perils because of their familial and romantic relationships with men who do not reciprocate their loyalty, Holmes and Watson’s friendship offers an alternative model in which fidelity is merited and life’s risks are weathered together.
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By Arthur Conan Doyle
