Tension and Atmosphere in Sir Arthur Conan Doyles Selected Short Stories - Essay Example

Tension and Atmosphere in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Selected Short Stories Webbing around language in first person narration, theme structure and context, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was able to create tension, define characters and set the mood and atmosphere in The Greek Interpreter, The Speckled Band and The Crooked Man which hook the readers to continue reading and accompany the central character as he made his way through his scientific method until the story folds. Written at the end of nineteenth century, when modernism was to be on stage, Sherlock Holmes was created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and became the greatest and certainly the most famous fictional detective of all time. This popularity was due to the fact that Conan Doyle had set up his short stories with language which anyone will recognize and understand. Even those who just have had basic reading skills can relate to the content of the stories. Another contributing fact to Holmes’ popularity was the circulation. The first Holmes’ detective stories were published in the “Strand Magazine” in 1891 and become accessible to the growing reading public. Such tremendous esteem was fully realized when Conan Doyle sent his central character to his death at the Reichenbach falls in Switzerland and was unexpectedly met by public outcry. His readers were infuriated and some even held mourning march through London. This supposed death of the much loved private investigator also affected the Magazine’s sale. When he resurrected Holmes in The Hounds of Baskervilles, sales pitched high to its peak. Holmes’ popularity gained fame and more so even after Conan Doyle’s death in 1930. Holmes’ popularity is an inherent upshot of Conan Doyle’s varied techniques of building up his character. In all three detective fictions, Conan Doyle started with the characterization of the central figure, Holmes through the eyes of Dr. Watson. In first person narrative, Watson, the physician was set to describe Holmes persona. Being a man of medicine, he is the perfect foil to Holmes the hero because the objective nature of his job prepares him for the unbiased account of their adventures. Conan Doyle defines his character around the tangles of circumstances in which were approached deductively using scientific, analytical and inferential reasoning. Conan Doyle builds the character of Holmes using different methods. Using physiological and psychological terms such as ‘inhuman effect’, ‘isolated phenomenon’, ‘a brain without a heart’, ‘pre-eminent intelligence’, ‘atavism’, ‘hereditary aptitudes’, and “machine”, Conan Doyle was able to establish Holmes’ charisma of having undesirable eccentricities or striking characteristics of a common fictional detective. Holmes’ aura of superiority was established when Conan Doyle used sensitizing terms such as ‘human sympathy’, ‘unemotional character’, and ‘suppressed excitement’. Doyle is keen to create a character which is very goal and result oriented. To dramatically elicit opposing feelings, the author put ironic ideas together. From initial portrayal as unemotional and unattached; a sudden mention of a relative, indicating gentleness creates a disturbing effect to the reader’s presumed understanding of Holmes’ character. Such technique presents antithesis of what he has been trying to depict, yet creating a sense of human emotion. In the stories, suspense is built to create tension for the reader in different ways. In ‘The Speckled Band’ the use of imagery effectively draws the reader to virtually come face to face with the villain creating tension among the readers. This was used in the following phrase, “He had a very dark, fearsome face, and a gleam in his eyes that comes back to me in my dreams. His hair and whiskers were shot with gray, and his face was all crinkled and puckered like a withered apple.” The words as dark and fearsome as the image itself appeals to the readers’ imagination. The adjectives used portray a character as formidable as the visualized image itself sending an alarm as the character threatens to be very villainous. Presentation of an action which is unusual also creates tension. It suggests an excitement for an impending danger, “In spite of his capacity for concealing his emotions, I could easily see that Holmes was in a state of suppressed excitement, while I was myself tingling with that half-sporting, half-intellectual pleasure which I invariably experienced when I associated myself with him in his investigations.” Doyle creates suspense in presenting actions which is uncharacteristic of his central character. Holmes was established to be very objective, and unemotional character but for this part in the ‘Speckled Band’. Such scene puts the reader on the verge of anticipating an out-of-ordinary occurrence which precedes the unfolding of the denouement. Holmes is also aware of the pendulum effect of ones’ emotion to the surrounding persons. Just like in the story, Sherlock was able to transfer his anxiety towards Watson thus creating domino effect on their excitement. Such thrill brings the reader to ride to the end of the story. In ‘The Greek Interpreter’ tension is created by the use of imagery and onomatopoeia. Letting the reader see the words come to life through imaginative narration like “issuing sinister sounds” provokes anxiety and tension among the readers. Onomatopoeias are also effective in describing events or even characters enough to create tension. “Sinking… into a dull mumble”, “rising… into shrill whine”, suggests varied heights and depths of emotion and tension. The tale of unusual event in ‘The Crooked Man’ is also a way of presenting conflict thus creates tension in the story, “I looked at the clock. It was a quarter to twelve. This could not be a visitor at so late an hour.” Usual daily activity creates a humdrum in an everyday life. Presenting a sudden if not conflicting event disturbs the routine making the story suddenly exciting is a technique Conan Doyle explores in his stories to create tension. Such effect is also used in the following excerpt from the same story, “But it was not the man who surprised me. It was his companion.” “His companion!” Drama is also given life when Doyle sets the mood for curiosity. The out-of-run-of-the-mill expression of the event arouses the reader’s curiosity causing tension to build up. Curiosity is even sustained to arouse the much intended interest. This approach will make the reader surely hooked to continue reading. In ‘The Speckled Band’, Conan Doyle creates an atmosphere of excitement and premonition using carefully crafted settings of strong verbs suggesting movement, fast and dangerous, such as, “…darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness.” The mere mention of ‘darted’, ‘threw itself’, ‘writhing’ and ‘ran swiftly’ makes the reader to move fast through the text to the part in which the cause of such excitement was revealed. The reader’s pulse is also accelerated using onomatopoeia as shown in the following example, “The wind was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman…clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had fallen.” Inanimate objects were given life as they describe the event. This sends the reader to fidget and the personification deepens and emphasizes the intended atmosphere to make the reader hold on the story. In contrast, Conan Doyle often uses characterization to create an atmosphere of darkness and evil in ‘The Greek Interpreter’. For instance, in the following phrase, “His features were peaky and sallow, and his little pointed beard was thready and ill-nourished…The terror of his face lay in his eyes, however, steel gray, and glistening coldly with a malignant, inexorable cruelty in their depths.” The use of adjectives defines his characters’ inherent nature. The description categorizes the role of his characters. Metaphorical portrayal also has a way to pursue the dramatic characterization as shown in, “The man giggled in his venomous way.” Using the metaphor ‘venomous’ describes a formidable creature. No more depiction is more apt to suggest the degree of the antagonist’s character. In these stories, we can see that Conan Doyle uses language to affect the readers’ response by using irony, imagery, onomatopoeia, metaphors, conflict, unusual occurrences, effective adjectives and dramatic verbs. These stories were written at the end of the nineteenth century. In order to fully understand them, it is important to take into account the ideas and experiences of English society at that time. This is clear when, Doyle set these three stories to provide a glimpse of their social, historical, moral and philosophical backgrounds. He intended the reader to understand the milieu of the stories. This was illustrated in ‘The Greek Interpreter’ where Mycroft Holmes has an interesting sharing of observations with Sherlock on a soldier. The man in question is also marked as a widower since he is the one doing the household shopping along with the presence of a rattle and a picture book which for readers today would have been an unforgivable stereotype while for the readers in the 19th century, this is a very logical conclusion. The audience of the time would have also appreciated the idioms which come across in several places throughout the stories. For example, where Watson saves a man’s life it is said that his, “hand had drawn him back from that dark valley in which all paths meet”. Similarly, when the detective had just missed catching the culprits he exclaims, “Our birds are flown and the nest empty”. In today’s context, for words to be effective, they must be stated in simple and direct manner. In The Speckled Band, their means of transportation the train with its steam engine (227) which was already in full operation since its appearance in 1804 according to The Grolier’s Encyclopedia was mentioned. Horse-driven carriage was also noted. The use of medical evidences as mentioned in The Crooked Man and The Speckled Band was put into view. The story surely ushers the reader from the age of industrialization towards the technological era of the twentieth century. As for the social position of women in society, as noted by how Helen Stoner was treated in The Speckled Band, the story reflects a common circumstance for a middle-class woman. It was inappropriate for a woman to work for a living unless she is married. This was a common view that a woman is incapable of managing her own resources without the aid of a man. This situation presented by Doyle however conflicts with the then existing practice that upon marriage, a woman’s money becomes man’s property upon marriage thus, waives her control of her income over her husband. However, as early as 1839, Unites States of America as stated in an article ‘Married Woman Property Rights’ in Encyclopedia Britanica have “established the rights of women to enjoy the profits of their labour, to control real and personal property, to be parties to lawsuits and contracts, and to execute wills on their own behalf”. This reflects that Doyle has a legal basis of using the context of finance among married woman during the time. Although entertaining, these stories pose serious philosophical questions concerning the moral implications of crime and punishment in this country. In ‘The Greek Interpreter’ we see this when Sophia had her way with his implied vengeance without the police action on her heels even when there is an obvious motive of the crime. Being a woman, she escaped the authority’s focus of investigation. In today’s context, everybody within the parameters of the crime is suspect of the crime unless proven innocent. In ‘The Speckled Band’ the ending is controversial because Roylott’s death should have caused a series of new investigation going farther back to Helen’s mother’s death, but as the story unfolds, it ended simply when the main villain was dead. In the Crooked Man, however, medical inquest reasonably and justifiably acquits the main suspect from the crime. This is more valid since any major point in the story should also culminate with a major twist. In conclusion, I preferred the story of The Speckled Band due to effective webbing of language, characterization and context. It has been very challenging and powerful, from the very start until the end of the story. For this reason, the tension and atmosphere created by the author effectively reaches and felt by the readers. As classical as it was written, its elements can withstand the differences in time and culture with its well crafted narration, characterization, denouement, conflict resolution and challenge. Works Cited Britanica Encyclopedia 2005 Ultimate Reference Suite CD-ROM. Married Woman Property Acts Doyle, A, 1892, ‘The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’, [Online] Available at: http://sherlock-holmes.classic-literature.co.uk/ Doyle, A, 1894, ‘Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes’, [Online] Available at: http://sherlock-holmes.classic-literature.co.uk/ The Grolier Science Encyclopedia. Materials and Technology Vol 5 London: Kingfisher Publications Plc. 2003, 227 Read More