Sherlock Holmes: The Red-Headed League and the Blue Carbuncle - Essay Example

Sherlock Holmes: The Red-Headed League and the Blue Carbuncle The Adventures of the Red-Headed League and The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle are stories filled with suspense from the beginning. The contrasting aspect about the two adventures is that they lead to different outcomes that are not in the reader’s expectation. The author develops the plot of the two stories differently in the sense that the use of a second person narration through Dr. Watson helps develop a heightened sense of mystery.

Sherlock Holmes in both stories is not overly revealing to the reader in terms of revealing his techniques of crime solving. The subtle differences in the two stories help the reader discern and understand the interesting character of Sherlock Holmes. The Adventures of the Red-Headed league is characterized by the building of suspense on the part of the reader when Holmes and Watson draw the reader’s attention to their client’s red hair (Doyle 24). This makes the reader wonder of what significance the client’s hair has to do with a local pawn broker in London.

This is a masterful display of the author’s authority in the subject of suspense building. The client’s red-hair can be construed to represent the author’s allusion to the story’s topic and its relevance to the story’s plot. The Adventures of the Blue Carbuncle, on the other hand, illustrates Holmes’s masterly of people psychology when he determines the real culprits behind the theft of the gem. The culprits in both stories are men of ill repute, which can be construed to indicate to the author’s allusion to personality characterization.

The author, of the two stories, develops the plot through a second person narrative in which Holmes’ participation is used to bring contrast between the narrator’s perspective and the true sense of the situation. Holmes’ perspective is meant to deliver the reader to the truth because the other characters, in the story, are used, by the author, to create suspense and mystery that holds the reader’s attention. In The Adventures of the Blue Carbuncle, the author only reveals the identity of the item in question late into the plot of the story (Doyle 85).

This is illustrated when Holmes states "laid an egg after it was dead" being an allusion to the gem found in the goose (Doyle 87). There is no mention of gem until after the two investigating men are certain of their culprit, which is an indication of the author’s ploy to hook the reader to the last minute. Unlike the case of the Red-Head League where Holmes and Watson solve using assumptions, in the Carbuncle case they have witnesses, evidence and a confessed burglar. This leaves them with the duty of establishing the owner and determining the appropriate action against the perpetrators.

The Adventures of the Red-Head League uses a similar delay tactic on the reader where the reader is left to determine some aspects of the story. A classic example of this is when Holmes taps the pavement outside their client’s pawnshop and calls the police (Doyle 27). The audience is left wondering about the significance of the story’s action. It is only later that the reader realizes that Holmes’ tap on the pavement confirms his postulate that bank robbers had dug a hole from the shop to the bank vault (Doyle 28).

Leaving the reader to fill out some details of the plot is an effective style that assures the reader’s participation in the development of the plot. In the Red-Head League, Holmes and Watson use various assumptions to arrive at a decision regarding their case, which they successfully solve based upon these assumptions. The difference, in the two adventures, is that one of the criminals is handed over to the police, and the other thieves are forgiven by Holmes and Watson. Work CitedDoyle, Arthur Conan.

 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Vol. 1. Wordsworth Editions, 1992. Print.