Mystery, Anyone?

Veronica

Final Draft

March 27, 2012

Mystery Genre Explanation Essay

In the Sherlock Holmes short story, “The Adventures of the Dancing Men,” Arthur Conan Doyle clearly expresses the genre of mystery. The main character, Sherlock Holmes, is a clever, amateur detective. His partner, Dr. Watson is used as a literary device to help the reader solve the crime. Holmes explains the clues and his logical explanations to Dr. Watson. The setting creates a mysterious feel for the story. Conan Doyle makes the circle of suspects very unsuspecting. When Holmes cracks the case at the end, the reader is always surprised at the outcome. Means, motive, the suspect, and opportunity are clear, although hidden, throughout the story. Finally, Sherlock Holmes stories are known for clever clues and red herrings that allow the reader to solve the crime. Usually the reader is one footstep behind the analytical mind of Sherlock Holmes.   

Holmes always was a very clever character that fit out of the ordinary things together like it was a simple puzzle. "It is not really difficult to construct a series of inferences, each dependent upon its predecessor and each simple in itself.” Sherlock Holmes and his partner, Dr. Watson solve cases and crimes that professional detectives wouldn’t even think about trying to crack. Sherlock Holmes is a cunning man with a background in cryptology and poisons. When Holmes cracks a case, you can almost feel the pride and accomplishment exude from him. Holmes, in my opinion, could not solve crimes without his slightly dull partner Dr. Watson. He explains his logic and clues to him in the end and throughout the story. Without a friend to help him and listen, he would not be as confident and it would take longer to solve the case. Conan Doyle gives Holmes character flaws, such as arrogance. What’s interesting about the way Sherlock Holmes solves cases, is that he puts himself in the victim’s shoes. In the short story the “Dancing Men,” Holmes puts himself in Elsie’s shoes after her husband is shot. He came to the conclusion that she attempted to commit suicide. Overall, Holmes is an amateur detective. Don’t be fooled though, he is as clever, probably more so, than the pros.

The Holmes stories are set in London, England. Because of this, a suspenseful mood is set with a gloomy, gray background. The setting is mainly set in the countryside of England, where the crime is committed. When the crime was described it happened in the middle of the night. Two loud bangs following each other woke up the two servants, who came down stairs two find that their master was dead, while the wife was severely wounded. This setting is very creepy, because it describes the cool night breeze rushing in through the open window. You can almost feel the fear and terror the servant felt when they saw a dead body, and a roll of parchment with dancing men on it.

In the short Sherlock Holmes story, “The Dancing Men,” there is a closed circle of suspects. All of them turn out not to be the murderer. I enjoy these stories because the murderer wasn’t even introduced yet; I wasn’t very surprised at the outcome. The murderer turns out to be Elsie’s old fiancé, from her past. From the clues, I could figure out that someone meant to kill the husband, but not the wife. The immediate thought that came to my head was why? The murderer killed Elsie’s husband because he loved Elsie and Mr. Cubitt was ruining his dream. I very much liked this ending, although it was sad, it was very cleverly set out. You would have never suspected him because he wasn’t in the ring of suspects. The suspects were just red herrings adding onto the story. In the story the suspects were, Mr. Hilton Cubitt (husband of Elsie Cubitt), Elsie Cubitt, and the servants. The detectives suspected Mr. Cubitt of the murder, because he had a gun lying next to him. Obviously he was fighting somebody. Either a person shot him or he shot himself. Later, Holmes comes to the quick conclusion, that somebody shot him because there is a third bullet hole below the window - sill. The person who killed Cubitt is the murderer. Later, Holmes discovers that Elsie attempts suicide from trauma and fear of her ex-fiancé taking her away with him. Holmes also keeps in mind the servants, thinking briefly that they might have killed them for freedom, or as a robbery but this idea is crushed when he learns that they would not know how to use a gun. At the end, he captures the murderer, Abe Slaney.

The mystery of The Dancing Men is described at the very beginning of the story. Holmes receives a script of “peculiar child’s drawings” from Mr. Hilton Cubitt. Holmes knew right away that these drawings were nothing less than a clue, and a code. He spent hours every day looking at the parchments until he cracked the code. Another clue is that Elsie received a letter from America. When I saw this unnecessary detail, I knew it was also a clue. The code spelled out the murderer’s name and where he was hiding. “The object of those who invented the system has apparently been to conceal that these characters convey a message, and to give the idea that they are the mere random sketches of children.” In the end, Abe Slaney was with Elsie in the “joint”. There, they made up a secret code to communicate with each other. Later, he proposed to her and she accepted. She soon got out of jail and married Mr. Cubitt. Abe Slaney tracked her down and sent codes telling her to come back with him. When she refused, he started threatening her. Holmes wrote back in the code he cracked and told Abe Slaney that they would meet outside of the farm where Slaney was hiding. He then arrested him.

Arthur Conan Doyle helped greatly in shaping and creating what mystery truly means. He so cleverly placed literary devices in a suspenseful, yet cunning way throughout the story. Clues like these are what make the mystery. Why is it that we love and worship Conan Doyle’s work so much? How did he make Sherlock Holmes live on?