Exotic Animals in “The Speckled Band” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle The 1800s in England was very interesting during this time period. There were a lot of changes that occurred during this time such as socio-cultural advances and the Industrial Revolution which helped shaped and reform England. England ultimately used its imperialistic attitude towards India; gaining control over their culture and land. The British would often take animals from India using them as a status symbol to display wealth and status. By taking the animals, the British were assimilating and reforming the Indian culture, which placed England on a higher pedestal. This proved that they would do anything to increase their power, and status in the world. In Doyle’s “The Speckled
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Roylott, who was a violent man, owned vicious animals which would suggest a correlation between the two. “Analysts of animal-human relations have also proposed broad schemes to describe changing attitudes toward animals in the West. Many of these studies contrast a past golden age when humans respected their animal companions with a present-day culture of exploitation brought on by the mechanistic outlook of the scientific revolution… (Robbins)”. Roylott saw that these animals in some way resembled him. He noticed that people often strayed away from his estates at the site of his animals, they often acted the same towards him. His mansion would be a place that individuals would often avoid because they knew of the strange yet violent appearing animals, who resembled their owner, resided there. This did nothing to offend Roylott in actuality this boosted his self-esteem. Although no one knew of Roylott’s pet snake, he still felt somewhat superior above …show more content…
In the case of his death, Roylott’s own pet retaliated against him. “It’s a swamp adder!” cries Holmes; “the deadliest snake in India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten.” (Doyle 18). As stated before no one knew of this foreign animal residing within the estate. Roylott kept this animal hidden for most of the day, at night the animal would roam from room to room. In a devious plot to kill his stepdaughters, he’d almost succeeded until Holmes and Watson were called to investigate. Roylott thought that he knew exactly how to get the snake to kill his stepdaughters without harming himself. At the peak of the night, the snake retaliated against Roylott, who trained and managed to take care of it. Like other individuals during this time the unawareness that an animal could change, and react was very normal. There was a thin boundary between what were pets and what were considered exotic, outside animals (Robbins). The English only saw the animals as a sign of wealth and prosperity, they didn’t know or reconciled with the fact that the animals were in fact dangerous and shouldn’t be kept in the environments which they
Roylott, who was a violent man, owned vicious animals which would suggest a correlation between the two. “Analysts of animal-human relations have also proposed broad schemes to describe changing attitudes toward animals in the West. Many of these studies contrast a past golden age when humans respected their animal companions with a present-day culture of exploitation brought on by the mechanistic outlook of the scientific revolution… (Robbins)”. Roylott saw that these animals in some way resembled him. He noticed that people often strayed away from his estates at the site of his animals, they often acted the same towards him. His mansion would be a place that individuals would often avoid because they knew of the strange yet violent appearing animals, who resembled their owner, resided there. This did nothing to offend Roylott in actuality this boosted his self-esteem. Although no one knew of Roylott’s pet snake, he still felt somewhat superior above …show more content…
In the case of his death, Roylott’s own pet retaliated against him. “It’s a swamp adder!” cries Holmes; “the deadliest snake in India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten.” (Doyle 18). As stated before no one knew of this foreign animal residing within the estate. Roylott kept this animal hidden for most of the day, at night the animal would roam from room to room. In a devious plot to kill his stepdaughters, he’d almost succeeded until Holmes and Watson were called to investigate. Roylott thought that he knew exactly how to get the snake to kill his stepdaughters without harming himself. At the peak of the night, the snake retaliated against Roylott, who trained and managed to take care of it. Like other individuals during this time the unawareness that an animal could change, and react was very normal. There was a thin boundary between what were pets and what were considered exotic, outside animals (Robbins). The English only saw the animals as a sign of wealth and prosperity, they didn’t know or reconciled with the fact that the animals were in fact dangerous and shouldn’t be kept in the environments which they