The Adventure of the Speckled Band

by

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

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Dr. Grimesby Roylott Character Analysis

Dr. Grimesby Roylott is the last descendent of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, one of the oldest and (formerly) wealthiest Saxon families in England. However, previous generations squandered their immense family riches through wasteful lifestyles and gambling habits, leaving Roylott’s father to live “the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper.” Seeing that he had to make his own money, Roylott obtained a medical degree and moved to India, where he set up a large practice and eventually married the widowed mother of the young Stoner twins, Helen and Julia. After his home in Calcutta was robbed, Roylott beat his butler to death in a fit of anger, but somehow wasn’t charged for the crime and returned to his native England in disgrace. He tried to set up a medical practice in London, but when Mrs. Stoner died in a train accident, he moved with his stepdaughters to his ancestral manor in Stoke Moran, living off of inheritance from his deceased wife. While there, Roylott’s fits of anger worsen and much of the surrounding town fears him. He also develops a number of eccentric habits, like smoking Indian cigars, spending weeks at a time with the gypsies who live on his property and collecting an array of exotic animals. One such animal, the deadly swamp adder snake, is what Roylott uses to murder Julia Stoner, in order to prevent her from getting married and thereby obtaining a portion of his slim inheritance.

Dr. Grimesby Roylott Quotes in The Adventure of the Speckled Band

The The Adventure of the Speckled Band quotes below are all either spoken by Dr. Grimesby Roylott or refer to Dr. Grimesby Roylott. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Exoticism Theme Icon
).
The Adventure of the Speckled Band Quotes

The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, 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. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under a heavy mortgage.

Related Characters: Helen Stoner (speaker), Dr. Grimesby Roylott
Related Symbols: Stoke Moran Manor
Page Number: 400
Explanation and Analysis:

Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the family, and in my stepfather’s case it had, I believe, been intensified by his long residence in the tropics.

Related Characters: Helen Stoner (speaker), Dr. Grimesby Roylott
Related Symbols: Stoke Moran Manor
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 401
Explanation and Analysis:

So tall was he that his hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old bird of prey.

Related Characters: Dr. Watson (speaker), Dr. Grimesby Roylott
Related Symbols: Stoke Moran Manor
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 408
Explanation and Analysis:

He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone more cunning than himself upon his track.

Related Characters: Sherlock Holmes (speaker), Dr. Grimesby Roylott
Page Number: 411
Explanation and Analysis:

When a doctor does go wrong he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge.

Related Characters: Sherlock Holmes (speaker), Dr. Grimesby Roylott
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 417
Explanation and Analysis:

“It is a swamp adder!” cried Holmes; “the deadliest snake in India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls into the pit which he digs for another.”

Related Characters: Sherlock Holmes (speaker), Dr. Grimesby Roylott
Related Symbols: Swamp Adder
Page Number: 421
Explanation and Analysis:
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Dr. Grimesby Roylott Quotes in The Adventure of the Speckled Band

The The Adventure of the Speckled Band quotes below are all either spoken by Dr. Grimesby Roylott or refer to Dr. Grimesby Roylott. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Exoticism Theme Icon
).
The Adventure of the Speckled Band Quotes

The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, 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. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under a heavy mortgage.

Related Characters: Helen Stoner (speaker), Dr. Grimesby Roylott
Related Symbols: Stoke Moran Manor
Page Number: 400
Explanation and Analysis:

Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the family, and in my stepfather’s case it had, I believe, been intensified by his long residence in the tropics.

Related Characters: Helen Stoner (speaker), Dr. Grimesby Roylott
Related Symbols: Stoke Moran Manor
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 401
Explanation and Analysis:

So tall was he that his hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old bird of prey.

Related Characters: Dr. Watson (speaker), Dr. Grimesby Roylott
Related Symbols: Stoke Moran Manor
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 408
Explanation and Analysis:

He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone more cunning than himself upon his track.

Related Characters: Sherlock Holmes (speaker), Dr. Grimesby Roylott
Page Number: 411
Explanation and Analysis:

When a doctor does go wrong he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge.

Related Characters: Sherlock Holmes (speaker), Dr. Grimesby Roylott
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 417
Explanation and Analysis:

“It is a swamp adder!” cried Holmes; “the deadliest snake in India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls into the pit which he digs for another.”

Related Characters: Sherlock Holmes (speaker), Dr. Grimesby Roylott
Related Symbols: Swamp Adder
Page Number: 421
Explanation and Analysis: