Says a lot about the Victorian society and their views of non-white, British people. Blaming Dr. Roylott's rage and violence on his time in a foreign land portrays the idea of foreign influence to be something to fear and reinforces idea of English superiority.

Very impressive observational skills used by Sherlock Holmes yet again, and points the suspicion back to Roylott, away from the gypsies and the handkerchief idea.

screening- meaning concealing or hiding information

Holmes is not impressed by the idea her dying words "the speckled band" was a reference to the handkerchiefs, telling Helen to go on with her story even though he is not believing it. Based off of all of the other details he has focused on, the handkerchiefs have nothing to do with those and he has been able to deduce that this narrative is wrong but will hear it out because he wants the entire story in order to get more details that he can observe.

Helen's best guess at what the speckled band referred to. Again suspicious of the gypsies.

Sherlock asking a question about the gypsies directly after Helen described her death as caused by "fear and nervous shock" is very telling about the society of this time. The fear of these traveling people and people who had foreign influences can be seen all throughout this short story and allows readers to have commentary about the stereotypes of foreign people during this time, as well as social darwinism in terms of English superiority.

Sherlock Holmes is known for having a good knowledge about poisonous things and botany.

Goes back to Roylott being thought of the terror of the village and how he was to be feared more than his exotic pets. Showing him as the main suspect by more than just Helen

Sherlock Holmes focusing on a small detail of the story yet again, showing his observational skills and creating a potential narrative of his own of what occurred that night.

Name of the case, but also is a big hint for what the cause of her death was.

Holmes asks no questions about the death of her sister other than these two small details, again showing his incredible attention to detail and a way for Doyle to implement foreshadowing.

Another show of Sherlock Holmes picking up seemingly small details, that turn out to be large hints.

The use of the word wretched shows what Helen thinks of the gypsies. Shows how much the gypsies presence affects Helen and another show of what the society thought of these people at the time.

Another hint that Doyle is giving the reader through Sherlock's incredible observational skills. The whistling in the night does not seem to be very important on first glance, but Sherlock finds this detail intriguing and something that bothers him.

Another show of foreign influence Dr. Roylott had. Cigars were not uncommon for people to smoke, Sherlock Holmes himself smokes cigars in short stories, but the identification of the cigar being a "strong Indian" reinforces the influences of foreign on Dr. Roylott.

A floor plan of what the bedrooms of Dr. Roylott and Helen's sister may have looked like

Gives the reader a hint that what Helen just told Holmes is important, shows that Sherlock is very adept in his observations and deduction skills in his detective work

Potential motive for Dr. Roylott to kill his step daughter.

Strong imagery of the stress that her and her sister were under living with Roylott in Stoke Moran

Important as a description of Roylott. Portraying him as even scarier than these violent animals that wander Stoke Moran, once again showing his violent nature and bad temper that was influenced by his time in India

More foreign influences

Gypsies are groups of traveling people that were often seen as a trope of exoticism in Victorian literature and were feared by many due to their lifestyle. The stereotype of gypsies in literature were often unfair and the word gypsy had a connotation that showed them as lesser than the lowest class people

Reinforcing his violent nature and showing that his foreign influence created a violent man who can not be controlled, changing a respectable man into a monster to be feared. Setting up Dr. Roylott as the prime suspect in this case due to his violent nature and his foreign influences.

TV episode adaptation of the short story

Illustration of what Stoke Moran may have looked like

The connection of his time in India and his violent nature is portrayed a reason for why he is destructive and someone to be feared.

The theme of the exotic and more specifically the fear of the foreign can be seen throughout this short story. Mr. Roylott is seen to have become violent because of the influence of his time in a foreign land. The connection of this character and his time spent in India gives the reader the idea that his savage and violent nature was due to his time in a foreign area, portraying the foreign to be something to fear.

(https://www.countrylife.co.uk/architecture/the-houses-of-sherlock-holmes-how-arthur-conan-doyles-architectural-savvy-shaped-literatures-greatest-sleuth-220692)

Stoke Moran is a fictional manor that was created by Conan Doyle to fit the short story and create a creepy atmosphere to go with the characters and plot of this short story. To the point of this article, the homes in the short stories are rarely in good condition, just like how in this short story the very large manor has been reduced to only one small wing. In this article it shows a picture of what the manor might have looked like and gives some insight into the architectural aspects of Sherlock short stories and the affect it can add to the short stories.

the flea enjoys your blood without marrying you first, maybe we can emulate the flea

during this time, blood was thought to make up all of our body fluids, so John Donne is very interested in mingling blood (sex) with the woman he is writing about

John Donne really gets his point across in this final stanza - while the flea was a perfect metaphor for our marriage and combining blood (sex), now that you killed it you see that nothing is wrong with that and you can see that people lie - just like the lie of dishonor, or shame or sin. yield to me

what did the flea do other than suck a drop of our blood?

This entire poem uses the flea and the connection of their blood commingled as a reason for the two to have sex

so yes - killing the flea didn't hurt either of us (even though I've been trying to convince you not to the last 2 stanzas) but if that fear was irrational, your fear of losing your maidenhead may be irrational as well

Him trying to convince her that premarital sex is not a big deal, is actually a very bold thing to say at the time, especially for such a religious person. Donne is trying to seduce her, but in doing so is making a societal argument that - is sex so bad?

AABBCCDDD rhyme scheme

their blood splattered when she killed the flea

you killed the flea, but neither of us suffered because of it

you will lose as much honor as when you killed the flea, as when you give me your virginity

she killed the flea