Short Stories - Literary Devises Title: The crooked man

Point of View: 1st Person and Omniscient

Protagonist: Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson
What type of character is the Protagonist?
Round and Dynamic

Antagonist: Henry Wood

Describe the setting: Royal Mallows, Aldershot, United Kingdom. The mood and atmosphere is gloomy, mournful, and tense. The time is 12:10 - 1:00 a.m.


Type of Conflict: Man v. Man

Describe the main conflict: The main conflict is Sherlock trying to solve the mystery.



Describe the Climax of the Story: The climax of the story was when Miss Morrison told Sherlock the details of her walk with Mrs. Barclay. She says that as they were walking down a road, they bumped into a person that knew Mrs. Barclay and her the same. She then came home angry and furious at her husband, they then began to start the argument and you know the rest of the story.


How does the Protagonist change over the course of the story? The Protagonists change over the course of the story by knowing more and more throughout the story, and they become better detectives through the case, because practice makes perfect right?




Describe the relationship between the title and the theme. The title The Crooked Man, and the theme, what goes around comes around, is that the crooked man had sent out a person to his death. The man lost his wife and his life because he saw the man he sent to death, and had a heart attack.


How does the main conflict help to illustrate the theme? The main conflict helps to illustrate the theme because the main conflict is basically solving the crime, and since the crime was merely just the soldier dying of a heart attack from seeing the deformed face of the man he sent out to get killed, killed him so, what goes around comes around.


How does the climax help to illustrate the theme? The climax helps to illustrate the theme by showing that after Miss Morrison, the lady was very angry and the deformed man followed Miss Morrison and Mrs. Barclay to Mrs. Barclay's house, her and Mr. Barclay started to fight and Henry came and ended the fight by killing Mr. Barclay. But, Henry did not kill Mr. Barclay, Mr. Barclay killed himself by his own guilt and after seeing Henry so deformed he just could not live with himself and had a heart attack, so what goes around comes around.


Give examples of each of the following literary terms in the story (use quotes):

Simile: "His hair and whiskers were shot with gray, and his face was all crinkled and puckered like a withered apple."


Metaphor: "My biblical knowledge is a trifle rusty..."


Personification: Could not find anything!!


Symbol: "The injury from which the unfortunate veteran was suffering was found to be a jagged cut some two inches long at the back part of his head, which had evidently been caused by a violent blow from a blunt weapon. Nor was it difficult to guess what that weapon may have been. Upon the floor, close to the body, was lying a singular club of hard carved wood with a bone handle. The Colonel possessed a varied collection of weapons brought from the different countries in which he had fought, and it is conjectured by the police that his club was among his trophies." The club is the symbol of a red herring, trying to take us away from the true answer of the story.


Foreshadowing (give both elements):'We were returning from the Watt Street Mission about a quarter to nine o'clock. On our way we had to pass through Hudson Street, which is a very quiet thoroughfare. There is only one lamp in it, upon the left-hand side, and as we approached this lamp I saw a man coming towards us with is back very bent, and something like a box slung over one of his shoulders. He appeared to be deformed, for he carried his head low and walked with his knees bent. We were passing him when he raised his face to look at us in the circle of light thrown by the lamp, and as he did so he stopped and screamed out in a dreadful voice, "My God, it's Nancy!" Mrs. Barclay turned as white as death, and would have fallen down had the dreadful-looking creature not caught hold of her. I was going to call for the police, but she, to my surprise, spoke quite civilly to the fellow." After hearing this we knew that he HAD to have something to do with the death of Colonel Barclay. "Your narrative is most interesting," said Sherlock Holmes. "I have already heard of your meeting with Mrs. Barclay, and your mutual recognition. You then, as I understand, followed her home and saw through the window an altercation between her husband and her, in which she doubtless cast his conduct to you in his teeth. Your own feelings overcame you, and you ran across the lawn and broke in upon them." "I did, sir, and at the sight of me he looked as I have never seen a man look before, and over he went with his head on the fender. But he was dead before he fell. I read death on his face as plain as I can read that text over the fire. The bare sight of me was like a bullet through his guilty heart."

Irony: The irony in the story is the fact that the Colonel was almost sure that, Henry Wood would be dead and he would never see him again. The Colonel was killed after he saw Henry Wood his body was so deformed and, tortured he died at the mere sight of him.
Imagery: "The lawn is thirty yards across, and is only divided from the highway by a low wall with an iron rail above it."
Describe the relationships between the class theme and the story. The relationship between the class theme, mystery, and the story is the question of what if? As in what if the Colonel had not sent Henry to his death? Would Henry have had Mrs. Barclay as his wife instead of Colonel Barclay? Would Mr. Barclay have been a homeless man without Mrs. Barclay? Nobody will ever know except the author, Arthur Conan Doyle.

Completion 4/5
Effort 4/5
Content 4.5/5

total 12.5/15