Dr. Roylott appears only once while he is still alive. This is when he storms into Holmes' sitting room and demands to know what his niece has been telling him. Holmes insolently ignores his questions, which infuriates the ill-tempered doctor even further.
“I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here.” He stepped swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with his huge brown hands.
The author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's purpose in creating this confrontation was to establish that the dramatic conflict in the story was between Dr. Roylott and Sherlock Holmes. Roylott's dangerous personality hovers over the rest of the story like a black cloud. He could show up at any moment while Holmes and Watson are inspecting the rooms at Stoke Moran. If he did so, he would be likely to try to kill both men on the grounds that a man's home is a castle. A country gentleman like Roylott would be sure to have a number of hunting guns available. Holmes has asked Watson to bring his revolver along, which adds to the dramatic tension.
Since Conan Doyle based the story on a conflict between Holmes and Roylott, he must have felt it necessary to show that Holmes won that battle by causing Roylott to be killed by his own snake. Holmes actually assumes this responsibility at the very end.
"Some of the blows of my cane came home and roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to weigh very heavily upon my conscience.”
Conan Doyle wanted Holmes to kill Roylott as a sign of complete victory in their conflict--but to do so in such a way that the detective could not be considered guilty of homicide.
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