The Hound Of Baskerville Essay, Research Paper

The Hound of the

Baskervilles

1.Conan Doyle, Arthur. 1976. The Hound of The Baskervilles. Andor Publishing Inc. Park Ridge, New Jersey. 255 pages.

2.The story takes place during the late eighteen hundreds early ninteen hundreds. The beginning of the story is based in London, England, while the rest is based in Devonshire, and Coombe Tracy England. The setting in this story had a great effect on the characters, and their actions. One feature is when they were in Devonshire a fair amount of the setting was when the characters were on the moor(which is a marshy, light soiled land with rocks and small hills). The moor greatly affected the actions of the characters more than once. One specific time was when Watson was chasing after the escaped convict but could not keep up over the rough terrain. Another example is in the end when the rolling fog almost ruined sherlock holmes’ trap to catch Mr. Stapleton but instead lead to the escape of him. Also the Mr. Stapleton uses a swampy marsh named the grimpen mire to escape because of the complex path you must take in order to get through it.

3.Sherlock holmes and Dr. Watson were the main characters in The Hound of the Baskervilles. Sherlock Holmes is a brilliant english detective. He pays great attention to the slightest detail. He is a tall, slightly athletic man who smokes a pipe. He will do anything to solve a case. He can change cases and focus intently from one to another quickly showing his great ability to brain storm about subjects. Dr. Watson is an inch or two shorter than sherlock, and a little bit less in shape than him, he as well smokes tobacco but in a ciggarette form. Dr. watson yearns for holmes’ approval and to gain the talents holmes possesses.

One person who helps them is james mortimer. He is the person responsible for showing holmes and watson the manuscript which states the curse of the baskervilles. He also shows them the moor and his neighbors so that watson can begin to suspect people and learn more about the case. He gives special information regarding the death of Sir Charles Baskerville that proves very helpful in determining a cause of death or what killed him.

A person that slows down the progress of the main characters is the escaped prisoner. He threw off there investigation by having relations with the barrymores which watson was watching so closely. And once again in the end got in the way while Mr. Stapleton was trying to kill Sir Henry. Barrymores had given him some of Sir Henry’s old clothes so Stapleton, Watson, and Holmes all thought that he was Sir Henry at first. This resulted in stopping Stapleton from getting Baskervilles inheritance.

I think Watson is most credible, becauce he went to Devonshire on his own and investigated the case bringing up many good suspicions and uncovering many clues. I don’t think anyone should be given the least credit in this story because the way i perceived it all the characters did what they could or what they were supposed to do.

4. The scene that would make an impressive scene in a movie i think would be the scene in the end where Sir Henry is being chased by the monstrous hound.

The scene would start with Sherlock, Watson, and Sherlocks hired proffesional hiding behind a rock near the merripit house. They wait for Sir Henry to exit and worry about the rolling fog. The camera could repeatedly show the moving fog growing closer and closer. Then when Henry exits they could have a close up on him and show the fog just reaching the house. He gets about twenty feet away and sees the Huge Hound. They show Henry start running and sherlock and company coming out from behind the rock after the hound. Sherlock stays ahead of Watson and the proffesional while the camera shows an action seen of all of them running. Finally Sherlock Shoots the hound and repeatedly injures it until it is dead right next to Sir Henry. And the Camera backs off as slow music begins.

5.The theme of this story is you should pay attention to minor details in that they can mean the world. Doyle may have wanted us to apply this theme in our own lives in many ways. He might have wanted you to remember that little things do matter.

6.A significant passage in The Hound of the Baskerviles is when Sherlock and Watson are standing over the dead body of who they think is Sir Henry. But then find out that it is the convict instead. And Sir Henry was supposed to be on his way to the merripit house to meet the stapletons. Therefore Mr. Stapleton mistook the convict for Sir Henry when he was trying to kill him. This proved to Sherlock and Watson that Stapleton was after Sir Henry.

7.Three Questions i would ask Arthur Conan Doyle would be

1. When you created the character Sherlock Holmes was it based upon a live person skilled in detective work or an imaginary being?

2. Is it often in cases like this one that there a lot of clues left behind?

3. Why was there no hound prints near the body of Sir Charles when it says that the hound walked up to him and sniffed him?

8. Some citations showing special vocabulary are:

1. pg. 8 Holmes says “Perfectly Sound” meaning right or agreeable

2. pg. 58 James Mortimer says “I’d rather walk for this affair has flurried me rather”

both of these examples show vocabulary of an educated english man from early 1900’s.

9.Arthur Conan Doyle was born in 1859 and died in 1930. He studied at the University of edinburgh and began his career as a doctor. He was also artistically talented but alcholism and epilepsy kicked in near his death. These facts were gotten from the book under About the Author and the internet (site http://www.ash-tree.bc.ca/acdsbio.html)