75 pages • 2 hours read
Arthur Conan DoyleThe Hound of the Baskervilles
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1902A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Themes
Superstition vs Logic and Reason
Legend has it that the baronets of Baskerville suffer under the curse of a giant, demonic hound that haunts the moors around their manor and, now and again, takes the life of one of them. Indeed, something terrifying roams the region, howling at all hours. Potentially responsible for a recent death, the creature threatens to kill yet again. Sherlock Holmes brings his scientific reasoning to bear on the case, winning the day by pitting logic against superstition. AD
The story contrasts the organized, logical world of London with the lonely, eerie, mysterious moors around Baskerville Hall. The ancient Hall itself—dark and decrepit, its walls covered with the portraits of distant ancestors—heightens the sense of mystery and creeping horror. The chill of autumn, falling leaves, the darkening month of October, and the pale, ghostly moonlight upon the desolate moorland combine to create a gnawing sense of fear. Hovering over these unsettling features floats the old legend of a terrifying, deadly hound.
The haunted mood encourages thoughts of old, disturbing folklore and belief in demonic spirits. Stories and fears often blend to make something seem supernatural that is merely unusual. Against these stands Holmes, a person of the industrial age who relies on calm reason and careful deduction. He believes that no amount of scary atmosphere or creepy legends can withstand the cool light of logical inspection.
Holmes is unimpressed by Dr. Mortimer’s retelling of the ancient legend of the hound until he hears that the extremely wealthy, if ailing, Sir Charles Baskerville died of fear after running from something that left a huge paw print near his body. At once, Holmes sees past the ancient myth to the possibility of an elaborate scheme to take advantage of local superstition and use terror to kill. The problem is how to prove that something that appears to be supernatural is in fact ordinary.
Well-trained in the sciences, Holmes resolutely examines the facts of the case and gathers more clues during clandestine visits to the area, until he has formulated a theory that connects all the data into a coherent pattern. That pattern points to a murder, a criminal, and a plot to kill Sir Henry.
Holmes correctly predicts that Stapleton’s dinner invitation to Sir Henry is a ploy to get the baronet out on the moor, where a large dog can attack him. The only puzzle piece that Holmes does not possess is the explanation for why the dog so terrifies its victims. When the hound appears, bounding out of a nighttime fog bank, its head glows in a frightening way, and it appears to breathe fire.
Again, betting on a natural explanation instead of a supernatural one, Holmes keeps his wits and fires at the animal, eliciting a howl of pain from the creature. This proves that the dog, no matter how unearthly its appearance, is a living creature like any other and subject to the laws of nature—including that a bullet can penetrate and injure it. “It’s dead, whatever it is,” says Holmes, who adds that logic has overcome superstition: “We’ve laid the family ghost once and forever” (63).
After the dog is killed, Holmes and Watson discover that the head has been painted in glowing phosphorus, which, at night, can easily disorient and terrify a victim. Thus, by using scientific reasoning, Holmes proves that the legendary hound is simply a large canine decorated in a scary manner and set loose to chase down an innocent man, whose death would remove a barrier to the killer’s attempt to gain the Baskerville fortune.
Holmes’s proof is an object lesson in the power of reason to vanquish the fog of ancient superstitions.
Observing the Obvious
Sherlock Holmes makes brilliant deductions based on simple clues that most people overlook. His approach is to observe carefully every detail of a case, notice any irregularities or oddities, and resolve anything that cannot easily be explained. In this way, he arrives systematically at a solution to some of the most perplexing puzzles, but every answer begins with an observation.
Some version of the word “observe” appears 26 times in the text of The Hound of the Baskervilles. It is the foundation of Holmes’s technique; without it, there is no chance of solving a case. Holmes’s habit is to start by observing; often, his simple observations begin to clarify a situation immediately. When Dr. Mortimer visits Holmes, the surgeon says, “I have in my pocket a manuscript,” but Holmes says, “I observed it as you entered the room,” adding that he already knows “[i]t is an old manuscript” (3). From a glance at the document when it is still in the doctor’s pocket, Holmes knows its age within a decade because of the variety of paper and the special use of certain letters.
This habit of observation never sleeps in Holmes. He notices, in a letter made of cutout words from a respected newspaper and sent to Sir Henry as a warning, that the words were clipped with small scissors, and that the missive emits the scent of jasmine. From these small facts, Holmes deduces that the sender is likely an educated woman connected to the suspect. In fact, Beryl Stapleton turns out to be the sender.
Holmes also notices, as does Watson, that Stapleton encourages Sir Henry to visit Beryl, the woman Stapleton refers to as his sister. A union between her and Sir Henry would seem a very positive development in all their lives, yet Stapleton steps in repeatedly to prevent them from becoming more intimate. This immediately suggests that Stapleton is hiding something.
Observation isn’t all there is to detection—or, more generally, to a life intelligently lived. For Holmes, noticing unusual or out-of-place facts is a prelude to reasoning out the oddities and fitting them into a coherent picture of what is really going on. Holmes must also devise a plan to make useful his deductions—in this case, to get Stapleton to prove his evil intentions. But without the careful observations that lead to Holmes’s reasoning about the true nature of the death of Sir Charles and the danger to Sir Henry, Holmes would, like most people, have nothing useful to go on.
The simple facts that stand before everyone, but are noticed by nearly no one, form the core of Holmes’s skill. He sees what most people miss, and that trait is a great part of his ability to solve cases. Much of what seems like sheer genius is simply the willingness to take pains to observe.
Capable Women Without Enough Power
The Hound of the Baskervilles features two supporting characters, both women, who display determination and intelligence yet find themselves trapped in the schemes of a man who dominates them financially and emotionally. Their lives are caught in the snags of a culture that is barely beginning to make full room for individuals other than white men. The women struggle against the strictures of their lives and find they cannot yet break free.
Beryl Stapleton is married to Jack Stapleton, but, under the thrall of her love for him and his intimidating personality, she goes along with his ruse and pretends to be his sister. He wants to reclaim his lineage as a Baskerville, but soon enough Beryl realizes his intentions are homicidal. Unable to free herself completely from his influence, she nevertheless manages to warn Sir Henry. When Jack beats and imprisons her, Beryl understands that “I have been his dupe and his tool” (64). She reveals his hiding place to Holmes and Watson.
Laura Lyons, a beautiful woman estranged from her husband, lives in Coombe Tracey, where, through the financial kindness of the late Sir Charles, she manages a small living as a typist. Typing as a career that would quickly become common for women in the workforces of the US and Europe during the rapidly evolving Industrial Age. Trapped in a loveless marriage with a thoroughgoing cad, Laura begs, first from her father, then from Sir Charles, for help in affording a divorce attorney.
She pens a letter to Sir Charles, asking him to meet her privately. Jack Stapleton promises instead to pay for her needs and marry her, but his real purpose is to use her letter to bring the baronet out of Baskerville Hall so Stapleton can literally scare him to death. When Laura learns that Stapleton has no intention of marrying her, she angrily gives him up to Holmes by stating that he dictated the letter she wrote to Sir Charles. “Why should I preserve faith with him who never kept any with me?” (60).
Both women help a man attempt to commit murder; one knows it and tries to resist, while the other has no idea of the plan. Both fall into Stapleton’s trap because they depend on him financially and romantically. When they realize their mistake, they each respond with righteous anger. Both want vengeance, and both get it, though Beryl also speaks out against Stapleton to assuage her own guilt in the attempt on Sir Henry’s life.
As women in a society that affords them few opportunities for independence, both Beryl and Laura must wrestle with their consciences and take the best action they can find. Although both are intelligent, each makes an understandable error in opting to ally with Stapleton. Laura ends up trapped in an unforgiving marriage, while Beryl, freed from Stapleton’s cruelty but complicit with him in plotting murder, must face an even worse future, along with the loss of the love and trust of Sir Henry, the man she tried to save.
These two characters are early examples in the mystery genre of women who try to rise above their external limitations as members of a second-class gender but end up trapped in the after-effects of a crime.
Related Titles
By Arthur Conan Doyle
