Hound Of The Baskervilles Essay

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Ji Won Jeong
Ms.Santos
English 9 Honors
21 October 2015

Sir Henry Baskerville
The Hound of the Baskervilles is a fictional, mysterious book written by Arthur Conan Doyle. The story takes place in the eighteen hundreds London, and in Devonshire, Baskerville Hall as the story progresses. The mystery begins when Sherlock Holmes finds a cane left in his office by an unknown visitor along with his assistant, Dr.Watson. The cane’s owner later appears to be James Mortimer, as he entered the office showing an 18th century manuscript. Mortimer mentions the “curse” of the Baskerville family dying suddenly under mysterious circumstances and Sherlock decides to take the case. They discover that Sir Henry Baskerville is the next victim of the murderer
and that he is being followed by a stranger in London. Sherlock Holmes’ and Sir Henry Baskerville’s personalities develop as the novel progresses. Sir Henry Baskervilles fearless, doubtful, and affectionate personality made the plot of the story advance.
In the novel, Sir Henry Baskerville is described as a smart, alert, dark-eyed man, about thirty years of age. He is very sturdy built, with thick black eyebrows and a strong, pugnacious face (55). Sherlock Holmes indicated him as a gentleman since he looks steadily at his eyes and has a quiet assurance of his bearing. Not only is Sir Henry a brave gentleman, but also warm-hearted. Furthermore, Sir Henry Baskerville has an affectionate side in his personality, which is later explained in the novel.
Sir Henry Bakserville is a easy-loving man. He falls in love with Miss Stapleton, a
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Latin beauty, slim, elegant, and tall woman, who is first mentioned as Stepleton’s sister, but later appears to be his wife. In the novel, Watson says, “He is much attached to her, no doubt, and would lead a lonely life without her, but it would seem the height of selfishness if he were to stand in the way of her making so brilliant a marriage”(129). This relationship between Sir Henry and Miss Stapleton would have led to other difficulties while solving the mystery, but his fearless personality had helped the plot of the story advance beforehand.
In chapter 4, Sir Henry is finally informed of the situation in the Baskerville Hall and the danger of his life. But his only response was, “Whichever it is, my answer is fixed. There is no devil in hell, Mr.Holmes, and there is no man upon earth who can prevent me from going to the home of my own people, and you may take that to be my final answer”(63). If Sir Henry refused to go back to the Baskerville Hall, then there would have been no mystery, or simply no story.
The story’s major conflict was between Stapleton and his rivals, the Baskervilles, which included Sir Henry Baskerville.
He was the next victim after Sir Charles Baskerville and the main reason was because of the money. Sir Henry had to stay away from the moor, as the letter he had recieved in London said, “As you value your life or your reason keep away from the moor”(56), which all letters were cut out from a newspaper except the word “moor”. If Holmes and Watson weren’t around Sir Henry in London, he could have been attacked by the murderer at any time.
The advantage of Sir Henry Baskervilles personality in the novel being fearless, doubtful, and affectionate made the plot of the story advance. These actions affected the mood of the story. It grabbed the reader’s attention and made it more interesting. The setting was also an important reason why the story had a suspicious tone. The Hall seemed like a depressing place and the moor added more feelings along with the darkness, rain, and fog.
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The Hound of the Baskervilles is a mystery book solving and putting the pieces together. All characters are mysterious in their own ways, which kept the reader’s interst of predicting who would be the murderer. The story’s isolated setting and detective made one of the best mystery novels of all
time.