Hound Of The Baskervilles

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Holmes and Watson sure do have their hands full with this one. The Hound of the Baskervilles is a very popular crime story written by Sir Cannon Doyle. The story was written in 1901, located in England in an area called Dartmoor. The story is based upon the legend of a family curse. Doyle may have thought of a basic story line to go by, but then had to think of characters and descriptions to go along with it. A harmful beast must have seemed to easy, so he decided to use a hound as the “monster” in the story. Hounds are often use in detective stories. Using a hound in detective stories can often times be derived from showing a basic theme and intention beyond the stories meaning. There are many elements used in The Hound of the Baskervilles …show more content…

Their is a use of supernatural elements that they could led into a murder with a logical path of events. A hound is used as the center of the family curse based upon the symbolism, and themes, even though Doyle used the hound as a monstrous killing machine. The hound of the Baskervilles is based upon the concept of a family curse that has been involved during attempted murders. The curse is based upon a gentleman named Hugo Baskerville. Hugo decided to kidnap a young woman and then trap her. His friends tried to warn Hugo that going after the girl was not a good idea, yet he went anyway. Hugo’s friends then discovered the girl had died. She has died form fear of what the crazed man would due to her if he tracked her down in the moor. Hugo Baskerville suffered a tragic death that was far worse. He was found being ripped apart by a giant black dog from hell. To this day it is seen to still be a haunting of the Baskervilles family. Sir Henry Baskerville has made a journey to London to claim the estate that was left to him. Sherlock Holmes finds a cane in his home and does not know who it belongs to until a man by the name of Dr. Mortimer came to claim it. Dr. Mortimer also has a job for Sherlock Holmes and Watson. According to Anna Neill, she states that “ The Holmes of this story- …show more content…

The hound could be a possible analysis of being locked into the path it takes. For instance, blood hounds are often used for hunting not only for their sense of smell, but also their determination to find what is at the end of its path. Within the story the narrator uses precise imagery to describe what the hound looks like for a useful mystery and suspense. Doyle describes the hound as “… a foul thing, a great, black beast, shaped like a hound, yet larger than any hound that ever mortal eye has rested upon.” (Doyle). Doyle also uses exaggeration in reference of the hound having blazing eyes. Carl L. Heifetz states that “In Sherlockian lore, we have several instances in which the scenting ability of a dog had a major impact on the outcome of Sherlock Holmes’ cases.” (Heifetz). This is a prime example that within Sherlock stories multiple times there is a hound of some sort used. In todays times and even long ago, hounds are used as a tracking animal in all types of aspects. In todays society the hound is used for tracking and hunting. In some cases the dogs are used to track people and criminals. In the story it is believed that the hound is to represent family history and ancestors. Not all history is so easy to escape in return it can truthfully haunt us down till our very last day on this

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