How Conan Doyle Successfully Uses Setting in The Hound of the Baskervilles

How Conan Doyle Successfully Uses Setting in The Hound of the Baskervilles

Conan Doyle started his career as a doctor. He opened a surgery but

was not very successful as he didn't have many patients. He needed

money so he began to write short stories. He invented Sherlock Holmes

in 1888 who featured in his stories as a private detective who

possessed unusual analytical skills. The detective genre used in his

stories was perfect for the time as there was a great interest in

puzzles and psychology. The growing interest in literature made it a

great time to start writing. He manage to include all the major

features of a good detective novel, including the brilliant criminal

and even more brilliant detective, the victim, a mystery, clues which

the reader could pick up on, and some that they couldn't or were

puzzled by, a strange and complex crime, the eccentric character o the

detective, and an ending were good prevails and evil is punished.

Conan Doyle's "The Hound of the Baskervilles" was first published in

Strand magazine in serial form, and later made into a book. This novel

satisfied the key elements of a detective story. It is an adventure to

find out the who or what is behind the mysterious murders. The murder

of Sir Charles Baskerville I said to be strange and unnatural by the

people living nearby, and this backed up by the legend of the hound.

Sir Henry Baskerville arrives from Canada, not long after the death of

Sir Charles, to inherit the premises of Baskerville Hall. He sets out

to the deserted moors with the guidance of Holmes and Watson. They are

there to try and solve the mystery surrounding Sir Charles death.

Conan Doy...

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...l context to the

event in the plot. Setting can also give a moral context to the event

in the plot. For example, the contrast directly with the ordered,

secure, moral world of 221B Bakers Street, London. Setting does not

just indicate place, but also the condition associated with it, in

particular the atmosphere and weather conditions. The weather then

mirrors the mood of the characters. This is an example of the way

setting can play an active part in a novel. It is quiet good to start

a novel by setting it in a very sedate London because readers feel

secure, which makes the impact of been thrown into the countryside

stronger. Reader is caught unaware and trusted into the atmosphere of

gloom. The book is structured by setting the conclusion in London, so

that the atmosphere is stored to that of calm and tranquil state.