The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle

Arthur Conan Doyle - The Hound of The Baskervilles

The Hound of the Baskervilles - GCSE Coursework Essay

In this essay I aim to look at how the settings in Arthur Conan

Doyle's novel The Hound of The Baskervilles affect the atmosphere of

the book. I will discuss a number of areas of the novel among these

how the main settings of the novel compare and contrast with each

other, The history, description and pre-knowledge of the main

settings, The characters reactions to their surroundings and whether

this give us any clues to the mystery and the minor settings that

contribute to the atmosphere.

Holmes' London flat is like the essence of a Victorian gentleman's

club, warm, with a fire and a comfortable reading chair on the hearth

rug it seems to be a very well appointed flat. We are not given any

details of the apartment directly in the novel but we catch glimpses

of it in the descriptions of Holmes or Watson's actions.

"Through the haze I had a vague vision of Holmes in his dressing gown

coiled up in his armchair". This kind of speech evokes images of large

leather covered chairs and roaring fires. In general a warm and

comfortable flat conducive to intelligent thought.

In contrast to this when Watson visits Baskerville Hall the style of

architecture and decoration described is very old and baronial. The

hall is obviously the place for a sportsman and not a refined person

like Holmes "we gazed around at the high, thin window of old stained

glass, the oak panelling, the stags heads, the coats-of-arms upon the

wall", describes Watson when walking into the hall. It is welcoming

and beautiful in its own way but is nothing like the home of reason

and intellectualism that the Baker Street flat is.

The...

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... It is especially crucial to the plot as the place

where Holmes, Watson and Sir Henry ambush Stapleton to finally capture

him and with the fog swirling around it in the night it perfects a

very dramatic ending to a suspense-filled novel. Stereotypical

The places this novel is set in complement and complete the writing

and I think that, in a different setting, not only would it be a

completely different novel but it would also be a worse one because

the setting adds crucial background to the story and without a setting

of such depth of character the story would certainly be altered to its

detriment. The moor especially is crucial to the mix of mystery and

terror the writer has created. The settings contribute greatly in

terms of language, mystery and atmospheric details to the novel and

without them this book would not be the great literary classic it is.