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Summary AQA GCSE English Literature 19th Century Novel - The Sign of Four Chapter 8
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AQA GCSE English Literature for 19th Century Novel - The Sign of Four by Arthur Conon Doyle CHAPTER 8
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Chapter 8 – The Baker Street Irregulars Toby quickly finds the right trail, which leads to Mordecai Smith’s wharf on the River
Thames.
Smith’s wife explains that her husband left on the Aurora (his steam boat) the previous
morning with their son and a ‘wooden-legged man’. This confirms Small has escaped.
Holmes pretends he wants to hire the Aurora – he knows that Mrs Smith is more likely
to talk to a potential customer. He asks a series of clever questions to build up a detailed
description of the boat.
Character: Sherlock Holmes
Holmes uses his intelligence to manipulate others. He is able to make people give away
information that they would normally protect.
The Smith family are from a lower social class from Holmes. He describes them as
‘people of that sort’. His dismissive and patronising tone suggests that he feel superior to
them.
Holmes pays his ‘unofficial force’, a gang of street children, to look for the Aurora,
because they can ‘go anywhere’ and ‘see everything’. Holmes’ unconventional methods
make him seem inventive.
The children ‘buzzed’ down the stairs and went ‘streaming’ along the street. Their
energy suggests that they will be an effective tool.
Handing over the search for the Aurora pauses Holmes and Watson’s activities. Holmes
stays active by researching Small’s accomplice’s background, whereas Watson is content
to rest and think about Mary.
Theme: Love
The strength of Watson’s love for Mary becomes clear in this chapter. He is ready to
‘devote’ his life to finding the treasure because it is ‘rightfully’ hers, even though he
believes that finding it will put her ‘forever beyond’ his reach. This shows his feelings to
be selfless and honourable.
Holmes explains his theory that Small’s accomplice is from the Andaman Islands near
India. He reads from a book that is full of stereotypical Victorian ideas – it claims
Andaman natives are cannibals who commit ‘massacres’. It stresses their brutality and
makes them sound inhuman by referring to their ‘distorted features’ and ‘misshapen
heads’.
In the 19th century, many British people thought that people from the colonies of the
British Empire were uncivilised. Watson refers to Small’s associate as a ‘savage’.
Doyle’s Techniques
Doyle has previously kept the reader in suspense by hinting at the man’s identity. Rather
than breaking the tension, revealing details about him now makes him seem more
mysterious and frightening.
Holmes thinks that things would have been more ‘ghastly’ if Small had not controlled his
ally. This shifts blame onto the ally, reflecting the view that people from other countries
were more violent than Britons.
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