Holmes and Watson are introduced to the case of the mysterious death of Sir Charles Baskerville by
Dr. Mortimer, who believes that a ghostly hound from an age-old family curse has killed Sir Charles.
When Sir Henry, who is to claim the family estate, arrives in London, several strange things happen.
Certain that something insidious is afoot, Holmes sends Watson to Devonshire, where he is to
accompany and protect Sir Henry.
Watson soon discovers several mysterious circumstances. There is an escaped convict, Selden,
wandering the moor. Barrymore, the butler, is behaving oddly. Watson also meets the Stapletons, a
brother and sister who are friendly neighbours of the Baskerville estate. On several occasions, he
hears the frightening howl of a hound coming from the moor.
Barrymore tells them about a letter to Sir Charles to meet outside with a woman with the initials L.L.
Watson investigates to discover that this woman is Laura Lyons. He learns that she did not keep her
appointment that night.
Watson then discovers that Sherlock Holmes has been living secretly on the moor to observe the
mystery from a distance. Holmes has learned that Mr. Stapleton is in fact married to Miss Stapleton.
He believes Stapleton is responsible for Sir Charles's death, but he does not have the proof yet.
Watson and Holmes find the corpse of the escaped convict that has been wandering the moor.
Stapleton arrives, and though he is surprised he quickly recovers his composure. They learn that
Stapleton had been expecting Henry to be out on the moor that night.
Holmes realizes that Stapleton must be a Baskerville, who hopes to kill off the surviving family
members so that he will inherit the fortune. He instructs Sir Henry to join Stapleton for dinner the
following night. That night, Holmes, Watson, and the London policeman Lestrade stake out
Stapleton's house. They soon see Sir Henry stroll past, and then a savage hound, flames seemingly
leaping from its mouth, fly after the man. They manage to kill it before Henry is killed.
Holmes studies the hound's corpse to discover that its mouth has been lined with phosphorus,
thereby creating the image of flames, and its fur covered with a glitter. They only find Miss Stapleton,
tied up, gagged, and locked away in the house. The next morning, they search for Stapleton, but find
only his boot. They assume he has died.
Stapleton's actual name was Rodger Baskerville; he is the son of Sir Charles's youngest brother, who
had long before moved to South America. After his father's death, Stapleton fled to England, changed
his identity, and set out to construct a means to claim the Baskerville fortune. His wife had eventually
tried to stop him, which is why he locked her away.
, Who is the villain of the story and what is he/she like? Provide a quote from the book that typifies
this person’s character.
The villain of the story is Mr. Stapleton. However, he is introduced without any obvious signs that he
is indeed the antagonist. Stapleton strikes the reader as a bit of an oddball right away, with his
butterfly net and his running off into the treacherous bog of the Grimpen Mire. But not for long do
we think of him as an eccentric but harmless amateur scientist.
Evidence starts to mount up pretty quickly that something's a little off. Stapleton likes to brag, and
hereby reveals essential clues to Watson and Holmes that help in their investigation.
‘’His nerves were so worked up that the appearance of any dog might have had a fatal effect upon his
diseased heart.’’
These words uttered by Stapleton to Watson during the first meeting double as a simple surmising by
Stapleton and a foreshadowing device by Conan Doyle. Watson may not be aware of the truth, but
Stapleton has just revealed what he did to kill Sir Charles Baskerville: He used Sir Charles Baskerville’s
heart condition to scare him to death with an embellished real-life hound. Stapleton is a black-
hearted, violent villain hidden beneath a benign, bookish surface.
Is there a hero and a heroine in your novel/story? Who are they and what are they like? Provide a
quote from the book that typifies their character.
Mr. Stapletons sister, or rather wife, could be seen as the heroine in this story. In a Gothic novel, the
heroine is usually beautiful and virtuous and suffers great misfortune, often as the victim of a male
villain, before achieving a happy ending. Mrs. Stapleton possesses all the virtue a heroine could hope
for, but in turn suffers all the more for it.
“Quite happy,” said she, but there was no ring of conviction in her words.’’
Here, Miss Stapleton’s reply that she feels happy living on the moor with her “brother,” Mr.
Stapleton, doesn’t ring true to Watson’s astute ears. Watson begins to suspect that something is
amiss between Miss Stapleton and Mr. Stapleton the more he observes their dynamic. Miss
Stapleton’s arrival in the plot and her enigmatic responses stand as Watson’s first major break in the
case.
Ultimately, it is Sherlock Holmes who saves the day in this story. As an excellent detective he has
managed to unravel the mystery of the death of Sir Charles Baskerville and was able to prevent
another death, the one of Henry. Though Watson is our first-person narrator, Sherlock is the hero in
the story, and Watson is just his informant and sidekick. Sherlock Holmes has a great sense of drama,
is magnificent, with his cleverness, his courage, and his sense of style. But he is also extremely
difficult to have as a friend.
‘’I am afraid, my dear Watson, that most of your conclusions were erroneous. When I said you
stimulated me, I meant, to be frank, that in noting your fallacies I was occasionally guided towards
the truth.’’
After appearing as though he was agreeing with Watson, Sherlock Holmes quickly contradicts Watson
and informs him that his theories were actually wrong. Holmes gives Watson this backhanded
compliment, saying that Watson’s incorrect theories were not altogether useless since they led
