Hound of the Baskerville Essay Example for Free

Hound of the Baskerville Essay In this gothic novel, logic and supernatural collide a lot of times over the course of the story. Logic is something that can be explained using facts and also by finding the cause and effects to prove something. Mean while on the other hand Supernatural is something beyond human powers. In the Hound of the Baskervilles logic is used when Sherlock Holmes it trying to explain something. The longer one stays here the more does the spirit sink into ones soul, its vastness and also its grim charm. The moor is isolated and is seen as gothic because of its location. It is set in a deserted place which at night looks as If with no sign of life, but during the day it is not. The deserted houses also help to create tension as well as the idea of a hound loose on the moors. Baskerville Hall is a big mansion located in an isolated area surrounded with land and individual passages. This helps to create suspense because the characters as well as the audience are taken into a dark, mysterious and unknown place. The story of the novel is that there is a convict on the loose, who is controlling a vicious hound. Sir Charles Baskerville is the first victim of the hound. He dies a suspicion death. So Doctor Barrymoore calls Sherlock Holmes, a police detective, who uses only logic to explain things. The Hound is found and killed and Stapleton is found and arrested. Dr Mortimer has to use logic in his works, but believes in the hound. Sherlock Holmes Uses logic to explain things. Sherlock Holmes often comes with conclusions through past experiences. Throughout the novel supernatural and logic collide. This is because at the time the novel was written society believed in the idea of supernatural and because there is a black hound in the novel people view it as being viscous because if something is black then it is perceived as evil, dangerous and harmful. Although dogs have a good and faithful relationship with humans, the idea of a black hound would be perceived as evil and viscous. Sherlock Holmes always dismisses the supernatural and keeps looking for scientific facts until he can explain what has happened. For example: Sherlock Holmes uses facts and logic to explain the death of Sir Charles Baskervilles until at the end of the novel when the hound is killed that Sherlock Holmes explains the supernatural. Dr Watson, who is quite logical, is more convinced of a supernatural element. Holmes is more convinced of the logical element. Literary traditions of this novel are of the same as other gothic novels. Novels like Emily Bronthe, Wuthering Heights and Du Maurier Jamaican Inn are also gothic. They have similar settings as to The Hound of the Baskervilles. They all have moors, which are isolated and located in a place with no sign of life with land surrounding. All have wild threats posed to the moors. Sherlock Holmes conducts everything through logic. For example: when a cane is left by a visitor, Holmes uses logic to come up with what the most likely thing the cane would be associated with. Sir Arthur Connan-Doyle wrote The Hound of the Baskervilles in the way he did because in the Victorian Era people used to believe in the idea of supernatural. Sir Arthur Connan-Doyle wanted to show the audience that the idea of supernatural could b e explained using logic and facts. He also wrote it the way in which he did because every month chapters of the novel were published in The Strand magazine. So therefore that built up suspense for the, who would then go out and buy the next edition. Watson believes more in the supernatural element because Sir Arthur Connan-Doyle wanted to have a character, who at first tries to explain through logic, but later starts to believe in the supernatural as well as what the Baskervilles say to him. For example: when Sherlock Holmes is in the caves to induct his own investigation that there is no hound and that Stapleton is the villain, while giving Watson no indication what he is doing. Stapleton is the son of Roger Baskerville. He is an ex-convict having previously done four large bank robberies. He is the husband of Mrs. Stapleton (real name Mrs. Lyons). Both the themes of logic and supernatural are important as the story is mainly based on the idea of supernatural, which later would be explained by logic and facts. The novel is not relevant to todays readers as many do not believe in the idea of supernatural as there is no proof of supernatural existing. Whereas if something is explained by logic there is evidence to back it up.