Watson is quite naive in a way as he sometimes gets carried away in his assessments and comes to wild conclusions ‘The night was very dark, so that I can hardly imagine how he could possibly have hoped to see anyone. It had struck me that it was possible that some love intrigue was on foot.’ Watson is also somewhat of a romantic ‘She was darker than any whom I have seen in England – slim, elegant and tall. She had a proud finely cut face, so regular that it might have been impassive were it not for the sensitive mouth and the beautiful dark eager eyes.’ This shows his passion for Miss Stapleton and it indicates he is quite a lover of the ladies.
Holmes is a genius. He is very practical and logical. We see that he is practical by his unbelieving of the curse of the hound until it becomes physical when he hears of the foot print left by the hound on the gravel drive where Sir Charles Baskerville died, even then Holmes doesn’t believe this to be a curse or anything with a supernatural nature. Holmes has a brilliant skill of ‘deduction’ we see a glimpse of this at the beginning of the book on analysing the walking stick left behind by Mortimer on his visit to Baker Street.
We can tell that the book is set in the late Victorian era as the use of stagecoaches towards the beginning when Holmes and Watson see the man in the cab spying on Sir Henry Baskerville and Dr Mortimer. We can also tell this is set in Victorian times with the use of Watson’s gentlemen’s club. Neither of these exist in common use today proving that it is set in a different time to our own.
The novel itself is about a supposed curse on the family called the Baskervilles. The curse is that an unnaturally large hound will kill all of the Baskervilles that venture on the moor outside their house at night. Holmes and Watson are brought in to investigate the death of Sir Charles Baskerville the Baskerville estate owner, as it is believed to be a murder. Watson is sent up on his own as Holmes has other cases to deal with.
In the second to last chapter, called ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’, we see Holmes to be a genius in action as the fact he has completely unravelled the curse and has proved it to be physical so that he can actually deal with it, therefore it is definitely a murder case, and the idea of it being anything supernatural has been dismissed. This is proved in the quote “It’s dead whatever it is,’ said Holmes ‘we’ve laid the family ghost once and forever.”
In last chapter, ‘A Retrospection’, Holmes tells us of his methods in solving the case. The whole chapter is dedicated to showing us of Holmes’ practicalities in solving the case, and how he actually uses his mind in such ways to solve the case. “When he went to Devonshire his plans were, I believe, exceedingly hazy, but that he meant mischief from the first is evident from the way in which he took his wife with him in the character of his sister. The idea of using her as a decoy was clearly already in his mind, though he may not have been certain how the details of his plot were to be arranged.” This shows us that looking at the evidence of Stapleton’s sister actually being his wife, Holmes can draw the conclusion that Stapleton’s intentions were never decent and that he thought that somewhere along the line he could use her as a decoy in a plan to get Baskerville Hall. This is therefore showing us a small section of Holmes practicality and deduction skills by showing us he can put together a valid and relevant result using only minimal evidence.
The last two chapters show ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ to be in the ‘Classic British Detective’ genre by showing us Holmes’ predictions to be correct and the whole case, and even life of Sir Henry Baskerville are in Holmes’ hands, so if he was wrong the case would be lost and Sir Henry Baskerville likely to be killed. However Holmes is proven right, so to us showing his genius.
Watson’s character as the sidekick is shown immensely well in the second to last chapter, as he witnesses and tells of Holmes’ physical and mental superiority and Watson is shown as average compared to Holmes “Never have I seen a man run as Holmes did that night. I am reckoned fleet of foot, but he outpaced me as much as I outpaced the little professional.” “But in the next instant Holmes had emptied five barrels of his revolver into the creature’s flank.” These quotes show us that even though Watson is good physically and mentally quite sharp, more so even than ‘the little professional’ Lestrade, he is still incomparable to Holmes ‘but he outpaced me as much as I did the little professional’. This shows us that Watson is good mentally and physically and is no way mentally or physically challenged, but compared to Holmes he is inferior. This shows us that Watson plays a good sidekick to Holmes, making it further relevant in showing this book of the ‘Classic British Detective’ genre.
Another thing in the last two chapters shown to us proving the book to be within the ‘Classic British detective’ genre is that Holmes is an amateur detective shown to us by the presence of Lestrade, the actual police officer who is there to make an actual lawful arrest. “Are you armed Lestrade?’ The little detective smiled ‘As long as I have my trousers, I have a hip-pocket, and as long as I have a hip-pocket I have something in it”.
The last two chapters of the book have key factors evident in showing us that ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ is a ‘Classic British Detective’ novel.