Once in Devonshire, Watson discovers a state of emergency, with armed guards on the watch for an escaped convict roaming the moors. He meets potential suspects in and Mrs. Barrymore, the domestic help, and and his sister , Baskerville neighbours.
A series of mysteries arrive in rapid succession: Barrymore is caught skulking around the mansion at night; Watson spies a lonely figure keeping watch over the moors; and the doctor hears what sounds like a dog's howling. Beryl Stapleton provides an enigmatic warning and Watson learns of a secret encounter between Sir Charles and a local woman named on the night of his death.
Doing his best to unravel these threads of the mystery, Watson discovers that Barrymore's nightly jaunts are just his attempt to aid the escaped con, who turns out to be Mrs. Barrymore's brother. The doctor interviews Laura Lyons to assess her involvement, and discovers that the lonely figure surveying the moors is none other than Sherlock Holmes himself. It takes Holmes, hidden so as not to tip off the villain as to his involvement to piece together the mystery.
Mr. Stapleton, Holmes has discovered, is actually in line to inherit the Baskerville fortune, and as such is the prime suspect. Laura Lyons was only a pawn in Stapleton's game, a Baskerville beneficiary whom Stapleton convinced to request and then miss a late night appointment with Sir Charles. Having lured Charles onto the moors, Stapleton released his ferocious pet pooch, which frightened the superstitious nobleman and caused a heart attack.
In a dramatic final scene, Holmes and Watson use the younger Baskerville as bait to catch Stapleton red-handed. After a late supper at the Stapletons', Sir Henry heads home across the moors, only to be waylaid by the enormous Stapleton pet. Despite a dense fog, Holmes and Watson are able to subdue the beast, and Stapleton, in his panicked flight from the scene, drowns in a marshland on the moors. Beryl Stapleton, who turns out to be Jack's harried wife and not his sister, is discovered tied up in his house, having refused to participate in his dastardly scheme.
Back in London, Holmes ties up the loose ends, announcing that the stolen shoe was used to give the hound Henry's scent, and that mysterious warning note came from Beryl Stapleton, whose philandering husband had denied their marriage so as to seduce and use Laura Lyons. Watson files the case closed.
The relevance of when the story was written is that in the 1900s audiences wanted the good to triumph and the villain (bad guy’s) to lose because of the high crime rate in this era also it is very effective that it is set in 1900 and set in a moor as there would have been very poor lighting and transport in towns but in moors there wouldn’t b any at night also being that far away from a large population makes transport very hard (no where to run and even if u did you wouldn’t know where you where going). People in this era also believed in the supper natural and to have a beats/hound prophecy would have been very scary for readers
The narrator of this story is Dr Watson this is extremely relevant because Watson is almost like Holmes’s student all the way through the story we know this right at the beginning when Holmes says” well Watson, What do you make of it”, referring to the walking stink on page seven on line 13. it is like he his asking him like a teacher would almost also Watson then goes on to tell Holmes’s what he thinks of the walking stick and why the marks are in it, He thinks that Dr Watson must have, “done a great deal of walking with it”, but Holmes then goes to prove that Watson is wrong by proving that the stick marks where done by a dog “ carrying it behind its master,” This makes it very important that Watson tells the story because he really doesn’t know a lot and his powers of deduction are not as good as Holmes’s so if Holmes told the story he would figure things out very quick and we would know find out what happens much quicker because Holmes knows a lot more than Watson. (We only read what Watson Knows). This creates great fear and tension with the reader because it leaves them anticipating on what is going to happen because what Watson knows could be wrong like before and all they know is what he knows so tension builds up to what they will fined out..
Arthur Conan Doyle uses weather and setting very well to create fear and tension especially in chapter 6 (the train and coach journey)he begins the train stop very calm and gentle and not threatening “the train pulled up at a small wayside station, and we all descended”. Which shows it is very quaint and using the word small gives a sense of security u can’t get loosed. Also Watson Quotes “ it was a sweat country spot…Rolling pasture lands curved upwards on each side of us “ this gives an image with the reader of a very peaceful place and sweat the way the hills curve there not jagged or menacing giving the audience a very peaceful view of the moor so far. The journey then takes the reader deeper into the moor the weather and land then start to be in contrast to when they arrived it describes the moor to be, “mottled with gnarled craggy cairns”, Conan Doyle did this to express the viciousness of the moor but to also relate it to the dog in the way a dog gnarls at a stick (walking stick). The atmosphere of the journey to the moor and house changes dramatically on one filed of hills it is peaceful and pleasant and makes u feel secure and on the next there is “bronzing bracked”, and, “his heart full of malignancy,” This makes the readers fear more and more from when it was peaceful they had no fear and felt secure also this whole journey to the moor creates massive tension in the reader as they are anticipating what is it going to be like and then it hits them like a thunder bolt from peaceful to evil and horrible in almost the same line in some cases like “sprinkled with giant boulders”, sprinkled suggests alot but small like salt or hundreds and thousands but then in contrast “giant boulders”, takes the nice almost cute word into something to be feared. In chapter 14 Conan Doyle creates suspense and tension by when the fog comes in and blinds holms and Watson from seeing when sir Baskerville leaves Stapleton’s this creates massive fear as the audience don’t no what is happening and as well as it being so dark because of the lack of street lamps in the 1900 this also created tension because the audience at this point would have been almost on the edge’s of their seats and this fog blocking their view would create massive fear and tension.
Conan Doyle uses language in many ways to create fear and tension referring to chapter 6 he uses a lot of alliteration like “bronzing bracken”, with the repetition of the “b” sound gives it a very peaceful feeling it emphasises the bronzing of the trees (the colour). Another example of alliteration in contrast to the last is “craggy cairns”, the reason for alliteration here is to emphasise how jagged n horrible looking the rocks are but it can also refer to some readers when they read “cairns” that it is the dogs teeth canines which will build up fear even further. He also uses an oxymoron “his heart full of malignancy”, it is to show that his heart is almost diseased; a heart should not be full of malignancy he shows how the moor can change people and that it isn’t safe having a man out there is making it even worse to be there. In chapter 6 Conan uses a lot of peaceful and cute and nice language at the beginning to show the place as pleasant but then he uses language such as “the chilling wind swept”, to contrast what he just said and to make the reader feel really fearful and unconfined because they just read something really peaceful and great. In chapter 14 the language he use to create fear and tension is a lot of short sentences to emphasise the panic because of sir Baskerville is in the villains house and the anticipation when the detectives are watching it is almost like they are the audience they are one because they don’t know what is going to happen. He also uses an unusual connective “.but suddenly”, to show the changed to show that they are listen and watching almost like a dog getting distracted on what there saying watching for the slightest move. “his eyes shinning brightly in the moonlight”, he was stunned like the dead body at the begging when he said “The dog, frozen”, it is light a night mare also with this there is “sprung out upon us from the shadows of the fog”, which is like a nightmare to them and the audience because the supernatural has come true and at the end he uses short lines “more appalling, more hellish”, there linked to express the hound.
This story is about an air to an estate in danger of being killed by a mysterious hound that has haunted his family for years and the narrator of the story is kept oblivious to everything so that Conan Doyle can unravel his plot and story through Holmes but it is seen through Watson’s eyes and he doesn’t no anything about the full story as he is like a student to Holmes and he is out of the pisture for a lot of the time working it all out. I believe that this story is a master piece in terms of creating fear tension and anticipation. Arthur Conan Doyle uses many ways of creating it he uses every language type and every different language structure to make it as expressive as he can and to get the reader wanting more and more.
