Course Blog

‘Why do you hesitate?’
‘There is a realm in which the most acute and most experienced of detectives is helpless.’
‘You mean that the thing is supernatural?’
‘I did not positively say so.’
‘No, but you evidently think it.’
‘Since the tragedy, Mr Holmes, there have come to my ears several incidents which are hard to reconcile with the settled order of Nature.’ (Doyle 24)

I found this paragraph interesting because it seems to suggest one of the significant issues of the novel-the tension between form and matter. At first sight, it feels strange to discover the most supernatural kind of narrative-myth that is passed down along certain lineage-from the most reasonable kind of narrative, detective novel. However, it can provide the readers with interesting hypothesis that even in the time of rationality, certain superstitions were still needed to calm people’s anxiety about fast changing society and its instability. No matter how social/economic progress has positive impact on the crowd, as long as progress itself is a form of change, instability is inevitable in the process. So there existed some temporal gap between people’s spiritual life and the real life.

I also contend that the text may bear some other implications depending on one component that finally beats the other. Although the two contrasting components leads readers to go along the plot of same mystery, for the story to come to its end only one component survive to culminate the novel. As detective novel is a product benefiting from the modernity itself, I would make a guess that the novel will finally end in supporting science and reasoning, the values that Sherlock Holmes symbolizes through his whole character.

Both The Hound of the Baskervilles and Wuthering Heights have elements of the gothic. One motif that both novels have in common is the role that houses have on its characters.  Baskerville Hall presents a foreboding setting for its inhabitants, as Baskerville “looked up the long, dark drive to where the house glimmered like a ghost at the farther end. . . a window or a coat-of-arms broke through the dark veil [of the ivy].  From this central block rose the twin towers, ancient, crenelated, and pierced with many loopholes. . .” (Doyle, 58).  This description of Baskerville Hall suggests that it is almost otherworldly.  Comparing the Hall to a “ghost” suggests that the evils that happened behind its walls are omnipresent.  The actions of Hugo Baskerville cast a shadow on the Baskerville family that is extended to the appearance, mood, and atmosphere of the house itself.  The house’s past weighs heavily upon the characters in the present.  Although in a modern age, the house is described as though it has not changed for hundreds of years.  Despite the fact that the kind, and charismatic Charles Baskerville once lived there, its setting appears more fitting for the likes of Hugo.

In Wuthering Heights, as in The Hound of the Baskervilles, the mansion has a palpable effect on the characters of the novel.  First of all, the name of the mansion is “Wuthering Heights.”  “Wuthering” is an adjective for the weather found at the manor; it is dark, unwelcoming, harsh, and windy, much like the personality of the foreboding Heathcliff, whose personality closely mirrors that of Hugo Baskerville (both Hugo and Heathcliff kidnap women and keep them in their manors as prisoner).  In both novels mansions serves as a reminder of past atrocities.  Figuratively and literally the manor is stuck in the past.  “Before passing the threshold, I paused to admire the grotesque carving lavished over the front, and especially about the principal door; above which, among a wilderness of crumbling griffins and shameless little boys, I detected the date ‘1500’” (Bronte, 2).  Here, the sense of decay in the manor is evident with “crumbling” ornaments and the fact that it was built in “1500.”  Likewise, in The Hound of the Baskervilles, Baskerville Hall is described as “ancient,” so much so that Henry’s first thought is to install electric lighting (bringing modernity to a building that is evidently stuck in the past).  In Gothic literature, houses can be as much of a character as the actual humans in the novel.  In Wuthering Heights the crumbling manor represents the wicked heart and depressing history of Heathcliff, while in The Hound of the Baskervilles, Baskerville Hall remains a stark reminder of the immoral past of the Baskerville family.

The  Hound of the Baskervilles contains many similarities to Lady Audley’s Secret. Many of the tropes we discovered in Lady Audley’s Secret appear in the novel.  In both novels we have crimes of passion, murder, there is familial ties which we see with both the Audley’s and the Baskervilles, there is excitement as the mystery unravels, there is a subtle power structure and place and time are also important factors. While there are few similarities between the novels, there is one key difference that presents itself from the start of the novel.

Lady Audley’s Secret was not a Gothic novel because it was missing some elements, one key element it was missing was the supernatural.  From the very beginning of the novel we are introduced to the supernatural with the character of Hugo Baskerville. Hugo unlike Lady Audley is immediately characterized as the evil, godless, wild and profane individual. There is moment in the manuscript where after Hugo discovered that the maiden he had kidnapped fled, he told his company that he would “render his soul and body to the  Powers of Evil if he might overtake the wench” (14). This is unlike Lady Audley’s Secret, in that novel evil took shape in human form. There was no great evil power, the evil in Lady Audley’s Secret was Lady Audley. She was the evil that people had to fear. That is not the case in this novel.

We see that the supernatural will be a very important trope in this novel because our murderer is a an evil creature.

“There in the centre lay the unhappy maid where she had fallen, dead of fear and of fatigue. But it was not the sight of her body, nor yet was it that of the body of Hugo Baskerville lying near her, which raised the hair upon the heads of these three dare-devil roisterers, but it was that standing over Hugo, and plucking at his throat, their stood a foul thing, a great, black beast, shaped like a hound yet larger than any hound that ever mortal eye has rested upon” (15).

Just when you were starting to believe that Hugo was the evil in our novel, we discover that there is creature more sinister than him. A creature that you might side with for he murdered a man who was trying to harm an innocent woman. It is interesting that the author would paint Hugo in a despicable light and then have him killed by something else despicable. Thus, causing the audience to wonder is Hugo a character worth sympathizing with or did the beast do the world a favor.

“The fresh beauty of the following morning did something to efface from our minds the grim and grey impression which has been left upon both of us by our first experience at Baskerville Hall. As Sir Henry and I sat at breakfast the sunlight flooded in through the high mullions windows, throwing watery patches of color form the coats-of-arms which covered them. The dark panelling glowered like bronze in the golden rays, and it was hard to realize that this was indeed the chamber which has struck such a gloom into our souls upon the evening before.” (Doyle 62).

When comparing the text of The Hound of the Baskervilles with that of Lady Audley’s Secret through a lens of theme and night/day language, I notice similarities between their depictions of night versus day.  In the night, the atmosphere surrounding the country estate carries a scary, secretive, and murderous vibe. But as the daily cycle continues and the sun rises, a happy vibe accompanies its return.  In Lady Audley’s Secret, darkness and night time cast a shadow over the mysterious Lady Audley’s hidden secrets. But as daytime returns, Lady Audley appears to be a frivolous and happy woman. In The Hound of the Baskervilles, as Watson and Sir Henry approach Baskerville Hall in the night time in the “dark against the evening sky,” they sense a dark and evil atmosphere (Doyle 61). Sir Henry hopes that “things may seem more cheerful in the morning,” just as Lady Audley appears more cheerful in the daytime, but ultimately is the same person in day and night.

A difference between these two texts include the secrets which characters are hiding. Even before we read the first page of Lady Audley’s Secret, we can infer that Lady Audley has a secret from the title.  But in The Hound of the Baskervilles, we know that there are secrets being hidden but we don’t know who is withholding what information. I have suspicions about Dr. Mortimer, who was present the night of Sir Charles’ death.  

“I will not bias your mind by suggesting theories or suspicions, Watson… I wish you simply to report facts in the fullest possible manner to me, and you can leave me to do the theorizing.” (pg. 53)

The Hounds of the Baskervilles and Lady Audley’s Secret are both starkly different novels. For instance, there is a significantly less amount of women in the previous. However, both novels do have a strikingly similar thing in common: when reading the Hounds of the Baskervilles though a lends of Lady Audley’s Secret, one is able to see a dominant homosocial power exerted in both novels.

In Lady Audley’s Secret, there is a significant homosocial relationsip between George Talboys and Robert Audley. While at a surface’s glance Robert and George seem to be on an equal status, there is evidence throughout the novel that proves that their homosocial relationship is slightly unbalanced. Even though Robert has his own setbacks, he is seen as a parental figure to George, whether it is longing to care for him again or constantly being on the lookout to make sure he is okay.

While there is no sexual power present between Holmes and Watson, there is defenitely a homosocial relationship where Holmes is slightly more autoriative. While both rely on each other heavily, Holmes still tends to be slighltly more condescending towards Watson. Holmes is able to work with Watson as long as Watson does not crack the case himself; that is why Holmes tells Watson to only report the bare facts and nothing else. Earlier in the passage, it mentions that Holmes is almost “parenting” Watson, as if Watson is still learning from Holmes. It is mentioned earlier in the passage that Holmes said this to Watson as some “parental advice”, almost as if Watson is being trained, or “raised” by Holmes.

In conclusion, when looking at Hound of the Baskervilles through the lens of Lady Audley’s Secret, there are some strinking similarities that can be pulled from the two novels.

“But behind the peaceful and sunlit countryside there rose ever, dark against the evening sky, the long, gloomy curve of the moor, broken by the jagged and sinister hills”(56).

The settings of Audley Court and Baskerville Hall are interestingly similar, despite the text being very different. The main similarity is that both residences are isolated in some manner, which makes sense considering the gothic trope of isolation. Audley Court however, is isolated in an arguably more deceptive way. The lack of linear time certainly separates it from the outside world, as well as the fact that it is physically out of the way. The court itself,though, operates normally and seems to blend well with the town of Essex. Baskerville Hall,however, is very different in its isolation. It is physically isolated which can be seen in the quote with the juxtaposition of the moor and the surrounding area. The “peaceful” and “sunlit” countryside is juxtaposed with the “gloomy” moor and “dark” sky. There is nothing deceptive about the moor. Its quality as “sinister” is explicitly stated by Watson, and not implicitly inferred like that by the narrator of Lady Audley’s Secret. There is clearly a physical barrier to the countryside in Devonshire and that is the moor, for its peace is “broken” by the “jagged hills”.

In Lady Audley’s Secret there was very much an element of terror from the deception of Lady Audley. She is even compared to a siren several times in the text and she is so frightening because  she looks innocent and harmless but is in fact the opposite. Even though there is a potential for this in The Hound of the Baskervilles based on the escaped convict and Barrymore, I don’t expect the evil to be rooted in the inside because of the potent description of the evil coming from the outside, or the moor, for it is “gloomy,” and “sinister.”

“I hereby commend you, and I counsel you by way of caution to forbear from crossing the moor in those dark hours when the powers of evil are exalted.”  (Doyle, 16)

So far in my reading of The Hound of the Baskervilles, I have come across the Gothic trope of the uncanny.  From the very beginning of the novel, Doyle made the reader aware of some supernatural powers lurking in the plot which has already caught my attention.  When viewed through this Gothic lens, I already see many parallel’s in the text between The Hound of the Baskervilles and Lady Audley’s Secret.  However, one that really stood out to me is how both novels introduced early on a sort of sacred space that is mentioned to make the reader uneasy.  At the very end of the manuscript read by Dr. Mortimer in chapter two, it is mentioned that no member of the Baskerville family shall cross the moor after dark.  This poses many questions to the reader.  What lies beyond the moor?  What shall happen if one crosses the moor gate?  I think this introduction to such a space is a foreshadowing moment that maybe some of the answers are found there.  It leaves the reader with many questions but also seems to set the scene for this underlying supernatural theme the author plans to delve into further in the novel.

This parallels Lady Audley’s Secret because in the very first chapter of the novel, the narrator speaks of a lime-tree walk, “an avenue so shaded from the sun and sky, so screened from observation by the thick shelter of the over-arching trees, that it seemed a chosen place fro secret meetings or for stolen interviews; a place in which a conspiracy might have been planned or a lover’s vow registered with equal safety; and yet it was scarcely twenty paces from the house” (Braddon, 9).  Both the moor from The Hound of the Baskervilles and the lime-tree walk introduce the reader to this mysterious place not far from the main setting of each novel and as we find out later in Lady Audley’s Secret, the walk is where the reader finds the answers to the main mystery.  Which makes one wonder, what will Holmes and Watson find lying beyond the gates of the moor?

When looking at The Hound of Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle through the lenses of Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Braddon, how young men in the aristocracy can be naïve and somewhat prideful. In both novels appear young aristocratic male characters who are the last living male heirs to their family’s estate who have been thrown into a mystery surrounding the well-being of their family. In The Hound of Baskerville Sir Henry Baskerville says, “Whichever it is, my answer is fixed. There is no devil in hell, Mr. Holmes, and there is no man upon earth who could can prevent me from my final answer.’ His dark brows kitted and his face blushed to a dusky red as he spoke” (Doyle 38). Henry does not listen to Sherlock’s or Dr. Mortimer’s advice. He assumes that he knows more than both the men even though they are more educated and older than he is. Henry does not like the idea of someone telling him what to do or having any sort of control over him, hence he does not care if there might be a threat of danger to him. Henry’s reaction to Sherlock’s warning reveals how he is not only ignorant of the situation, but that he is prideful that he cannot imagine being at the will of someone else.

This depiction of the aristocracy also appears in Lady Audley’s Secret, “He [Robert] was a handsome, lazy, care-for-nothing fellow, of about seven-and-twenty; the only son of a younger brother of Sir Michael Audley” (Braddon 35). Like Henry, Robert is also an ignorant and entitled person. He does not work very hard and it is seen many times in the novel that he is not a particularly smart person. These two men together represent how the aristocracy is not as amazing as sometimes imagined.

It is interesting to compare Watson as a narrator of “The Hound of the Baskervilles” with the unknown narrator of “Lady Audley’s Secret”. Watson plays a much more active role as both a narrator and as a character, whereas the narrator in “Lady Audley’s Secret” was only there to observe the other characters. “Holmes laid his hand upon my arm. ‘If my friend would undertake it there is no man who is better worth having at your side when you are in a tight place. No one can say so more confidently than I.’” (pg. 48) from “The Hound of the Baskervilles” compared to just an omnipresent rendition of the events as in “Lady Audley’s Secret”. Watson will also be doing his best to be an accurate narrator because he has been sent on a mission for Holmes, so the reader will be able to observe the plot with a narrator that is paying close attention to everything around him. The reader gets detailed descriptions of the landscape and analyses of the other characters as Watson writes and reports back to Holmes. The narrator of “Lady Audley’s Secret” had no part in the action of the book, and also did not seem to follow one character in particular, and in “The Hound of the Baskervilles”, Watson almost revolves around his interactions with Holmes. On page 27, Watson skipped over most of his day because it was not spent with Holmes: “I therefore spent the day at my club, and did not return to Baker Street until evening. It was nearly nine o’clock when I found myself in the sitting-room once more.” It is only once Watson is distanced by more than a few miles from Holmes that the reader is given a more detailed description of what Watson is doing away from Holmes.