The Hound Of Baskervilles: A Character Analysis

Throughout the book, The Hound of Baskervilles, there is a character that even though it is not alive its role is as great as that of any other character. This character is none other than the moor. The moor plays an enormous role in the story on both sides of good and evil but in the end the moor comes out in the favor of good, but thats for later. First off by definition a moor is “a tract of open, peaty, wasteland, often overgrown with heath, common in high latitudes and altitudes where drainage is poor”. The moor from Hound of Baskervilles takes on the attributes of a normal moor but also takes on a mysterious and haunted aspect. Watson give us the mood the moor gives off in his first letter to Sherlock Holmes by saying “The longer one …show more content…
Sherlock uses the Moor as a hide out to further conduct his investigation of the murder of Sir Charles and the plan to attack and kill Sir Henry. I consider the Moor an active character because the characters treat it as if it were a character just like them. Many of the characters fear the moor because of the hell hound that is living within the moor, but also because of the eeriness and fearfulness of what lies within. Some characters even use the moor to there advantage just like Sherlock Holmes did which I said earlier. Another character that uses the moor is Mr Stapleton. Mr Stapleton leads people to believe that Mrs Stapleton is his sister but in reality she is his wife. In the end of the book we learn who is really behind the hound that has been terrorizing the Baskervilles and it is none other than Mr. Stapleton. We discover that his reasoning to the death of the Baskervilles is because he is distant relative who is next in line to receive the great riches of the Baskervilles. Mr Stapleton knows of Sir Charles’ heart condition so he comes up with the plan to use the legend of the hound to scare Sir Charles into heart failure. His next target is now Sir Henry the last person standing between him and the great wealth. He comes up with a plan to get Sir Henry to meet with He and Mrs. Stapleton for dinner and on Sir …show more content…
As I thought about it more and more it started to symbolize all the things in life that people fear because of the unknown or what may lie within the unknown. The fear of the moor to the characters goes hand in hand with the fears people face today. Fear can be a used as a detrimental thing to a persons life just like how it was used in the plan to kill Sir Charles to get what Mr Stapleton wanted. Fear its self can be a negative thing but a person can use fear as a stepping stone to success. Sherlock knew Mr Stapleton was going to use the fear of the moor in a negative way so he counteracted Stapleton’s plan to save Sir Henry and also catch Mr Stapleton red handed to put the fear to rest. The moor as if it were a living, breathing thing, took upon its own self to take care of Mr Stapleton, who was using to aspect of fear to control everyone and kill of the Baskervilles, by swallowing him up. Now with the beast put to death and Mr Stapleton gone every one of Devonshire can rest peacefully at night knowing that the moor isn't that scary after all and that Mr Stapleton isn't out trying to kill off anyone