366 Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan
by Hugo Baskerville continues to affect the lives
of the current generations, reaching far beyond its
original victims.
The story of the hound’s origins reveals the
contagious nature of man’s cruelty. Hugo Basker-
ville, well known for his “wanton and cruel humor,”
had convinced five or six of his compatriots to join
him in the abduction of a young maiden who had
spurned his advances. When the maiden escaped
from her prison, a drunken guest at Hugo’s depraved
party suggested releasing the hounds on her. Con-
fused by wine and a mob mentality, the dinner
guests stood idly by while the hounds were released,
and the maiden’s fate was sealed. Although some of
the guests eventually sobered up enough to realize
the horror of their complicity and set out in pursuit
of the maiden, it was too late: Both she and Hugo
were dead by the jaws of the Hound of the Basker-
villes, born of the cruelty not just of Hugo but of his
willing accomplices.
The infectious nature of cruelty can also be
seen in Miss Stapleton’s inevitable collapse under
the strain of her husband Rodger Baskerville’s evil
deeds. In the guise of the naturalist Jack Stapleton,
Baskerville has forced his wife to pretend to be his
sister, in order to better use her in his cruel scheme.
Although Mrs. Baskerville “had some inkling of
his plans,” she can take only minimal steps to warn
Sir Henry because of her great fear of her husband.
Even more tragically, Mrs. Baskerville has become
immune to the abuse she has suffered. When she
is discovered bound to a beam and lashed by her
husband, Mrs. Baskerville cries that her husband’s
abuse is insignificant; it is only the loss of his love
that matters to her: “But this is nothing—nothing!
It is my mind and soul that he has tortured and
defiled. I could endure it all, ill-usage, solitude, a life
of deception, everything, as long as I could still cling
to the hope that I had his love.” Mrs. Baskerville’s
response to Stapleton’s cruelty has been a need to
cling more tightly to him and to turn a blind eye to
his evil deeds against others.
Mrs. Baskerville’s corruption does not end with
her admission of her continued love for her husband.
When he is lost and presumed dead in the Grimpen
Mire, Mrs. Baskerville “laughed and clapped her
hands. Her eyes and teeth gleamed with fierce mer-
riment.” Her only regret is that she has not been
more involved in the events leading to his death. The
“eagerness and joy” Mrs. Baskerville displays as she,
Sherlock Holmes, and Dr. Watson follow Stapleton’s
trail to its dead end makes clear to Watson “the hor-
ror” and infectious nature of Stapleton’s cruelty.
In Watson’s reaction to Selden, the Notting
Hill murderer, the reader sees an alternate response
to cruelty. Selden’s murders were marked by their
“peculiar ferocity,” which resulted in the commuta-
tion of his death sentence due to doubts about his
sanity. Mrs. Barrymore, Selden’s brother, remembers
another side to Selden; she sees him not as the crim-
inal he became but as “the little curly-headed boy” of
her childhood. Mrs. Barrymore’s memory is hard to
reconcile with the “terrible animal face” with which
Watson is confronted, but it suggests that humanity
lies behind the face of even the cruelest of criminals.
When Selden is mistaken for Sir Henry and
chased to his death by the hound, Watson and
Holmes initially respond with a glee similar to that
of Mrs. Baskerville upon realizing her husband was
dead. Holmes dances and laughs upon discovering
that the body he has assumed to be Sir Henry’s has
the “beetling forehead, the sunken animal eyes” of the
criminal Selden, and Watson’s immediate response
is “thankfulness and joy.” However, Holmes refuses
to leave “the poor wretch’s body” to the elements,
and Watson recognizes that the death is still tragic.
In breaking the news of Selden’s death to his sister,
Watson again demonstrates that despite his cruelty
and violence, Selden’s death is worthy of pity.
Cruelty is rampant in the cursed moors of
Devonshire, from Stapleton’s treatment of Laura
Lyons to his savage abuse of the hound. Doyle
demonstrates that such cruelty has the ability to
contaminate all those in its path, but his sympathetic
treatment of Selden also suggests that even the most
cruel of humans is ultimately worthy of human
compassion.
Kelly ConnellyFate in The Hound of the Baskervilles
The Hound of the Baskervilles, like most traditional
detective stories, explores man’s ability to control his
fate through the use of scientific investigation and
reasoned analysis. The detective, in this case Sher-