Similarities Between The Hound Of The Baskervilles Book And Movie

Old school Vs New school

A novel based off of a 19th century mass murderer and a movie with a 21st century twist. The book written in 1901 was about the mass murderer Jack the Ripper. The movie was a 21st century remake of the novel. The novel The Hound of the Baskervilles written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the movie The Hound of the Baskervilles directed by David Attwood are comparable in three aspects. The characters in the movie and the book, the scenes, and the plot structure have many similarities and differences.

First, the characters in the book are very different then in the movie. Cartwright, a main character in the novel was not mentioned in the movie. Cartwright helped Holmes, but is spotted, which was a very important part of the discovery of Holmes on the moor (Doyle, 173). In the movie, Dr. Watson never spotted Holmes on the moor, but did see Cartwright on a hill on the moor, which prompted him to search for Holmes. Another character that was in the book but was not present in the movie was the character, Frankland. He was also important in the discovery of Sherlock Holmes on the moor.

Frankland was the person who spotted Holmes’ helper, Cartwright, on the moor. Also, in the movie, the character of Mr. Barrymore is a short and small man. This brings less attention to his character. He is the opposite in the book however. Laura Lyons, the lady who had an affair with Sir Charles Baskerville was a main character in the book. The discussion Watson had with Laura Lyons (160-168) led to the meeting of Watson and Frankland. These scenes were not present in the movie, along with the characters in them.

Next, the Christmas party was very important in the movie. It introduces Mr. Stapleton as a crazy man who abuses his wife and adds on to to the fact that Sir Henry Baskerville admires Mrs. Stapleton. The movie creators did this as a way to limit and even cut out other scenes by adding more power to this scene. However, this scene was not present in the novel.. Another scene that was very different from the movie in the novel was the scene involving the investigation of the cab driver. In the novel, Holmes and Watson go to investigate the cab. They arrive and tell the workers to send the cab driver to there home. The cab driver was not present during this scene though. In the movie, Watson left for the moor before the investigation occured. Only Holmes whent to investigate the cab but was approached by the cab driver. They began to fight and Holmes came out victorious. David Attwood designed his scene like this to add drama and action to the movie. In a book, there are hundreds of pages to express what is occurring but, in a movie, there is 1-3 hours. This inherently makes movies more action packed.

Lastly, the plot structure in the movie and the book have many similarities and differences.

In the movie, the main characters are, for the most part, the same, with the same mystery and the same climax, but the way the plot panned out is very different. In the resolution of the movie, the killer, Mr. Stapleton died from drowning in the Grimpen Mire on the moor (228-229), but the movie panned out very differently. In the movie, Stapleton and Sherlock get into a fight then Sherlock falls in the muck. As Stapleton is about to shoot Sherlock, Watson saves the day. Watson shot Stapleton in the movie which was the resolution, but this did not happen in the novel. The ending of the novel takes up multiple chapters, but the movie has only a few minutes. The directors, because of this, came to the idea that the movie should end quicker but in a more action packed

way.
In summary, The Movie and the novel version of The Hound of the Baskervilles are similar in the basics, but have differences in the scenes that take place, the characters that appear, and the way the plot occurs. The scenes in the movie are shorter and more action packed because the movie is not as long but has to keep the viewers attention. The characters are lesser in the movie to highlight the main characters and, finally, the plot structure in the movie is shorter with the climax coming quicker than the novel.

Work Cited

Doyle, Arthur Conan, The Hound of the Baskervilles, New York, NY; Aladdin Paperbacks, 2000,
Print

The Hound of the Baskervilles, Attwood, David. BBC, 2002. Movie