The Hound Of The Baskervilles Analysis

Tediously, people take appearances at face value; mistaking salt for sugar. In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles, Doyle delineates on the theme of ‘appearances can be deceiving’ by pursuing the idea that people should investigate people and their relationships before coming to their final conclusions about them. This is demonstrated in The Hound of the Baskervilles when Doyle shows how people can use other people to deceive people, people can manipulate others with sheer charm, and that people can easily lie about themselves. All of these concepts apply to the great antagonist of The Hound of the Baskervilles… Stapleton.

Firstly, Doyle supports that people should investigate people and their relationships before coming to their final conclusions about them by showing how people can use other people to deceive people. This is demonstrated when he writes, “‘...he took his wife with him in the character of his sister...The idea

In this excerpt, Dr. Watson marvels over Holmes’ discovery of Stapleton’s disguised face in a Baskerville portrait. He was truly a Baskerville, which explained his motivation for everything that he did. Stapleton had lied about his ancestry, to turn questioning eyes away from him and unto other… more vulnerable… suspects such as Selden the convict. A few manuscripted or vocalized words and BAM! Someone can deceive a whole population, just as Stapleton did. Doyle also explores this concept when he writes “‘...in the character of his sister’” (225). Holmes talks in retrospection once more, this time about how Stapleton forced his wife to acquire the title of his sister, so that he could perhaps use her (just as he did) to gain trust with Sir Henry. Moreover, he once again lied and successfully deceived a population about (in this instance) his marital