Gothic Tropes in The Hound of the Baskervilles

I have written before about how detective fiction (and the mystery genre more broadly) emerged out of the Gothic. I even touched briefly on this particular book. But today I want to give a much more in-depth examination of the Gothic elements in Arthur Conan Doyle’s celebrated Sherlock Holmes novel The Hound of the Baskervilles, first published in serialized form in 1901–2. 

While you can see some Gothic influence in many of Doyle’s works, The Hound of the Baskervilles in particular engages in a narrative strategy that was especially popular in the early days of mystery fiction and continues to be used today: the story is initially set up as though it is a Gothic tale of supernatural terrors, only for the detective to come through at the end with a rational explanation that debunks the supernatural interpretation of events. You can see this technique used in the works of other classic mystery writers like John Dickson Carr in The Red Widow Murders and Hake Talbot in Rim of the Pit. In this case, Arthur Conan Doyle uses setting and plot tropes associated with the Gothic to lay the foundations for a supernatural horror tale before having Sherlock Holmes overturn this impression at the end of the novel.

Much of the action of The Hound of the Baskervilles takes place out on the moors, a landscape typical of the English Gothic. Specifically, Baskerville Hall is located in Dartmoor, a real region located in southwest England. In the novel, the moors are considered a place of danger—both natural and supernatural—in the eyes of the locals. Nonetheless, the characters frequently find themselves out walking on the moors, whether as the most practical way to travel between the handful of scattered homes on social calls or as a means to get exercise and fresh air, meet clandestinely with others, or enjoy and study the natural world. On the supernatural side, the moor is thought to be the domain of the legendary hell hound that haunts the Baskerville family. Sir Charles Baskerville took seriously the warning passed down in his family “to forbear from crossing the moor in those dark hours when the powers of evil are exalted,” yet he was frightened to death one night while waiting by the gate that led out onto the moor. Then his heir, Sir Henry Baskerville, receives a threatening note that cautions: “As you value your life or your reason keep away from the moor.” Of course at the end of the novel, the infernal hound is revealed to be a story used to mask the very real danger of a murderous relative and the mortal yet aggressive dog that he keeps starved and poised to attack. The moor also hosts other genuine dangers, such as the treacherous ground of the great Grimpen Mire and the violent convict who has escaped from prison and found freedom in the desolate countryside.

The other main setting of the novel is the Baskverville ancestral home, which has housed the family for half a millennium. The structure of the hall is fittingly castle-like, with two tall, crenelated towers studded with medieval-style loophole windows. Like many ancestral homes in Gothic literature, it contains a hodge-podge of architectural styles from different eras, with more modern wings made of black granite recently added on. Parts of the estate have fallen into disrepair, reflecting the fallen grandeur of the family, but the new money brought in by Charles before his death has begun restoring some of its majesty. Sir Henry Baskerville, who has spent most of his life in Canada, is suitably impressed with his new abode, calling it “the very picture of an old family home.” Though Henry takes great pride in the house’s history and the artifacts left behind by his ancestors, many of its rooms can appear quite shadowed and gloomy at night, especially the old-fashioned dining room which houses the requisite portrait gallery of the estate’s previous lords. As a general rule, when you encounter a portrait gallery in a Gothic novel, you can bet that someone’s eerie resemblance to an ancient ancestor is going to play a role in the story. Baskerville Hall also comes complete with a suspicious butler and his housekeeper wife, who are clearly concealing secrets of their own.

Sir Henry quickly learns that along with a classically Gothic ancestral home, he has also apparently inherited the Gothic plot trope of a family curse. According to the written legend passed down through his family, a cruel ancestor named Hugo Baskerville entered into a Faustian bargain in a moment of alcohol-fueled rage when he learned that the bride he just kidnapped had escaped and fled out onto the moors. Hugo swore that he would “render his body and soul to the Powers of Evil if he might but overtake the wench.” Sure enough, his plea summons an infernal hound to aid in the chase, though he does not live long to appreciate his victory. Hugo’s bargain comes with hidden terms: not only does he suffer from his rash oath, but so do his descendants who are forever in danger from the immortal hound that now resides on the site of that fateful chase. Of course, the true danger to Sir Henry is eventually revealed to be a more mundane yet equally common Gothic plot trope: a contested inheritance. 

If you’re a lover of both mysteries and the Gothic, The Hound of the Baskervilles is the perfect book to read to see how these two genres intersect. What other classic works with Gothic elements would you like to see me dissect? Let me know in the comments!