Elizabeth Hamonko



Elizabeth Hamonko

Mr. Conrad

Junior College Prep English, Period 2

17 March 2014

Elementary, My Dear Doyle

Although the words were never actually uttered by Sherlock Holmes, the phrase “Elementary, my dear Watson,” has been stuck in minds since Arthur Conan Doyle first wrote about the famous detective. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, widely known for his stories about the great detective Sherlock Holmes, was born into poverty in Edinburg, Scotland on May 22, 1859. Doyle’s early life and later experiences with his medical career and religion helped influence stories centered around his most famous series and detective, Sherlock Holmes, along with Holmes’ best friend, John Watson. His early interest in Edgar Allen Poe’s style of Gothicism also helped mold his writing style later in life. Living in England and Scotland and serving in the Boer War, his life was filled with influences that later affected Holmes’ biggest adventure, The Hound of the Baskervilles. Of all of Arthur Conan Doyle’s influences, his three biggest ones are his love of Edgar Allen Poe’s works, his adventures as a doctor, and his belief in spiritualism.

As a young child, Arthur Conan Doyle was an avid reader of the most popular books of the time, especially adventure and gothic novels (“Arthur,” British Writers 161). Poe’s works were among the most famous and influential of Doyle’s writing. Gothicism, the main style of Poe’s writing, which intertwined elements of romance and horror, was just starting to reach its height in Victorian England in cheap books and magazines. In fact, Poe’s detective character C. Auguste Dupin was thought to be part of the inspiration for Doyle’s own mystery hero, Sherlock Holmes (“The Hound” 120, 130). Attending a Jesuit school in England which he despised, his short visits home led him to the discovery of Poe’s short stories, which influenced his love of the macabre (“Arthur,” Notable British 266-267). However, even more noteworthy is the fact that Doyle modified some of Poe’s early ideas, like long psychological explanations, and emphasized another idea Poe had only briefly touched on, which was arriving to a conclusion using only small pieces of evidence. He also took Poe’s idea of using the narrating character as a sort of cipher to show how intelligent the main character (in this case, either Holmes or Dupin) is in comparison to them (Sayers 219). Although Doyle may not have mimicked every detail of Poe’s style, he used Poe’s writing style as a base to explore his own, which helped shape his literature. It was his early childhood love of Poe’s stories that influenced his interesting and equally creepy Sherlock Holmes mysteries and settings.

In The Hound of the Baskervilles, there are many instances of supernatural settings and Poe's touch of the macabre detective style. Upon first entering the Hall of the Baskervilles, Watson remarks about the “high, thin window of old stained glass, the oak paneling, the stags’ heads, the coat-of-arms upon the walls, all dim and somber in the subdued light of the central lamp” (Doyle 91). Doyle shows Poe’s style of dark humor when Holmes, continuing to be unperturbed, remarks that an evil magic upon the family could work as well far away from the house as close to it (Doyle 39). Additionally, Baskerville Hall is described as a maze of wrought iron, and Doyle goes on to describe the trees, the long drive connecting to the house, the pillars and lichens, and high chimneys, all indicative of the dark settings Poe is known for including in his writing (Doyle 89). Not only has Poe had a great impact on Doyle and The Hound of the Baskervilles, but so have other people, like the men he met while working as a doctor.

Doyle’s career as a doctor in the Boer War and on the sea also influenced his life very significantly. In Novels for Students, it is said that one of Doyle’s teachers in medical school, Dr. Joseph Bell, was a great influence for Holmes’ ability to make intelligent assumptions about people by only looking at them (120). Doyle’s first voyage across the sea was on the Hope, an Arctic fishing boat (“Arthur,” Notable British 267). As a ship’s surgeon, Doyle once heard a tale from Fletcher Robinson, a friend of his, about an evil dog that haunted the densely foggy moors of Devonshire (“The Hound” 131). Nevertheless, his career as a doctor never fully came to fruition and he eventually started writing. As the Boer War broke out, Doyle enlisted as a surgeon, and after he returned, he published The Hound of the Baskervilles (“Arthur,” British Writers 161).

Robinson's description had an incredible effect on Doyle's hound of the Baskervilles, the beast around which Doyle centered the novel. In The Hound of the Baskervilles, the mysterious beast that haunts the inhabitants of the house near the moor is described as such:

A hound, it was, an enormous coal-black hound, but not such a hound as mortal eyes have ever seen. Fire burst from its open mouth, its eyes glowed with a smoldering glare, its muzzle and hackles and dewlap were outlined in flickering flame. Never in the delirious dream of a disordered brain could anything more savage, more appalling, more hellish be conceived . . . . (Doyle 229)

In the first printing’s description, Doyle credited the idea for a menacing dog in a moor in Hound to Robinson’s eerie story and his description on an evil dog haunting a nearby moor (“The Hound” 131). Additionally, Holmes also demonstrates his ability to instantaneously make educated guesses about people in The Hound of the Baskervilles. After finding a walking stick outside their apartment, Watson and Holmes make some guesses as to who it belongs to and what this person’s hobbies, physical appearance, and lifestyle are like. Holmes correctly infers the name of the man, and the fact he owns a dog (Doyle 12-13). If not for Doyle’s medical career and the people he met because of it, perhaps his longest novel would never have been written. However, even his incredible career could not begin to compete with the influence spiritualism had over his last few years.

In the last part of Doyle’s life, spiritualism greatly influenced his lifestyle and what little writings he did publish. After the death of his son and brother in 1918 to 1919, he focused on communicating with them, which was a large part of spiritualism. He went on tours advocating this idea, and spent a great deal of his wealth doing so (“Arthur,” British Writers 162). Sadly, Doyle passed away on July 7, 1930. Many elements of the Holmes stories come from the idea of rationalist thinking versus spiritualist, or sentimentalist, thinking (“Arthur,” British Writers 162). Doyle was not afraid to write psychologically surprising stories, which he often had to tone down in order for the editors to let him publish his stories (Pearson 221). The use of both the supernatural and realistic explanations for the mysteries of The Hound of the Baskervilles (which was written after the Boer War, in the later part of Doyle’s life) was bound to have been influenced by his practice of spiritualism.

The competing rationalist and spiritualist sides of Doyle's writing were clearly seen in Hound, not only because of the setting and mystery, but also because of the views expressed by Holmes himself. After being told that many believed Charles Baskerville's death was due to a spectral hound that haunted the family, Holmes replied that they should "exhaust all other hypotheses before falling back upon this one" (Doyle 44). However, Holmes later expressed concern for Watson’s safety when Watson was preparing to leave, stating that he was not easy in his mind about it (Doyle 79-80). Mr. Stapleton also denied the existence of any hound by explaining the noises heard in the moor were simply sounds from a bog, even after Watson questioned him (Doyle 107). Even Watson was constantly second guessing himself, and had conflicting views on whether the dog was a vicious beast out for blood or just a sheepdog in the moor (Doyle 122). These characters’ viewpoints illustrate the struggle between rational ideas and spiritualistic theories that seem true.

Arthur Conan Doyle wrote what he lived, and his life was a great inspiration for the fictional works he published. His short stories and style of writing were reflections of the styles of writing he grew up reading, and later, living. Even beyond the grave, Doyle and his works still influence countless numbers of parodies and adaptations, from widely-used catchphrases to television shows and movies, all revolving around Sherlock Holmes. It may be tough to even imagine how many fans and writers were intrigued by the stories influenced by Doyle’s use of Edgar Allen Poe’s writing style and Doyle’s own experiences at sea and in his medical career. From his love of Poe’s works, to his medical adventures on land and sea, to his religious practices near the end of his life, his personal experiences truly helped influence his writings throughout his life.

Works Cited

“Arthur Conan Doyle.” British Writers Retrospective Supplement. Ed. Jay Parini and George Stade. Supplement 2. New York: Macmillan, 2009. 160-164. Print.

“Arthur Conan Doyle.” Notable British Novelists. Ed. Carl Rollyson.Vol. 1. Pasadena: Salem Press, Inc., 2001. 264-270. Print.

Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Hound of the Baskervilles. Park Ridge: Andor Publishing, Inc., 1976. Print.

“Hound of the Baskervilles: Arthur Conan Doyle.” Novels for Students. Ed. Ira Mark Milne. Vol. 28. Detroit: Gale, 2009. 120-133. Print.

Pearson, Hesketh. Conan Doyle: His Life and Art. Methuen & Co., Ltd., 1943. 193. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Sharon K. Hall. Vol. 7. Detroit: Gale, 1982. 221-222. Print.

Sayers, Dorothy. “Introduction.” The Omnibus of Crime. Payson and Clarke Ltd., 1929. 9-47. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Sharon K. Hall. Vol. 7. Detroit: Gale, 1982. 219. Print.

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