CH QUOTE ANALYSIS (needs to be reworded) CONTEXT

1 Mr. Sherlock Holmes, As the story opens, Holmes and Watson discuss the First line of the book
who was usually very late walking stick left behind by Dr. James Mortimer. These are
the very first lines of the book. They’re important not
in the mornings, save because of what they say about Holmes but rather
upon those not because of what they don’t say: there’s no long, drawn-
infrequent occasions out discussion about who Holmes is, who Watson is, why
when he stayed up all they live together, or what they do. Instead, Doyle
night, was seated at the jumpstarts the story with a series of clever deductions
Holmes makes. Doyle is able to do this for the simple fact
breakfast-table. I stood that Holmes and Watson are already famous characters in
upon the hearthrug and Doyle’s England (and abroad) who need no introduction.
picked up the stick which Indeed, The Hound of the Baskervilles would have been
our visitor had left behind highly sought out by Holmes’ fans, as Doyle had killed
him the night before. Holmes off in a short story years ago.
1 “Really, Watson, you Dr. John Watson has just finished his analysis of the stick Sherlock Holmes is
excel yourself […] It may —using, at Holmes’ request, Holmes’ own method of giving compliments to
deduction. While Watson has created a believable story
be that you are not as to who might own the stick, Holmes is quick to point
Dr Watson for his
yourself luminous, but out that it is a fallacious one. Watson has missed several intellectual
you are a conductor of clues and misinterpreted others. This conversation investigation skills
light. Some people between Holmes and Watson is typical of their
without possessing relationship. Watson positively adores Holmes and seeks
to emulate the detective in most aspects of his life, but he
genius have a remarkable can never quite do it right. Holmes, though he considers
power of stimulating it. I Watson a dear friend, doesn’t seem to recognize this and
confess, my dear fellow, often mocks Watson for his failures. Even when he
that I am very much in compliments the other man, it’s backhandedly. The same
your debt.” – Sherlock is true in this passage, as Holmes asserts that his
successes are made possible by watching Watson fail.
Holmes
1 He had risen and paced Sherlock Holmes had
the room as he spoke. just been schooling Dr
Now he halted in the Watson on what he had
recess of the window. inferred was wrong
There was such a ring of
conviction in his voice
that I glanced up in
surprise.
1 “Just a little,” said They had just meet Dr
Holmes. “I think, Dr. Mortimer and were
Mortimer, you would do about to discuss the
wisely if without more issue that Dr Mortimer
ado you would kindly tell had come to talk about
me plainly what the exact
nature of the problem is
in which you demand my
assistance.”
1 “I observe from your Sherlock Holmes and Dr
forefinger that you make Watson are having a
your own cigarettes. visit from Dr Mortimer
Have no hesitation in and Mr Holmes is
lighting one.” – Sherlock telling him that there is
Holmes no need to hesitate if
he wanted a cigarette
2 “The exact date is 1742.” Dr Mortimer is talking
Dr. Mortimer drew it about the death of the
from his breast-pocket. record of the death the
 “This family paper was previous Baskervilles
committed to my care by
Sir Charles Baskerville,
whose sudden and tragic
death some three months
ago created so much
excitement in
Devonshire.”
2 But it was not the sight of It is the record of the
her body, nor yet was it death of Hugo
that of the body of Hugo Baskerville.
Baskerville lying near her,
which raised the hair
upon the heads of these
three dare-devil
roysterers, but it was
that, standing over Hugo,
and plucking at his
throat, there stood a foul
thing, a great, black
beast, shaped like a
hound, yet larger than
any hound that ever
mortal eye has rested
upon.
2 Such is the tale, my sons, Mortimer is reading the manuscript entrusted to him by
of the coming of the Sir Charles Baskerville, which tells the legend of the hound
of the Baskervilles and how it came to be. He is relating
hound which is said to this story to both Holmes and Watson so that they might
have plagued the family advise him regarding the anticipated arrival of Sir Charles’
so sorely ever since. If I heir, Sir Henry. There is some irony in the idea that a
have set it down it is terror known is less terrifying than one only guessed at.
because that which is After all, by the story’s end it’s realized that there is no
hound of the Baskervilles at all. Yet this document, which
clearly known hath less sought to abate terror, instead allowed it by creating a
terror than that which is supernatural avenue for Stapleton to enact his murderous
but hinted at and plot.
guessed.
2 No signs of violence were
to be discovered upon Sir
Charles’s person, and
though the doctor’s
evidence pointed to an
almost incredible facial
distortion—so great that
Dr. Mortimer refused at
first to believe that it was
indeed his friend and
patient who lay before
him—it was explained
that that is a symptom
which is not unusual in
cases of dyspnoea and
death from cardiac
exhaustion.
2 Mr. Holmes, they were Dr. James Mortimer has just finished relaying the story of
the footprints of a Sir Charles’ death to Holmes and Watson. His story differs
from the official newspaper account because it includes
gigantic hound! this fact about the footprints, which Mortimer kept to
himself for fear of causing a panic. This quote is important
for a few reasons. Mortimer doling out information when
and to whom he sees fit seems suspicious—the kind of a
thing a murderer would do if we wanted to avoid giving
the full picture to someone. Even if he’s not a suspect,
though, it’s telling that Mortimer is so easily wrapped up
in the idea of the supernatural, despite his lifelong
dedication to science. In addition, these words come at
the very end of the second chapter, and it’s good to
remember that The Hound of the Baskervilles was
originally published chapter-by-chapter in a magazine.
Though readers today can easily move to the next chapter
by simply turning a page, contemporary readers would
have had to wait some time to learn more about
Mortimer’s discovery.
3 I confess at these words a Through the use of a tactile imagery you can identify that Dr Watson and
shudder passed through the narrator is scared. Sherlock Holmes had
me. just received news
about a killing from a
mysterious beast
3 I find that before the Sherlock Holmes has just expressed his shock that
terrible event occurred Mortimer, a man of science, should be so taken in by the
legend of the supernatural hound. Mortimer responds
several people had seen a that he’s a bit shocked himself, but that he can’t account
creature upon the moor for some aspects of what’s happening—like the reports
which corresponds with from his neighbours about a large, hellish dog. It’s
this Baskerville demon, shocking how easily people in the story tend towards
and which could not believing in the supernatural, as Mortimer does here and
Watson will shortly. This is a testament to the power of
possibly be an animal supernatural belief, certainly, but there’s also something
known to science. They here about the ability of agrarian landscapes to instill
all agreed that it was a beliefs that would be impossible in an urban setting. All of
huge creature, luminous, the moors inhabitants claim to have seen a ghastly dog
ghastly, and spectral. I (and, of course, they did), but it seems much harder to
believe that a similar reporting would take place in a city
have cross-examined environment.
these men, one of them a
hard-headed
countryman, one a
farrier, and one a
moorland farmer, who all
tell the same story of this
dreadful apparition,
exactly corresponding to
the hell-hound of the
legend.
3 I knew that seclusion and Dr Watson is talking
solitude were very about how when
necessary for my friend in Sherlock Holmes is
those hours of intense thinking about a case
mental concentration he needs space to
during which he weighed himself to think and to
every particle of process.
evidence, constructed
alternative theories,
 balanced one against the
other, and made up his
mind as to which points
were essential and which
immaterial.
3 My first impression as I Sherlock Holmes has asked Watson, as well as Sir Henry
opened the door was that and Mortimer, to leave him alone for a bit so that he can
ponder the case. To facilitate his thought process, he
a fire had broken out, for orders a pound of tobacco and proceeds to smoke it—all
the room was so filled of it. This results in his Baker Street apartment being
with smoke that the light completely overcome with smoke. This whimsical
of the lamp upon the moment offers some insight into Holmes’ thought
table was blurred by it. process. He works in the singular, observing one clue at a
time and exhausting all possibilities from it before moving
on to the next. By filling the room with smoke and
keeping in close confines, he is able to avoid any
distractions that would keep him from this thought
process. In turn, when it comes time to deduce a course
of events from a series of clues, Holmes is less likely to
make the kinds of fanciful missteps that Watson did, for
instance, regarding the walking stick.
3 “The world is full of Sherlock Holmes has
obvious things which been thinking about
nobody by any chance what could have
ever observes.” happened
4 Really, Mr. Holmes, this Sherlock Holmes has just discovered the exact newspaper
exceeds anything which I article from which the threatening letter to Sir Henry was
constructed. He’s done this only moments after reading
could have imagined […] I the letter for the first time, such that even Watson is
could understand anyone taken aback. Here, Sir Henry expresses his awe in Holmes’
saying that the words abilities. Even as a fictional character, Holmes’ abilities are
were from a newspaper; a bit fantastic—and they have a secondary effect of
but that you should name ensuring confidence in those who witness them. It’s clear
to the reader (as it surely is to Sir Henry) that if Holmes
which, and add that it can unravel this strange letter in mere seconds, he can
came from the leading unravel the whole mystery in no time at all. This, indeed,
article, is really one of the is probably true: which is why Holmes is about to exit the
most remarkable things story shortly and remain hidden for the majority of it
which I have ever known. thereafter.
4 “Well, I seem to have
come into an inheritance
with a vengeance,” said
he, when the long
narrative was finished.
“Of course, I’ve heard of
the hound ever since I
was in the nursery. It’s
the pet story of the
family, though I never
thought of taking it
seriously before.”
5 Sherlock Holmes had, in a
very remarkable degree,
the power of detaching
his mind at will. For two
hours the strange
business in which we had
 been involved appeared
to be forgotten, and he
was entirely absorbed in
the pictures of the
modern Belgian masters.
5 If my friend would
undertake it there is no
man who is better worth
having at your side when
you are in a tight place.
No one can say so more
confidently than I.
5 “There go two of my Sherlock Holmes and Dr
threads, Watson. There is Watson have been
nothing more stimulating chasing after a stalker
than a case where and they have received
everything goes against information that the
you.” – Sherlock Holmes leads are dead ends
5 Holmes cast a swift Sherlock Holmes and Dr
glance of triumph at me. Watson have found the
“Oh he mentioned his cabdriver of the stalker
name, did he? That was and are interrogation
imprudent. What was the him
name he mentions?” –
Sherlock Holmes
“His name,” said the
cabman, “was Mr.
Sherlock Holmes.”
5 “A touch, Watson—an
undeniable touch!” said
he. “I feel a foil as quick
and supple as my own.
He got home upon me
very prettily that time. So
his name was Sherlock
Holmes, was it?”
5 “Snap goes our third It shows through a metaphor that they had been chasing After talking to the
thread, and we end after an imaginary thread or lead cabdriver they found
where we began,” – out that he was useless
Sherlock Holmes