Chapter 6 - The reader is introduced to the Grimpen Mire by way of narration

Chapter 6 - The reader is introduced to the Grimpen Mire by way of narration

This is a very important scene. Any aspect of the narration/setting is easy to comment on.

Our driver half turned in his seat.

"There's a convict escaped from Princetown, sir. He's been out three days now, and the warders watch every road and every station, but they've had no sight of him yet. The farmers about here don't like it, sir, and that's a fact."

"Well, I understand that they get five pounds if they can give information."

"Yes, sir, but the chance of five pounds is but a poor thing compared to the chance of having your throat cut. You see, it isn't like any ordinary convict. This is a man that would stick at nothing."

"Who is he, then?"

"It is Selden, the Notting Hill murderer."

I remembered the case well, for it was one in which Holmes had taken an interest on account of the peculiar ferocity of the crime and the wanton brutality which had marked all the actions of the assassin. The commutation of his death sentence had been due to some doubts as to his complete sanity, so atrocious was his conduct. Our wagonette had topped a rise and in front of us rose the huge expanse of the moor, mottled with gnarled and craggy caims and tors. A cold wind swept down from it and set us shivering. Somewhere there, on that desolate plain, was lurking this fiendish man, hiding in a burrow like a wild beast, his heart full of malignancy against the whole race which had cast him out. It needed but this to complete the grim suggestiveness of the barren waste, the chilling wind, and the darkling sky. Even Baskerville fell silent and pulled his overcoat more closely around him.

We had left the fertile country behind and beneath us. We looked back on it now, the slanting rays of a low sun turning the streams to threads of gold and glowing on the red earth new turned by the plough and the broad tangle of the woodlands. The road in front of us grew bleaker and wilder over huge russet and olive slopes, sprinkled with giant boulders. Now and then we passed a moorland cottage, walled and roofed with stone, with no creeper to break its harsh outline. Suddenly we looked down into a cuplike depression, patched with stunted oaks and fus which had been twisted and bent by the fury of years of storm. Two high, narrow towers rose over the trees. The driver pointed with his whip.

"Baskerville Hall," said he.

Its master had risen and was staring with flushed cheeks and shining eyes. A few minutes later we had reached the lodgegates, a maze of fantastic tracery in wrought iron, with weather-bitten pillars on either side, blotched with lichens, and summounted by the boars' heads of the Baskervilles. The lodge was a ruin of black granite and bared ribs of rafters, but facing it was a new building, half constructed, the first fruit of Sir Charles's South African gold.

Through the gateway we passed into the avenue, where the wheels were again hushed amid the leaves, and the old trees shot their branches in a sombre tunnel.over our heads. Baskerville shuddered as he looked up the long, dark drive to where the house glimmered like a ghost at the farther end.

Narrative/Setting/Characters:

Many parts of the narrative are important here.

The entire description of Seldon – Adds an air of danger to the novel. The characters are in immediate mortal peril. Until they arrived on the moor, the only thing they had to worry about was the ‘fairytale’ of the Baskervilles. The addition of a real life brutal psychopath, describe in many different forms of language and imagery, makes the whole situation more unpredictable. It is also significant because it signifies how characters can be misunderstood. Later we find that Seldon is the younger borther of Mrs. Barrymore, and we hear how she still loves him like when he was a child.

“I remember the case well” adds to the sense of danger the characters are in. The fact that Watson remembers such a brutal story, and now the man is escaped on the moor.

“Red earth” – provides connotations of danger/blood which make the reader feel uneasy. This is significant as we have already been told about Hugo Baskerville’s ‘bloody’ death on the moor, and we will later witness Seldon’s equally gruesome demise.

“Tangle of woodlands” – Like so many parts of the narrative, this makes the setting seem unpredictable and unpleasant. It is almost a personification too, as if the plants and trees are conspiring to tangle and confuse the characters. ‘Tangle’ also reminds us of the tangles story that we will encounter in the novel.

“The road in front of us grew bleaker and wilder” – This physical description of the setting is vitally important as not only does is describe the physical jeopardy which is becoming more and more of a problem for them, it is also a metaphorical depiction of how their case is becoming harder to follow and more dangerous as they progress into it.

“Two high narrow towers rose over the trees” – This is a personaification of the towers of Baskerville Hall. It is very significant as it will be their home for the next few weeks, yet is never described as a nice or comforting place. It appears as being only slightly more welcoming and safe than the danger of the moor outside. This imposing image makes the characters sound/seem small and powerless.

“Ruin of black granite, ribs of rafters” – this section of the narrative/setting is very important as it is a metaphor for death and destruction. The Baskerville family are, it seems, being ‘picked off’ one by one. The depiction of the Hall as a decaying corpse, an anthropomorphic image, hints at the doom which we later discover awaits Henry Baskerville.

“Shimmered like a ghost” – as well as creating a supernatural and haunted feel to the novel (which is very significant as the whole novel rests on the battle between reality and the supernatural – the argument over the hound etc), this also adds a sense of mystery to the main residential setting of the novel which keeps the reader onfused and guessing for the entire progression of the novel.