Lesson 4 Assignment - Writer'sToolBox

This Week's Assignment:

In keeping with our gothic theme, I want you to borrow "The Hound of the Baskervilles" by Arthur Conan Doyle from your library. Oh, fine, you could find a synopsis of it if you must, but this story is excellent Halloween reading and contains some fine foreshadowing. Find the foreshadowing, and give me a description and analysis of it--500 words or more.

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Finding foreshadowing in a book I have never read was a challenging task. I did watch the movie version of this story just a few months ago on AMC, but I missed the beginning and was a bit lost. At any rate, I have read through the first couple of chapters and here is what I came up with.

Chapter One finds Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson debating possible deductions drawn from a walking stick left behind the night before by a mysterious visitor, Dr. James Mortimer. In an effort to verify their inferences, Watson looks up Dr. Mortimer's name in the Medical Directory. In edition to his bio and past employment, there are several titles listed of published essays credited to Dr. Mortimer which, I believe, lend some foreshadowing to the story:

Dr. Mortimer won a prize for his essay entitled, ‘Is Disease a Reversion?' Your Dictionary.com defines ‘reversion' as: 1. a turning or being turned the opposite way; reversal a reverting, or returning, as to a former state, custom, or belief 2. Biol.
~ a return to a former or primitive type; atavism.
~ the return, or reappearance, of characteristics present in early ancestral generations but not in those that have intervened
~ an individual or organism with such characteristics

He also authored the paper, ‘Some Freaks of Atavism'. YourDictionary.com defines atavism as: 1. appearance in an individual of some characteristic found in a remote ancestor but not in nearer ancestors.

It seems the Dr. Mortimer is somewhat of an expert on the hereditary links between present generations and their ancestors, particularly in the changing or reversal of appearances to remote ancestors. I ask myself if his knowledge will become important to the story?

Dr. Mortimer arrives at the house in the company of a dog. Since the title of the book is The Hound of Baskervilles, the appearance of a dog in the first four pages seems significant. But more so, the foreshadowing in the following excerpt jumped out at me:

Mr. Holmes is commenting to Dr. Watson as Dr. Mortimer approaches the door, ‘...Now is the dramatic moment of fate, Watson, when you hear a step upon the stair which is walking into your life, and you know not whether for good or ill....' Of course I want to know which it will be; and I expect (and hope) it will be for ill!

Their initial conversation is eerie as the mystery surrounding Dr. Mortimer deepens with his comments regarding Mr. Holmes' head. ‘You interest me very much, Mr. Holmes. I had hardly expected so dolichocephalic

1. having a relatively long head; having a head whose width is less than 76 percent of its length from front to back

a skull or such a well-marked supra-orbital development. Would you have any objection to my running my finger along your parietal fissure? A cast of your skull, sir, until the original is available, would be an ornament to any anthropological museum. It is not my intention to be fulsome, but I confess that I covet your skull.' The entire passage is just creepy, but especially foreboding is the phrase, ‘A cast of your skull, sir, until the original is available...' Perhaps he intends for that to be soon?


Note: Until I finish the book, I will not know if I have accurately touched on some of the foreshadowing offered by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I look forward to finding out.