The Hound of the Baskervilles

by

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Superiority of Urban Life Theme Analysis

Themes and Colors
The Power of Reason Theme Icon
Strong Women Theme Icon
Natural vs. Supernatural Theme Icon
Criminal Nature vs. Criminal Nurture Theme Icon
The Superiority of Urban Life Theme Icon
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Hound of the Baskervilles, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Superiority of Urban Life Theme Icon

Baskerville Hall forms the gateway between the aristocratic, orderly world of the Baskerville family—who are far more at home in sleek, urban London—and the untamed, even dangerous world of the moor. Through this liminality, the unruliness of the moor comes to infest the tidy world of the hall with its primitive ideas about ghostly, cursed hounds and the crude greed that drives the murder plot. That is, the moor contributes nothing good to life at Baskerville Hall: it only detracts from it and enables murder and secrecy. This negativity shows Doyle’s clear preference for city life, which—though cramped and frantic—he finds far more appropriate for modern man.

Perhaps the most bizarre pieces of evidence for this claim comes not from Baskerville Hall or the moors, but rather in the form of Sherlock Holmes, who finds himself only able to think when in the close atmospheres of confined quarters. Holmes is at once the most brilliant man in the story (and possibly the story’s world, if the dialogue of Dr. Mortimer is to be believed) and a firm believer in science and rationality. Doyle is a firm believer that these are the best qualities for a modern man. Yet, Holmes is only able to really utilize his abilities when surrounded by smoke and cramped into his apartment. He claims that he’s even gone to the lengths of confining himself to a box when his small flat proved too expansive. These cramped, smoked-filled conditions necessary to Holmes’ process were the very essence of London-life during both Holmes and Doyle’s time. They exist in strong juxtaposition to the expansive, empty space of the moors.

The moors, of course, provide plenty of evidence, too. They are, put simply, quite dangerous. To navigate the moors, one has to have specialized knowledge, lest they find themselves mired in quicksand. Even animals, who have a natural instinct about the wild (and twice as many legs with which to navigate it), find themselves often lost in these pits. Indeed, even Jack Stapleton, the one character who has the knowledge necessary to navigate the quicksand, is killed by the moors when he attempts to navigate them in the fog. In contrast, while London streets may be dangerous, that’s only because of the people there. The streets themselves won’t swallow a person whole the way the moor can. What’s more, the moors enable a level of secrecy that’s impossible in London. When Holmes and Watson are being trailed in the London streets, they discover it immediately. Though their shadow manages to escape them, the mechanization of London life allows the detectives to find the cab driver that the shadow hired and thus discover more about the man himself. By way of comparison, both Selden and Holmes manage to stalk the moors virtually unseen for weeks. Indeed, Stapleton himself manages to hide a monstrous dog there, and enact his complex murder plot, all without being seen or suspected. This would be entirely impossible in London, where someone is always around and all the land is developed.

It’s important that, though Baskerville Hall has been a liminal space for some five centuries, it seems to have had little impact on the moor itself (whereas the moor has infiltrated it handily). What seems wanting is money—which, at the story’s end, Sir Henry Baskerville has in spades. This influx of capital will allow the hall to become a glorious and modern place, which the moor’s residents in turn hope will serve as an example for both its current residents and any newcomers inspired to move there by the moor’s shifts in fortune. That is to say, Sir Henry hopes to infiltrate the moor in order to convert it into an entirely urban space, replicating the London atmosphere of which he’s so fond, in this way destroying its liminality altogether.

Related Themes from Other Texts
Compare and contrast themes from other texts to this theme…

The Superiority of Urban Life ThemeTracker

The ThemeTracker below shows where, and to what degree, the theme of The Superiority of Urban Life appears in each chapter of The Hound of the Baskervilles. Click or tap on any chapter to read its Summary & Analysis.
How often theme appears:
chapter length:
Get the entire The Hound of the Baskervilles LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Hound of the Baskervilles PDF

The Superiority of Urban Life Quotes in The Hound of the Baskervilles

Below you will find the important quotes in The Hound of the Baskervilles related to the theme of The Superiority of Urban Life.
Chapter 3  Quotes

I find that before the terrible event occurred several people had seen a creature upon the moor which corresponds with this Baskerville demon, and which could not possibly be an animal known to science. They all agreed that it was a huge creature, luminous, ghastly, and spectral.

Related Characters: Dr. James Mortimer (speaker), Sherlock Holmes, Sir Charles Baskerville
Page Number: 268
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4  Quotes

Really, Mr. Holmes, this exceeds anything which I could have imagined […] I could understand anyone saying that the words were from a newspaper; but that you should name which, and add that it came from the leading article, is really one of the most remarkable things which I have ever known.

Related Characters: Sir Henry Baskerville (speaker), Sherlock Holmes
Page Number: 277
Explanation and Analysis:

We are dealing with a clever man, Watson.

Related Characters: Sherlock Holmes (speaker), Dr. John Watson, Jack Stapleton
Page Number: 283
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5 Quotes

It might interest you to know that you have been driving Mr. Sherlock Holmes.

Related Characters: Jack Stapleton (speaker), Sherlock Holmes, Sir Henry Baskerville
Page Number: 294
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6 Quotes

In a very few hours the brown earth had become ruddy, the brick had changed to granite, and red cows grazed in well-hedged fields where the lush grasses and more luxuriant vegetation spoke of a richer, if damper climate.

Related Characters: Dr. John Watson (speaker)
Page Number: 298
Explanation and Analysis:

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.

Related Characters: Dr. John Watson (speaker), Sherlock Holmes, Selden
Page Number: 300
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

The Mire has him. Two in two days, and many more, perhaps, for they get in the way of going there in the dry weather, and never know the difference until the Mire has them in its clutch. It’s a bad place, the great Grimpen Mire.

Related Characters: Jack Stapleton (speaker), Dr. John Watson
Page Number: 311
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

There is the death of the last occupant of the Hall, fulfilling so exactly the conditions of the family legend, and there are the repeated reports of…a strange creature upon the moor. Twice I have heard […] the distant baying of a hound.

Related Characters: Dr. John Watson (speaker)
Page Number: 341
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

It is a lovely evening, my dear Watson […] I really think that you will be more comfortable outside than in.

Related Characters: Sherlock Holmes (speaker), Dr. John Watson
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 362
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

One cannot always have the success for which one hopes. An investigator needs facts, and not legends or rumors. It has not been a satisfactory case.

Related Characters: Sherlock Holmes (speaker), Dr. John Watson, Jack Stapleton
Page Number: 373
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 14 Quotes

I said it in London, Watson, and I say it again now, that never have we helped to hunt down a more dangerous man than he who is lying yonder.

Related Characters: Sherlock Holmes (speaker), Dr. John Watson, Jack Stapleton
Page Number: 396
Explanation and Analysis: