Professional Documents
Culture Documents
English - Speaking Skills Baskerville
English - Speaking Skills Baskerville
worn by the man Homes sees trailing Sir Henry in London. As the only large-bearded
man in the neighborhood of Baskerville Hall, Barrymore's instantly suspected.
➔ Barrymore is planning on quitting his job as a servant—even though his family has
worked at Baskerville Hall for, like, forever—because he was attached to Sir Charles
and doesn't want to serve Sir Henry. Motive enough to kill him? And Watson notices
that Barrymore's wife has been crying a lot.
➔ And check out Barrymore's nighttime activities. In Chapter 8, Watson spots
Barrymore in the middle of the night carrying a candle to an empty room with a
window facing the moors. There, he holds the candle and looks out into the dark. He
sees something, groans, and then goes back the way he came. This isn't exactly the
behavior of a man with no secrets.
➔ In The Hound of the Baskervilles Barrymore is our first suspect, which makes it even
less likely that he'll be the one who did it in the end.
➔ And sure enough, it turns out that Barrymore's reason for signaling the moors has
more to do with his loyalty to his wife and her family than any disloyalty to Sir Henry.
He's staying in touch with his unfortunate brother-in-law (and escaped convicted
murderer) Selden, rather than somehow sending signals to the Hound of the
Baskervilles.
➔ Once Sir Henry and Watson clear up this mystery, they immediately forgive Barrymore
his troubles. In fact, it brings everyone closer together: once Barrymore realizes that
Sir Henry is on his side, he finally tells Sir Henry that all-important detail about Sir
Charles receiving a note from "L.L." (Laura Lyons) on the day he died.
➔ Thus, the whole Barrymore storyline turns out to be an obvious clue that has been
stuck into the storyline to distract you from the real plot (in this case, Stapleton's
scheming behind the scenes).