The Heart of The Mystery

The Heart of the Mystery
(The Most Over-Used Title in B1 English) Sherlock Holmes, a fictional (supposedly) character created by the well-known author Arthur Conan Doyle, was a major figure in the history of mystery. Doyles stories were published more than a century ago, yet many people still adore them now. Various recreations of Sherlock Holmes great adventures have been created, from movies to board games; cartoon shows to cop television; video games to musical orchestrations. These recreations tend to differ from the original stories created by Doyle himself, evidenced by comparing the 2002 movie The Hound of the Baskervilles and the original story The Hound of the Baskervilles due to many factors, including changes in societys expectations itself. Over the course of a century, what the world defined as entertainment had changed dramatically, and so the plotline and character outlay of The Hound of the Baskervilles (2002) was changed slightly in an attempt to make a good adaptation from script to screen. Various scenes were redone and various details and dialogue was invented or edited. For example, towards the end of the movie, rather than having Holmes save Miss Stapleton from death and mistreatment, Watson finds Miss Stapleton far too gone to help. The ending was completely recreated to become more action-oriented and include violence, as well, and a few scenes were added into the movie that did not come from the original text whatsoever, such as the Christmas Party. The actual book focused more on solving the crime rather than increasing the readers heart rate, and shrank away from overly melodramatic plot elements. The final chapter is a smooth, clarifying denouement that irons out any and all details of the case. The movie adaptation changed several key components of The Hound of the Baskervilles plotline so as to appeal to an audience that wanted more action and drama, where Doyles book focused on the completion of that particular case and the establishment of evidence while using a few well-played scenes of immense tension and of revelation, expressed by how Holmes states that never yet have we helped to hunt down a more dangerous man than who is lying yonder (Doyle 210). Other than plotline differentiations, the movie and the book also differ due to character choice. In the movie The Hound of the Baskervilles (2002), the directors and writers, as had been established beforehand, wanted to create a more intense, picturesque, and heart-pounding version of the story, so in various areas of the plotline, characters were either omitted or added in order to build a more dramatic setup for the mystery. Miss Mortimer, for example, was never included in Doyles story, yet she played a role in the building of the suspense; during a scene of the movie that was not in the story, Miss Mortimer attempted to contact the ghost of Sir Charles, and just as Sir Charles had spoken through her voice, the great, feared hound (which was later revealed to have been summoned by none other than Mr. Stapleton himself) attempted to attack them through the window. Miss
Joshua V. Perez
B1 English

(The Most Over-Used Title in B1 English) Laura Lyons and her husband were completely taken away from the plot, and the movie lacked the ability to express character depth and complexity. The Hound of the Baskervilles, on the other hand, succeeded in creating concrete, flexible, and sophisticated characters and employing each and every one, no matter how small, into the case at hand. Books have an easier time at describing characters than movies, because in a book, you can be as descriptive as you want and practically not have to suffer from any extraordinary expenses by doing so, whereas in a movie, you need to do a lot of filming in order to accomplish even a few minutes of film time. A prime example of this is a when, in the book, [Watson] confesses that at these words a shudder passed through [him].(Doyle 32) This small dialogue is expressed in great detail and with real emotion. In that very same moment in the movie, the watcher must infer what Watson thinks of the ordeal, which isnt nearly as effective. In short, the movie, which was more focused on expressing the plotline visually and appeasing an audience that demands action and adventure, deleted a few characters from the book, and added some as well, however not succeeding in describing most characters to make the detective-work interesting, whereas the original story skillfully created an extremely precise denunciation of each and every character, and made each one useful and crucial. Characters, along with the plotline, are a very crucial part of The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Hound of the Baskervilles (2002), but their tone, mood, and theme also differed from one to the other. In The Hound of the Baskervilles, Doyle was accustomed to an audience in the 19th century, and in the 19th century, people were much different in their expectations of stories and text. Arthur focused The Hound of the Baskervilles on the details and the heart of the mystery, whilst also having a steady, calm-like tension (A contradiction in terms). The storys mood and tone was that of gloom and mystery, yet one would have to really analyze the details of the text if one were to draw conclusions of the case. For example, the denouement, rather than having a scene that goes along the lines of firing bullets at Stapleton as he runs into the mire and ends up getting sucked into the mud, the ending is a calm recollection of events; a retrospect, which ended in Holmes nonchalantly suggesting they eat dinner. The movie, as has been stated many times before, wanted to obtain a very steady sense of tension and drama, leading to a few scene alterations from the original story. Its tone and mood was that of dramatic action and mystery, and many scenes were meant to kick your heart rate up a couple hundred beats per second. This is evidenced by the 2 main scenes towards the end: a standard Hollywood chase scene pitting Holmes against Stapleton, and a brief talk between Sherlock and Watson on a train bound for London. The chase scene, likely modeled after some other Hollywood production, was very fast-paced and intense, as well as scary and gruesome.
Joshua V. Perez
B1 English

(The Most Over-Used Title in B1 English) Stapleton ends up getting shot in the head, (which, by the way, is an incredible feat to accomplish with an old revolver, in the howling wind of the moor, and already having been injured yourself) and Holmes nearly drowns in the Grimpen Mire. This scene was designed to give the movie a sense of finality, and to be very, very macho. The movie was intended for a very different audience than the book, as with the years and decades and centuries between each came a flood of change in the ideals of entertainment as a whole. The directors and writers behind the movie and the author behind the book both had very different intentions when they made their product. The completely different time periods also played a major role in the decision of both the directors and the author, as in the late 1800s and early 1900s, a lot of modern culture had not been invented yet; most of the entertainment was formal (in a sense), whether the entertainment came from a fancy theater in London or an old inn founded by cowboys in the American Midwest. The filmmakers, however, were used to entertainment that was more fun than formal. They were used to tear-inducing romantic comedies, heartpulsing secret agent movies, hope-creating Disney productions, and flat-out ridiculous cartoons. And so the film they created was changed in order to fit the new standard of entertainment. The attempt to recreate the original Hound of the Baskervilles was edited to a great extent due to the change of the entertainment industry over a long, long century of drastic changes in many social standards all over the world, making a very apparent difference in the Heart of Mystery.
<><><>
And in conclusion, I end my final statement in a very wordy fashion in order to squeeze one more paragraph into my paper. Merry Christmas, Good Tidings, and have a Happy New Year!
<><><>
7 References Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Hound of the Baskervilles. New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell, 1959. Print. Attwood, David, dir. The Hound of the Baskervilles. Warner Brother Studios, 2002 Film.
Joshua V. Perez
B1 English

The Heart of The Mystery

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

The Heart of The Mystery

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

The Heart of The Mystery

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

The Heart of the Mystery

The Heart of the Mystery

The Heart of the Mystery

You might also like

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.