The Hound of the Baskervilles Themes

The themes of The Hound of the Baskervilles serve to enhance the disorientation created by social disorder. For instance, the theme of love is twisted by the evil in the novel. Selden, the notorious Notting Hill murderer, uses his sister's love to aid him in evading the law. Stapleton uses his own wife to lure Sir Henry Baskerville to his doom. He pretends love and offers marriage to Laura Lyons in order to persuade her to entice Sir Charles into a dark walkway where he meets the Hound itself. All who encounter these evil lovers are endangered because their relationships are as confused and misleading as the Grimpen Mire. Sir Henry in particular is sucked in by the allure of another man's wife and is left with a disordered mind at the novel's end.