Introduction
The Sign of the Four is a novel that is written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1889 with starring characters Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. Doyle was born in 1859 in Scotland and began writing short stories and academic articles and published them when he was a doctor. The Sign of the Four has its main character Holmes solving a two-fold mystery and the novel presents how Indian mutiny led to societal fear of homeland safety as the story presents how foreign intruder can threaten Britain and its security. The current paper is trying to answer a number of questions related to the Indian Mutiny and Doyle's treatment of issues such as Indian mutiny, race and others in order to shed the light on the way Doyle discussed and presented these issues and discuss them critically.
Discussion
The Indian Mutiny made it easy for Britain to form social anxieties but in the Sign of the Four, Doyle suggests that the society of the late 19th century in Britain continued in seeing the colonies of Britain attractive possessions and he portrayed India as exotic place with common 19th century colonial concepts with the normal romantic fancies about the orient nations brought by Western artists. An example of this is the way Doyle presented Miss Morstan with her accessories, clothes and turban: “a small turban of the small dull [grey] hue, relieved only by the suspicion of a white feather in the side” [5], The Indian Mutiny showed the amount of weakness of the British Empire and revealed the British society uncertainty as many people lost their feeling of confidence in the ability of the nation to protect against the foreign incursions in Britain. The Mutiny made a change in the way British people regarded the colonial natives as the violent actions of the Mutiny supposed that there is a primitive nature related to the Eastern cultures. In THE Sign of the Four, Doyle reflects the common British beliefs about the Eastern people after the Mutiny in many things such as his description of a character as Tonga to be primitive and frightening: " His small eyes glowed and burned with a sombre light, and his thick lips were writhed back from his teeth,….fury." [5]. (Isokoski, 2008)
Here he repeats the contemporary common national British mythology and ideas about India, the Mutiny and what follows as the novel reflects the pervasive apprehensions of the Victorian society towards the culture of the East and the author follows public thoughts and ideas about criminality and its relation to foreigners. The way Doyle portrayed his characters to be primitive and traditional reflects a public British point of view about the Mutiny and people of the colonies in the 19th century as well as the British tendency for relating the aggressive behavior to foreigners and how British can see them clearly and this can be seen in Watson words when he said: "Never have I seen features so deeply marked with all bestiality and cruelty” [5] when he first saw Andaman Islander as the novel here focuses on the fears of the Victorian society of the foreign and such descriptions show the low contact of the British with the colonies and the people of the Mutiny resulting from the imperialism of the society. (Fraser, 2012)
The novel can be considered as a historical testimony on the fictional distortion of the time period it relates to as there are evidences of the colonies sensual appeal such as the reference to the accessories of Miss Morsan referring to them as exotic: " a small turban of the small dull [grey] hue, relieved only by the suspicion of a white feather in the side” [5], then she captured Watson attention and inspiration in a fantasy way that reflects the societal fascination with the different colonies. The Sign of the Four reflects the nineteenth century attitudes of imperialism as most works written at that time and it outlines the different attitudes of the British society to deal with contradictory beliefs. As a result of the Indian Mutiny, the Nineteenth-century British society became fearful of the foreign existence and it was in need to feel that their possessions were not threatening the native British identity and homeland safety. This was clear in The Sign of the Four through the representation of the colonial figure of Tonga that reflects the popular fear that the clear British society will be affected by the dangerous communication between the Native British and the colonial people if the colonial enterprise would end the boundaries between the enlightened British Empire and other foreigners who are violent and barbarian.
Doyle yet presents some sort of consolation in the character of Sherlock Holmes who in an indirect way represents the British forces of laws and seeks British public safety finding out the dangerous colonial figures from Britain. He presents Holmes to figure the British protection force that may be the British society too who seeks government demand for protection against the foreign danger threatening their society and safety. The portrayal of Holmes in the novel is considered a portrayal of the efforts done by the British society to get the British internal sanctity against the foreign incursion and this is clear via Tonga shooting and death that explain Holmes sanitation work against foreign elements in the Empire and his defense vision of the identity of Britain which here represents an image of the imperialism in the British society. The way Holmes refuses the foreign impact in the novel is the same vision of the British fears against the colonial rebellion and it adds much strength to the imperial existence in the British lands as The Four of the Signs can be seen as an image of the 19th age and its imperialism and how people had attitudes relevant to it. It is a historic proof that culture of that age was formed to be stereotyped in that mold as it can be seen in novels of Agatha Christie and others, it is a historic evidence on that type of fictional distortion in that age and can tell how authors and literary men of that age thought and regarded the other different countries of colonies related to Britain. (Kalpana and Mukhopadhyay, 2014)
The Sign of the Four is a representation of past and contemporary fears Britain has had against rebellion and this is clear through the figures and characters of the novel Britain is used to colonize lands but rebellion or Mutiny has been their threat as this is clear in the novel: "It was a fight of the millions against the hundreds’ (p. 111). Yet force is also justified as the British in the novel sets the colonized natives as their inferiors who are savage enough to threaten civilization and are not able to cope with the British civilization with its values, religion and language that the British authorities imposed on the natives in a way to appear leading them to civilization. Doyle in the novel realizes both good and bad things the British people had in relation to the colonies which reflects the way the East was regarded by the Victorian society. The Sign of the Four is a work that can test how far Imperialism support has changed throughout time as the novel tells that the social confidence is lacked in the Empire after what the Mutiny brought. This novel representing colonial fervor and what it resulted in as imperialism was so strong at that age as a result of the new policies of Britain related to the colonial administration as the Sign of the four can be a historic reference for those who need to understand how far the British Empire was imperial in the nineteenth century. Doyle in The Sign of the Four made a story based on a character that works in detective issues fighting against evil forces and foreign influence that can be threat to the British Empire as Holmes was that eccentric hero who has certain abilities to face such difficult problems and keep the nation secure as this satisfies imperial aspirations of the British people at that age and makes the book a reference for detecting historical actions related to colonies and imperialism. He also showed the way race was considered at that time referring to all those differences in characterization of the British in the novel and the Indians and how the British considered inferiority as main element of the foreign elements of colonies. (Cooke, 2010)
Conclusion
In conclusion, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle presented in his book The Sign of the Four how the British Empire in the nineteenth age regarded issues such as colonial natives and the way they considered them inferior, evil and a threat to the social identity of Britain at that time. The Mutiny had raised fears of the Britain from the colonial natives and this was clear in characterization in the book. Doyle as many authors of his age tried to explain the need to face such different cultures and how to engage them into the British civilization to reduce their danger and primitivism.
References
- Cooke, M. ' Fear of and Fascination with the Foreign in Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes Adventures.' https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/
cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article= 1705&context=theses - Fraser, J. (2012). ' Imperial contradictions in Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Sign of Four.' Studies by Undergraduate Researchers at Guelph Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 19-21
- Isokoski, M. (2008). 'The Victorian Middle Class, Imperialist Attitude and Women in Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes Adventure.' https://trepo.tuni.fi/
bitstream/handle/10024/78751/ gradu02341.pdf?sequence=1 - Kalpana, H. Mukhopadhyay, S. (2014). 'Post-Colonial Interpretations of "The Sign of the Four". ' https://www.academia.edu/
13035629/Post_Colonial_ Interpretation_of_the_Sign_of_ Four
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