The Sign of the Four: Summary and Character Sketch

The Sign of the Four by Arthur Conan Doyle

Summary and Character Sketch

The Sign of Four: A Summary

The Mystery: Miss Mary Morstan seeks Sherlock Holmes' help after receiving valuable pearls anonymously every year on the anniversary of her father's death. Her father, Major Sholto, served in India and passed away under mysterious circumstances. The only clues are a map of a fort with the cryptic message "The Sign of the Four" and four names: Jonathan Small, Mahomet Singh, Abdullah Khan, and Dost Akbar.

The Investigation: Holmes takes the case and soon discovers Major Sholto had died after acquiring immense wealth during the Indian Rebellion. Mary receives the pearls following the instructions hidden within the map, leading Holmes and Watson on a thrilling adventure. They encounter Thaddeus Sholto, Mary's estranged brother, and uncover a complex plot involving escaped convicts, hidden treasure, and past betrayals.

The Danger: Jonathan Small, the leader of the convicts, seeks to reclaim the treasure with the help of his partners. Holmes and Watson find themselves in perilous situations, including a tense confrontation in a foggy London house and a daring escape from a booby-trapped boat.

The Resolution: Holmes unravels the mystery, revealing how Major Sholto acquired the treasure and the motives behind his death. He confronts Small and his accomplices in a dramatic showdown, bringing them to justice and securing the fortune for Mary and Thaddeus.

Key Themes: The Sign of the Four explores themes of greed, justice, revenge, and colonial legacy. It highlights Holmes' deductive reasoning and Watson's unwavering loyalty, showcasing their iconic partnership.  

Character Sketch

Jonathan Small (The Wooden-Legged Man)

-Jonathan Small is the wooden-legged man who seeks revenge on Major Sholto for the theft of the Agra treasure.

-one of “the four” original men who acquired the treasure.

-lived a tough life, having lost his leg to a crocodile while serving as a soldier in India for the British Army. –got engaged in a plan plan to acquire the treasure with Abdullah Khan and Mahomet Singh, who were guards under his command (the fourth man, Dost Akbar, was the foster brother of Abdullah Khan) While guarding the Agra fortress during the Indian Mutiny,

-Small was sent to a punishing colony on the Andaman Islands for his role in the killing of the merchant who had possession of the Agra treasure.

-meets Captain Morstan and Major Sholto, letting them in on the secret about the treasure in exchange for help with his escape.

-Sholto, however, double-crossed the others and fled to England with the treasure.

-Small managed to escape the Andaman Islands with his companion, Tonga, and searched for Sholto, eventually managing to recover the treasure from Pondicherry Lodge, the Sholto family home.

-His victory doesn’t last long, however, as Holmes soon catches up with him and brings about his imprisonment.

-Small scatters the jewels of the Agra treasure into the Thames to prevent anyone else from enjoying their riches.

(Courtesy: Litchart.com)

Miss Mary Morstan:

Miss Morstan comes to Sherlock Holmes to see if he can help her find out what happened to her father, Captain Morstan, who disappeared a few years previously. She has also been receiving a pearl once a year in the post and been told to go to London’s Lyceum Theater in the evening of the day she comes to see Holmes. She therefore acts as the catalyst for the entire story, providing Holmes with a much-needed problem to solve. She is generally portrayed as quite passive, but is also virtuous, especially in her apparent lack of concern about her share of the Agra treasure (she is more interested in knowing what has happened to her father). Over the course of the novella, Miss Morstan falls in love with Dr. John Watson; at the end, she agrees to marry him. She lives with Mrs. Forrester, serving as her governess. She is described as beautiful and is around twenty-seven years old.

Dr. John Watson

Dr. Watson is the narrator of the story and Sherlock Holmes’ loyal assistant. He is a doctor by profession and has a background as a surgeon in the British Army. Over the course of the novella, Watson falls in love with Miss Morstan, finally asking her to marry him. Watson aids Holmes throughout the story, though the major breakthroughs in the case are always the result of Holmes’ brilliant mind. Watson functions as a kind of counterpart to Holmes; the detective frequently uses him as a sounding board for his ideas, and in his inability to see problems as clearly as Holmes, Watson is representative of the general reader. That is, Watson is a kind of everyman figure of decent—but not Holmes’ level—intelligence. Watson is more emotional than Holmes and is frequently concerned for the latter’s wellbeing, especially when it comes to Holmes’ drug use. But Watson is in awe of Holmes’ abilities, which is why he decides to preserve them for posterity by writing them down. In his powers of observation about the more emotional side of life, Watson actually possesses something that Holmes lacks—an ability to understand people and the way that they feel.

Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes, the story’s protagonist, is the infamous detective and occupant of 221b Baker Street. He has a supreme, almost superhuman intelligence that allows him to solve difficult cases. This intelligence is based on his deeply held belief in the power of rationalism—essentially, any problem is solvable if looked at clearly and logically enough. Holmes’ mindset is distinctively Victorian, showing an affiliation with the ideas of Charles Darwin and encompassing certain elements of outdated pseudoscience that results in a discomforting belief in the superiority of white people over other races. Because of Holmes’ intellectual and deductive abilities, Miss Morstanasks him to help her solve the case of her missing father, Captain Morstan, which subsequently draws in the mystery of the Agra treasure too. Likewise, Athelney Jones, the Scotland Yard detective, is fully aware of Holmes’ abilities and relies upon him for help in his own work (though doesn’t always give Holmes the credit he deserves). Holmes, for his part, takes on cases for the thrill of it—not because he wants fame or fortune. This thrill-seeking also contributes to the darker side of Holmes’ character: his drug-taking. Holmes’ mind needs stimulation and, when he doesn’t have a case to work, he turns to cocaine, which greatly concerns his assistant, Dr. Watson. Ultimately, the entire novella functions at the pace of Holmes’ thoughts. When Holmes is stuck on an aspect of the case, the action slows to a halt; when he has a breakthrough, the action picks up again.

Tonga

Tonga is a native of the Andaman Islands who was aided by Jonathan Small when suffering from ill health. This made him feel a sense of loyalty towards Small, which explains why he accompanies him in attempting to recover the Agra treasure. Tonga’s portrayal in the book is extremely problematic: he is described as a savage “black cannibal,” painted more as an animal than a human being. He thus represents the deep racial prejudices of the Victorian era. Tonga uses poisonous blow darts as a weapon, killing Bartholomew Sholto with one and almost hitting Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson too. Tonga dies when Holmes and Watson shoot him during the boat chase. Notably, Tonga is given no dialogue at all throughout the entire novella, again reflecting the racial prejudice that his character embodies.

Thaddeus Sholto

Thaddeus Sholto is one of Major Sholto’s sons, brother to Bartholomew Sholto. He is an eccentric character with an anxious manner. Thaddeus is the one who decides to contact Miss Morstan, feeling that she has been treated unfairly and deserves her share of the Agra treasure (a view also expressed by Major Sholto on his deathbed). Thaddeus has been sending pearls each year to Miss Morstan and it is him who contacts her to try and reunite her with her share of the riches. According to Thaddeus, his brother would have preferred to cut out Miss Morstan altogether.

Bartholomew Sholto

Bartholomew Sholto is one of Major Sholto’s sons and lives at the family home, Pondicherry Lodge. Thaddeus Sholto, Bartholomew’s brother, takes Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson and Miss Morstan to Bartholomew with the intention of dividing up the Agra treasure. It transpires, however, that Bartholomew has been killed by a poisonous blow dart. His face is locked in a frozen grimace when he is discovered. Bartholomew differs from Thaddeus in that he disagreed with his brother’s intentions to honor Miss Morstan’s share of the treasure—he would have preferred them to greedily keep it for themselves.

Captain Morstan

Captain Morstan was an officer in the British army who served in India. He is Mary Morstan’s father, and his unexplained disappearance is the catalyst for the novella’s plot. He was friends with Major Sholto and had agreed with him to facilitate Jonathan Small’s escape from the Andaman Islands penal colony—where he and Sholto were working—in exchange for a share of the Agra treasure. Sholto deceives him and takes the treasure for himself. According to Thaddeus Sholto—which in turn is according to Major Sholto—Captain Morstan died from a heart attack during an argument with Sholto. Sholto then hid his body to avoid suspicion and the detection of the treasure.

Major Sholto

Major Sholto is the father of Bartholomew and Thaddeus Sholto and was a friend to Captain Morstan, with whom he served in India. Jonathan Small relates how he brought Sholto into the Agra treasure scheme, hoping to secure his release from the Andaman Islands penal colony where Sholto was an authority figure. Sholto, suffering from gambling debts, double-crossed Small and Captain Morstan and took the treasure for himself. On his deathbed, he had a slight change of heart and instructed his sons to share the treasure with Miss Morstan—but he died before revealing the treasure’s location after seeing the face of Jonathan Small at the window.

Sources: 

1. Litchart.com

2. The summary is based on information provided by Bard, a large language model from Google AI.