EDITORIAL & NEWS

Getting to Know … Hardcastle

by Margie Deck & Nancy Holder

In our commentary on page 6, we discussed Arthur Conan Doyle’s deft plotting. Now, on Page 12, we examine his facility with another keystone element of fiction: characterization. On this page, Dr. Hardcastle becomes a main character readers can root for as opposed to serving as “a reader’s primary means of access into the social world of the fiction,” to quote literary scholar Alexander Gelley. Doyle accomplishes this transformation by giving Hardcastle a character arc.

A character arc is the trajectory of internal change that a character experiences in the course of a narrative. Plot is the driver of the story, providing the sequence of events the main character experiences to solve whatever problem they face. Writer Sunitha Nandhini points out that engagement with a character is often more easily accomplished when they are confronted with a “perfect problem,” i.e., one that is more easily and tidily solved that most of the real-life, messy problems that readers actually face. Based on the introductory paragraphs of “The Terror,” the reader can be confident that Hardcastle survived his ordeal, which in itself is a form of problem-solving in stories of terror and the supernatural. Many stories with “perfect problems” are adventure tales that depend on the strangeness or exciting nature of an experience to engage the reader, rather than providing the main character with emotional depth. But in “The Terror,” Doyle offers both.

At the opening of the narrative, Hardcastle is, frankly, a snob. He believes that he, an educated gentleman, is by definition better equipped to solve the mystery of the Terror than the lower-class country folk who surround him. Somewhat humbled by his initial failure, he seeks advice—but not from anyone who possesses direct knowledge of the Terror. To him, they are “poor lonely women” and, “uneducated yokels.” Not even from Armitage, whom he considers a cut above the rest, and who told him about the Terror in the first place. Instead he approaches someone of his own class—a fellow physician. So he is still a snob.

Then he learns that this educated doctor has dismissed him, not simply as superstitious and gullible, but as mad. This essentially “demotes” him from the class of educated physicians. Shocked and now truly humbled, he confesses, “I can afford to admit that I have been no more sympathetic to Armitage than Dr. Johnson has been to me.” This is the conclusion of his character arc. He is no longer a disbelieving snob; he is a chastened believer. Because he has recognized his fallibility, and empathized with Armitage, the reader feels more empathy toward him. Now he’s someone the reader wants to root for, as opposed to a functionary advancing the plot.

References:

Nandhini, Sunitha, “Why are we so emotionally invested in fictional characters and worlds?” Medium, https://sunithanandhini25.
medium.com/why-are-we-so-emotionally-invested-in-fictional-characters-and-worlds-8f0ca997e51e, June 30, 2021. Accessed 2 Aug. 2025.

Gelley, Alexander, “Character and Person: On the Presentation of Self in the Novel,” Narrative Crossings: Theory and Pragmatics of Prose Fiction. Johns Hopkins UP, Baltimore, 1987. As quoted in an essay by Anders Noren, “Relationships with the Reader: Examining Investment in a Fictional Character.” “English 25640, The Problem of Fictional Character,” U CHICAGO website, 2018. https://voices.uchicago.edu
/201801engl25640/. Accessed 5 Aug. 2025.

Copyright 2025 Margie Deck & Nancy Holder

COMMENTARY & CREATIVITY

On Mad-Doctors, Dr. Hardcastle, and Charles Altamont Doyle

by Anna Brindisi Behrens

At page 12, our hero has traveled to a nearby town seeking learned men to advise him as to what to do about his discovery of the creature in the cave. He is surprised at the results of his referral by a local doctor to a certain Mr. Picton:

Mr. Picton appeared to be a man of importance, as his brass plate was displayed upon the door of a considerable building on the outskirts of the town. I was about to ring his bell, when some misgiving came into my mind, and, crossing to a neighbouring shop, I asked the man behind the counter if he could tell me anything of Mr. Picton. ”Why,” said he, “he is the best mad doctor in Derbyshire, and yonder is his asylum.” You can imagine that it was not long before I had shaken the dust of Castleton from my feet and returned to the farm, cursing all unimaginative pedants who cannot conceive that there may be things in creation which have never yet chanced to come across their mole’s vision.

continued . . .

NAVIGATE THE STORY, PAGE BY PAGE

front cover & matter: a (home) • b • c • d    back cover: e

text: 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13
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YOU ARE HERE: 12

page 11 of the manuscript of The Terror of Blue John Gap

The autograph manuscript of “The Terror of Blue John Gap” reproduced above is courtesy of Dartmouth College Library, Rauner Special Collections, MS-93: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Transcription

my incredible adventure in the Cavern. I use the adjective with

a very definite meaning for I have had an experience since

which has shocked me almost as much as the other. I have

said that I was looking round for someone who could advise

me. There is a Doctor Mark Johnson who practices some few

miles away, to whom I had a note of recommendation from

Professor Saunderson. To him I drove, when I was strong

enough to get about, and I recounted to him my whole strange

experience. He listened intently and then carefully examined

me, paying special attention to my reflexes and the pupils

of my eyes. When he had finished he refused to discuss my

adventure, saying that it was entirely beyond him, but he

gave me the card of a Mr. Picton at Castleton, with the advice

that I should instantly go to him and tell him the story exactly

as I had done it to him. He was, according to Dr. Johnson,

the very man who was preeminently suited to help me. I

went on to the station therefore and made my way to the

little town which is some ten miles away. Mr. Picton

appeared to be a man of importance as his brass plate was

displayed upon the door of a considerable building on the

outskirts of the town. I was about to ring his bell when some

misgiving came into my mind, and, crossing to a

neighboring shop, I asked the man behind the counter if

he could tell me anything of Mr. Picton. "Why" said he

"he is the best mad doctor in Derbyshire and yonder is

his asylum". You can imagine that it was not long before

I had shaken the dust of Castleton from my feet, and

returned to the farm, cursing all unimaginative pedants

who cannot conceive that there may be things in creation

which have never yet chanced to come across their mole's

vision. After all, now that I am cooler, I can afford to

admit that I have been no more sympathetic to Armitage

than Dr. Johnson has been to me.

The full story as it was printed in The Strand is available at
The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia.