The Sign of the Four

Dr. John Watson, the secondary protagonist and first-person narrator, is Holmes’s flat-mate, friend, and colleague. Previously a surgeon with the British Army, he was “invalided” (released from service) due to an injury sustained in Afghanistan. He now spends much of his time accompanying Holmes on his cases, which he begins to write about for publication. He is, in some ways, a foil to Holmes: emotional where Holmes is rational, with a more conventional education, and occasionally romantic notions. His writing, in narrating the case, demonstrates both his attentive accounts of Holmes’s methods and ideas, and his own somewhat poetic views of London.

Watson serves as the entry point for the reader. It is through his eyes that readers witness the cases and Holmes’s genius. Though Watson is Holmes’s biggest supporter and greatest friend, he often disagrees with Holmes, particularly in regard to his drug use. He also disagrees with Holmes’s opinion that emotions (and women) are dangerous and distracting. Unlike Holmes, who begins and ends the story without any essential changes to his character or position, Watson changes throughout, falling in love and ending the story engaged to Mary Morstan.

Miss Mary Morstan is the catalyst for the plot, as she brings a new case to Holmes. Watson describes her as young, blonde, refined, and attractive. Rather than a “damsel in distress,” she is portrayed as intelligent, calm, and determined. She is not in search of help out of concern for her own safety so much as concern for her missing father. She is also the love interest in the story. Her relationship with Watson appears to be a case of falling in love “at first sight,” and they become engaged within a week.

Mary is also a foil to the Sholtos and Jonathan Small in regard to their attitudes about wealth. While Sholto, Bartholomew, and Small become obsessed with the Agra treasure, both greedy and possessive over the prospect of yet more wealth, Mary is largely unconcerned with the treasure and its promises. When she and Watson discover that the treasure is gone, she is relieved rather than upset because it means she can marry Watson.

Thaddeus Sholto is the son of Major John Sholto, who, along with his twin brother Bartholomew, learns of Sholto’s ties to the missing Agra treasure and Morstan’s death. While Bartholomew, like their father, becomes greedy and obsessed with the treasure, Thaddeus takes a more balanced view of the situation. He is already wealthy and believes he does not need more. Instead, he wishes to do right by Mary, both because a portion of the treasure is rightfully hers, and as compensation for the loss of her father.

He is small and bald, with a fringe of red hair around the top of his head. He is nervous and twitchy and seems to be a hypochondriac, complaining of heart issues and asking for Watson’s medical opinion several times. However, he proves to be honorable and emerges from the end of the case no worse off than he began.

Major John Sholto, Thaddeus’s father, is seen only through Thaddeus’s and Small’s recollections as he is already dead prior to the events of the novel. He was Morstan’s friend and fellow soldier at the penal colony on the Andaman Islands. However, as Small explains, he betrayed the other thieves. Rather than sharing the treasure as agreed, he flees to England and keeps it for himself. His betrayal is compounded when he hides the truth of Morstan’s death from Mary, leaving her to suffer. His death-bed confession to his two sons further reveals the depths of his greed as he admits that, even now, he cannot stand to part with even a single piece of the treasure. Therefore he leaves it to his sons to send Mary the pearls after his death.