The Sign of the Four

Content Warning: This section contains outdated and offensive language and racist stereotypes.

The many references to India throughout the story form a motif that helps to reinforce the theme of British Imperialism and Its Impact. These references include the Sholto family’s many Indian (“Hindu”) servants, such as the “Hindu servant, clad in a yellow turban, white loose-fitting clothes, and a yellow sash” (24), who first answers the door at Thaddeus’s home. Additionally, Thaddeus’s study is decorated with Indian and Asian artifacts like a “carpet of amber and black,” “two great tiger-skins” meant to mimic “Eastern luxury,” and a “huge hookah” (26).

The motif of India also appears in Mary’s first account of her father’s disappearance, when she describes Morstan’s post as a British guard on the Andaman Islands (off the coast of India). There is also the diagram Mary shows to Holmes, which is drawn on paper of “Indian manufacture,” the repetition of several “Hindu” and “Mohammedan” names, the (highly offensive) account of the native population of the Andaman Islands, and finally the Agra treasure itself. These many references build up over the course of the novel as evidence of British imperial power in India.