Motivation of Crime in The Sign of Four

Zou Li

【Abstract】Spirit world is more significant with the fast development of material life .The Sign of Four is one of Arthur Conan Doyles popular novels. Through studying the motivation cause the four characters to commit the crime of the four characters， the readers are warned by the detrimental result caused by material desire and greedy. To attain the goal of “Less crime， better life”， people contribute to construct a peaceful and harmonious society.

【Key words】The Sign of Four； motivation of crime； material cause

1. Introduction

Arthur Conan Doyle， the author of Stories of Sherlock Holmes， who was born in a big family and was always short of money. During his school time， his love for literature blossomed. Conan Doyle has worked as a doctor， with very few patients， he attempted to make money by writing detective stories which changed his life. Arthur became a widely known writer and his works living in billions readers hearts.

After the second industrial revolution， Britain owned the hegemony among other European countries， became empire of the sun. The economy was thriving which never happened before. On one hand， Britain played a role as “world factory”， on the other hand， Britain grabbed more valuable lands. Every coin has two sides， no exception with the Britains development. Inequality between the rich and the poor， the change of social structure and the reform of Britain brought evil to peoples life. Crimes happened. Lacking of labor hands in factories， a large number of rural people crowed in the city. However， they did not get fairly rewards and their living conditions were very poor.

Motivation is the force that initiates， guides and maintains goal-oriented behaviors. It is what causes us to take action. For example， to grab a snack to reduce hunger or to work hard to get promotion are motivation of these behaviors. Different motivations are for different purposes. This paper mainly concern about criminals of motivation， which has a deep impact on characters behavior in Stories of Sherlock Holmes. In which， security motivation includes the motivation of revenge， fear and conquer. Stories of Sherlock Holmes is a popular object of study. General motivation of crime is about revenge， however nowadays motivation of material is also universal. This paper will help the readers to understand the motivation of material in The Sign of Four.

2. The Sign of Four

2.1 The main content of the case

It was July 7， 1877. Miss Morstan visited Holmes to seek help. Her father was an officer in an Indian regiment. About ten years ago， there was no news about her unfortunate father. The only friend of Morstans father in London was Major John Sholto， a man who once was in the same group of army with her father. A strange thing happened， about six years ago， every year upon the same date Miss Morstan cloud received a box， in the box， there has always appeared a very large and lustrous pearl. Later， Miss Morstan received a letter that invited her to a place. Holmes and Watson kept the appointment with Miss Morstan. Thaddeus Sholto， the inviter， told them his father had prospered in India and brought back with him a considerable sum of money， a large collection of valuable treasure. Thaddeus thought Morstan had the right to own a part of her fathers treasure. When they came to find Thaddeus brother—Bartholomew Sholtos lodge， Bartholomew has already been killed by a poisoned thorn and the treasure was gone. After a series of inference， Holmes made use of a dog to go in pursuit of the suspect. Although the chain was once broken， at last the islander was shot and the islander's master， Jonathan Small， was caught by the police. Before he was caught， He threw the treasure into several miles out to Thames. Here， the story was not over， Jonathan Small never killed one man， but the only murdered man was Bartholomew. The islander killed him by instinct. What makes the things happen in this way？ All are derived from the story in India， an extensive amounts of material possessions of money raised the desire of four person， the desire of material burned the lives of more than four victims. In short， this story illustrated that greedy for money leads to death.

2.2 Money is the root of evil

This story is special detective case， because murder is not the main character but dead still exist. Who takes the life？ Money. Not only in present days， but also during the past time， money dominates the peoples life and mind. If a man has a lot of money， he can live away from the poverty， hunger， humble and so on. Every common people pursue to live for the better life， not worse. People always possess some dark ideas， so does the four characters in the novel. The thoughts of human must be one of the most difficult thing to control， when a dark seed planted in your heart， it rooted on the cover of your sense， a majority of people are unable to break free， they let the money be their master. Everything has its own two sides， we enjoy the gratification of brought by money. Consequently， we still need to bear the sadness of brought by money. It is like a moth flying into the flame to burn its own body， money takes lives. This point of view is deeply depicted in this story.

3. The motivation of crime

A clear definition of “desire” is ： a strong wish to have or do something. Just as the name implies， the material desire means the strong wish to have huge number of wealth. As the old saying goes， “money is the root of evil”. In this story， more than four persons were killed because of desire. The readers can find out the relevant motivation of financial possession in the start. In the history of human existence and development， they experienced so much suffering and danger. When they realized the difficult position of survival， such as a riot， the desire of be in possession would be more urgent and intense. Indian Rebellion of Nationality broke the balance， a merchant who named Achmet became target of the four wicked person because of a iron box which with the precious stones and the precious pearls. Desiring for better life becomes the excuse of four mens greedy motivation. Wealth and survival have the very deep origin， so the individual in poverty is much easier to make a reckless move for himself or his family. Second we could not ignore the ways to satisfy the desire. The four wicked people chose to kill the merchant out of the reason that they could have the possession of the treasure. So the motivation of murder was material desire， the essence of it came from the desire of money， criminals are fear of being hampered， they believe the dead will not speak. In this case， Mostan and Sholto were tempted by money， too. They associated themselves with those four criminals to share the treasures. Although their hands were clear， their hearts have already been defiled.

3.1 The immanent cause

In this case， the author did not give the four people a detailed description. The readers try to speculate their underlying thought during reading. The only assured information about them was Sikh. Sikhism， a religion of Indian， Sikh was distinguished for its diligence and courage and excluded by the Indian caste system. In modern time， it might be a grateful religion， but in the old society Sikh was excluded and attacked by the Indian caste system. Johnathan Small and his clansmen were in a poor social environment， and gradually they had been torn by discrimination and wars. They lived in an unpleasant and oppressive life. When they kept feeling suffocated， they desired to do something to change the current situation. The greedy seeds were planted in their hearts.

3.2 The external cause

In this case， the author gave us more external information than the immanent description. The next paragraph quoted from The Sign of Four and can help readers to think about the reason.