The Sign of Four: GCSE English Literature
Empire, detection, treasure, Holmes — Conan Doyle
The short version
Imperial loot; the Agra treasure; Tonga and racist othering you must handle critically; Holmes’s cocaine as character method.
Key idea
Mary Morstan asks Holmes about her missing father and yearly pearls. They meet Thaddeus Sholto; his brother Bartholomew is found dead, a “sign of the four” beside him. Holmes traces a wooden-legged man, Jonathan Small, and his companion Tonga. A steam launch chase on the Thames. Tonga is killed; Small is caught. He tells of a pact in India over the Agra treasure, prison, and revenge on Major Sholto. The treasure box is empty — sunk. Watson proposes to Mary; Holmes returns to cocaine when the case’s stimulation ends.
Go a bit deeper
Do not memorise every page. Memorise the hinges. In the exam, name where you are (act / stave / chapter / scene).
Worked example
Worked example
Grade 2–3: You can say what happens, in order. Grade 5–6: You pick the bits that answer the question and skip the rest. Grade 9: You treat plot as structure: each turning point changes power, guilt, love or hope — and you say so.
Lessons in this topic
- The story (whole-text map)
- People (the writer’s methods)
- Ideas the question might name
- Methods, form and context
- Write the essay (Grade 2 to Grade 9)
In the app each lesson is video (when we have a real YouTube id) then intro, learn and summary steps.
What the examiner wants
Extracts: Baker Street, the chase on the Thames, Small’s confession. Pair the detection plot with empire. A sophisticated answer critiques how Doyle presents Tonga, rather than repeating the book’s stereotypes as fact.
Try these questions
Cover the answers and have a go first. Worked solutions are underneath.
In the exam, The Sign of Four is
A useful whole-text reference is
Characters should be written as
A theme paragraph must
Common mistakes
- A plot dump from the opening to the ending, with no question word, is a Grade 2–3 answer wearing a lot of ink. Underline the question. Only tell the story that proves it.
- Do not repeat Doyle’s slurs about Tonga as if they were facts. Say: Doyle others Tonga as an exotic threat so Holmes’s England can look orderly. That is AO3 + AO2.
- A theme dump that ignores the question fails AO1 no matter how many quotations you own.
- “Shakespeare was born in 1564” unlocks nothing. “A Jacobean audience had just seen a gunpowder plot against a king, so killing Duncan is an attack on order itself” unlocks the horror of the murder.
Answers and working
Frequently asked questions
Is this open book?
No. AQA English Literature is closed-book. You get an extract on Paper 1; you must still write about the whole text. Learn short exact quotations.
Which exam board is this The Sign of Four page for?
The ideas are board-agnostic for AQA, Edexcel, OCR, WJEC and CCEA. Paper lengths and question numbers differ — check your specification.
Is English Literature tiered?
No. GCSE English Literature is untiered. Everyone sits the same papers. AO4 SPaG is awarded on certain questions — check the paper.
Learn, try, get feedback, fix the mistake
Open the stepped lesson, then the quiz with hints. Required-practical and calculation questions use the same method you will need in the paper.
Learn The Sign of Four on ReviseEasy →Related revision
More GCSE revision
ReviseEasy is a GCSE revision website, not a Maths-only site. Lessons, quizzes and flashcards are live for Maths, Combined Science, Triple Biology, Chemistry and Physics, English Language and English Literature. History, Geography and languages are next.