Themes — Justice, Empire & Colonialism

Themes are the big ideas that run through the entire novel. AQA expects you to track these themes across the text and connect them to context. This lesson covers three closely linked themes: justice, Empire, and colonialism.

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Justice

Justice — and its limits — is the central theme of The Sign of Four. The novel asks: who has the right to judge? Who gets justice, and who does not?

How Conan Doyle presents justice

Stage of the novel	How justice is presented	Key moment
Opening (Ch. 1–2)	Mary Morstan seeks justice for her father's disappearance	She brings her case to Holmes
Investigation (Ch. 3–9)	Holmes pursues justice through rational deduction	Systematic analysis of clues
Climax (Ch. 10)	Justice is violent — Tonga is shot and killed	Thames chase; Tonga's death
Resolution (Ch. 11–12)	Small is captured, but the treasure is lost forever	Justice is partial — no one gets the treasure

Different types of justice in the novel

Type of justice	Character	Outcome
Legal justice	Athelney Jones / the police	Small is arrested; Thaddeus wrongly arrested too
Rational justice	Holmes	The mystery is solved through evidence
Poetic justice	Major Sholto	He dies in guilt and fear — punished by conscience
Denied justice	Jonathan Small	Betrayed by Sholto; loses the treasure twice
Imperial "justice"	The British Empire	Small and the Four are imprisoned for decades

Is justice achieved?

The novel's ending is ambiguous:

• Small is captured — but has he truly received justice? He was betrayed by Sholto first.
• The treasure is lost — nobody benefits from it, as if the stolen wealth of Empire cannot bring good.
• Tonga is killed without trial — his death is treated as insignificant.
• Mary receives no fortune — but she gains Watson's love, which the novel presents as more valuable.

Examiner's tip: When writing about justice, always discuss its limitations. A grade 9 response might argue: "Conan Doyle presents justice in The Sign of Four as partial and problematic. While Holmes solves the mystery and Small is captured, the treasure — the object around which all injustice revolves — is lost to the Thames. Nobody is truly made whole. This suggests that justice, in a world shaped by imperial exploitation, can never be fully achieved."

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The British Empire

The British Empire is woven into every layer of The Sign of Four — from the characters' backgrounds to the treasure itself.

Empire in the characters

Character	Connection to Empire
Watson	Army surgeon in the Second Afghan War; wounded at Maiwand
Captain Morstan	Officer in the 34th Bombay Infantry; served in India
Major Sholto	Military officer in India; stole the Agra treasure
Jonathan Small	Served in the Indian Army; lost his leg in India
Tonga	Andaman Islander — a colonised subject
The "Four"	Sikh soldiers involved in the 1857 Rebellion

The Agra treasure as a symbol of Empire

The Agra treasure is the novel's most important symbol:

The Agra Treasure
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  Stolen from an Indian rajah during the 1857 Rebellion
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  Corrupts everyone who touches it:
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  Small → imprisoned for decades
  Sholto → lives in guilt, dies in fear
  Morstan → dies during an argument about it
  Bartholomew → murdered for it
  Mary → expects wealth but receives nothing
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  Finally lost to the Thames — the wealth of Empire
  cannot be possessed without moral cost

Examiner's tip: The treasure's journey is one of the most important things to analyse. It moves from India (colonial exploitation) through British hands (corruption and betrayal) to the Thames (lost forever). This arc suggests that Conan Doyle recognises — at least implicitly — that imperial wealth is morally tainted and ultimately destructive.

The Indian Rebellion of 1857

Small's backstory is set during and after the Indian Rebellion (also called the Indian Mutiny or the Sepoy Mutiny):

Historical fact	How it appears in the novel
Indian soldiers (sepoys) rebelled against the East India Company	Small describes the chaos and violence of the uprising
The Rebellion was triggered by cultural and religious offences	Small presents it as dangerous and terrifying
The British suppressed the Rebellion with extreme violence	Small's story normalises British military dominance
The Rebellion led to direct British government control of India (the Raj)	The novel reflects the post-Rebellion imperial order

Conan Doyle's attitude to Empire

Conan Doyle's attitude is complex:

• He was broadly supportive of the Empire — he later wrote pro-imperial propaganda during the Boer War.
• However, in The Sign of Four, the Empire is associated with corruption, violence, and greed.
• The treasure brings nothing but suffering to every character who pursues it.
• The portrayal of Tonga reflects unquestioned racism, suggesting that Conan Doyle shared many of his era's prejudices.

A nuanced response will acknowledge this complexity: Conan Doyle does not set out to critique Empire, but the logic of his plot — where imperial treasure brings universal destruction — contains an implicit critique that may exceed his conscious intention.

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Colonialism and Race

The Sign of Four reveals Victorian attitudes to colonised peoples with uncomfortable clarity.

Tonga and racial "othering"

Tonga is described using language that strips him of humanity:

Victorian racist trope	How Tonga is portrayed
The "savage"	Described as wild, dangerous, and animalistic
Lack of language	Given no dialogue — denied a voice
Physical dehumanisation	His appearance is described in grotesque terms
Disposable	Shot and drowned; his death is treated as insignificant
Exotic threat	He represents the dangers of the colonial world

India as the "exotic other"

India in the novel functions as a place of danger, mystery, and moral corruption:

• It is where the treasure originates — wealth comes from colonial exploitation.
• It is where Small commits murder — the colonies corrupt British soldiers.
• It is where the Rebellion occurs — the colonised world is violent and threatening.
• It is described through British eyes — the reader never hears an Indian perspective.

Critical analysis of race in the novel

Reading	Argument
Conan Doyle reflects his era	The racism was typical of 1890s Britain; he was not unusual
The novel reinforces racism	By dehumanising Tonga and silencing Indian voices, the novel perpetuates imperial ideology
The novel contains implicit critique	The treasure's destruction suggests imperial plunder is morally unsustainable
Modern readers should read critically	Acknowledge the racism while analysing the novel's literary and historical significance

Examiner's tip: When discussing race and colonialism, always adopt a critical analytical tone. Avoid simply condemning or excusing the text. Instead, show how the portrayal reflects historical attitudes and consider what a modern reader might think: "Conan Doyle's dehumanising portrayal of Tonga reflects the racist assumptions that underpinned Victorian imperialism. Modern readers should recognise that this characterisation served to justify colonial domination by presenting colonised peoples as less than human."

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Grade 9 Model Paragraph: Empire

Question: How does Conan Doyle explore the theme of Empire in The Sign of Four?