Discuss Doyle’s Sign of Four

 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s work The Sign of Four was written in the context of the Indian Mutiny of 1857. What ideas does Doyle convey about the Mutiny? Does he reiterate the contemporary national British mythology about India, the Mutiny, and its aftermath? How? How are the British represented in this context? How are the Indians represented? What ideas about race does it convey? What role does the hero, Sherlock Holmes, play in the context of the Mutiny? Is the novel a historical testimony on fictional distortion of the time period it represents? Why? Discuss and cite specific examples from the novel to support your argument.