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More handpicked essays just for you.
Themes of books by Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie's style of writing
Agatha christie vocab
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“The ABC Murders” is about a detective by the name of Poirot who has to find clues on a killer who is killing people whose names are in alphabetical order. It started off with Alice Ascher from Andover. Then it went to Betty Barnard from Bexhill and then to Sir Carmichael Clarke from Churston. Each time the murderer committed a crime he would leave an ABC Train Map by the victim. The murderer was an experienced criminal who left no trace of his identity. He goes by the name of ABC. Before each murder ABC would send Poirot a letter saying the date and town the murder would happen. The relatives of the victims came together with Poirot to help try and get ahead of the criminal. In the ending Poirot reveals that the brother of Sir Carmichael Clarke, Franklin Clarke committed the crimes to draw away attention from him wanting to inherit his brothers treasures. He had to kill him so he couldn’t marry Thora Grey and not get the money. Franklin Clarke tried to frame the murders on Mr. Cust who is a travelling salesman. The setting is based in London, England. Poirot travels throughout Lon...
One July afternoon in 1931 on a cloudy and cool afternoon a police officer walks in the local areas detective office. The officer sets a dirty folder with a big brown splotch on it, which seems to be a coffee stain. Inside the stained folder contains 2 printed pages of check copies. The detective puts on a bewildered face and wonders what he is supposed to accomplish with the unsolvable papers. Little does the detective know he has a long road ahead of him on discovering the unsolved mystery of Lawrence Exeter Jr.
“There is a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line” (“Oscar Levant Quotes”).
Margaret Atwood’s novel, Alias Grace, nominated for the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel, depicts a young 16 year old girl who is found guilty of murdering her employer and his lover in conspiracy with James McDerrmott. James McDermott is put to death by hanging, but Grace is brought to prison because she is of the “weaker sex.” This is a reflection of the construction of femininity and masculinity of the mid and late nineteenth century. A social issue of the Victorian age was women being treated as subordinate to men. Queen Victoria says, “Victorian ideology of gender rested on the belief that women were both physically and intellectually the inferior sex”(YILDIRIM). Women were seen as highly susceptible to becoming mentally ill because of this belief. Women were subject to only be “housewives.” The novel, Alias Grace, accurately shows the construction of this gender identity through society, sexuality, and emotion while challenging it through Grace’s mother and Mrs. Humphrey.
In Malcolm Gladwell’s podcast, Generous Orthodoxy, he explains what generous orthodoxy is. The generous part of generous orthodoxy amounts to being open to making changes and seeing change as positive, and the orthodoxy points to a more traditional stance on values. Combined, these two concepts are ironic, because generally traditions aren’t changed easily, and the changes made aren’t always accepted by the community that stands behind those traditions. Gladwell also explains that to make a positive change in a tradition, the body that you are trying to change must be respected.
In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is set in Puritan New England during the 17th century. The scene in which the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale joins Hester and Pearl on the platform to showcase his sin is one which exemplifies Dimmesdale’s acceptance of his actions. Up until this point in the novel, Dimmesdale had hidden the fact that he had engaged in a sexual affair with Hester, a married woman. During the scene, Dimmesdale, distraught with guilt after seven years of living in secret shame, joins Hester in public to show his actions publicly. He then, being riddled with sickness, dies in contentment. Having finally accepted his actions, Dimmesdale can die without the torturous guilt of living a lie. Dimmesdale’s confession and ensuing downfall show that accepting the consequences of one’s own actions is the only way to truly achieve fulfillment and satisfaction in life, where as hiding one’s actions results in inner torture.
The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a cult classic. And with good reason. Anyone who simply believes that the title of this book just signifies that the protagonist wears a scarlet “A” on her dress in punishment of her adultery is ignorant. Obviously this paper would not be required if such were true. Instead, The Scarlet Letter is extremely ambiguous. One can argue that the scarlet letter is a character itself. I intend to flesh this out in literary, historic, and symbolic terms.
Agatha Christie depicts a descriptive, fictional murder mystery in the novel ABC Murders. With the help of the narrator, Captain Arthur Hastings, Hercule Poirot solves the murders of four victims who are killed in alphabetical order by Franklin Clarke, more commonly known as ABC. The story elicits copious high points but the rare low point as well. Examples of these aspects can be found within the plot, setting, characters, conflict, and theme of the book. According to Stanford’s Suggested Reading List, the book is considered a “must read.” ABC Murders definitely holds up to the reputation placed upon it by Stanford and would be a favorable choice for anyone wishing to read a well written novel.
Agatha Christie (full name Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller) was born in Torquay, England on September fifth, 1890. Agatha's father's name was Fredrick Miller, he was an American, and her mother's name was Clarissa 'Clara' Miller. Agatha had an older brother named Monty and an older sister, Margret. Margret received a formal education while Clara decided against that path for Agatha. Agatha taught herself to read at five years of age and the rest of her education came from governesses, tutors, and French finishing schools (Agatha Christie Biography) . While in school Agatha developed a passion for singing, along with her writing, but never perused it as a career. At an early age Agatha demonstrated her creativity by acting out stories for fun. At age eleven Agatha's father died which brought her even closer to the already close relationship she had with her mother. After her father died, her mother took up traveling and would take Agatha along with her. Agatha developed a love for traveling and continued to do so as she grew older. In the year of 1912 Agatha met a young man named Archie Christie, an aviator in the Royal Flying Corps. After a two-year romance, Agatha and Archie were married on Christmas Eve in 1914. Shortly after their marriage Archie was sent off to fight in World War I. During that time Agatha did her part in the war by becoming a nurse for the Voluntary Aid Detachment of the Red Cross Hospital in Torquay (Agatha Christie- Biography and Works). Agatha and Archie had one daughter, Rosalind, who was born in 1919. In 1920 Agatha’s writing career began with her first book, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, was published. The book received good reviews and because she was so descriptive with the poison it got a review in th...
Morals are principles which help people to behave rightly. Also, they need to protect the rules. However, in Agatha Christie’s novel, Murder on the Orient Express, the characters act dishonestly: twelve passengers on the Orient Express murder Cassetti, they lie to the Belgian private detective, Hercule Poirot and the protagonist overlooks the passengers. Agatha Christie wrote these intensions fairly. From Murder on the Orient Express, the readers can learn that some set of morals are endorsed.
First, Holmes is the first scientific detective. Second, all of his cases ended up solved so therefore there are no flaws in his method. Well after researching in and out of books and web sites, I finally found the "true" way Holmes solved crimes. The site I found such spectacular information is Sherlockian.Net. This sight was helpful and it made me understand most of the stories by Conan Doyle.
In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne analyzes Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth. In the story, Hester is the main character of the story and was called Mistress Prynne (Hawthorne 70). Dimmesdale, in the story was referred to as Reverend Dimmesdale (Hawthorne 90). Chillingworth was originally named, Roger Prynne but later in the story he changed his name to Roger Chillingworth. In the story, Hester committed adultery with Dimmesdale against Chillingworth and in the beginning she got punished and sent to prison and later she got to get out of prison but with the exception of having to wear the letter A on her breast every time she went out in to town.
I enjoyed this story and whislt reading it I wondered if it was a good detectivew story and therefore I compared it to W.H. Audens description of a detective story. Which is "A murder occurs; many are suspected; all but one suspect, who is the murderer, are eliminated; the murderer is arrested or dies." While a murder does occur and many are suspected but that is were the similarity ends. Because the suspects are not eliminated down to a single criminal and a murderer is not arrested or dies. Perhaps this is because Agatha Christie believed that the outcome does not always have to do justice in accordance with the law and rather that it is morally right.
Creative works are organised into a specific genre. Genre can be concisely defined as a set of conventions and expectations which audiences will grow accustomed to over time. Conventions within a genre will limit and shape the meaning perceived by audiences. Through time, as contexts alter, so do values; though conventions remain the same. Some composers make their texts more appealing once they challenge the original conventions of a genre and thus attract a wider audience. By doing this, composers are able to present their audiences with new themes and values relative to their social contexts. Crime fiction has often adapted these processes and has become a genre of its own with intriguing plots fuelling the audience’s inquisitive nature. English director, Alfred Hitchcock (also known as ‘The Master of Suspense’) was an expert in creating the desired amount of suspense within a crime film. He was able to transfer the values of his context on to the silver screen and subvert traditional conventions. Hitchcock’s film ‘Rear Window’ (1954) displays a perfect example of how the conventions of crime fiction can be appropriated to still involve the traditional features of crime. Through his use of exquisite cinematic techniques and immense detail, responders are given the thrill they expect of the genre.
Now, let us look at “The Speckled Band” there is no doubt that it is a
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was first published in 1926, and is one of many of Christie’s Hercule Poirot Mystery novels. In this novel, we obtain a deeper understanding of the impact social standings has and the influence it has on how people perceive you. The mystery takes place in an era where social class was extremely divided, and it is shown throughout the novel how a character’s social class can hinder or help. Even when the characters are faced with a crime, and the person who did it is unknown, social class still plays a magnificent role in unraveling the explanation of who would have committed something as dreadful as murdering a man. The Murder of Roger