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Themes of books by Agatha Christie
Analyses of Agatha Christie's works
Agatha christie style of writing
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Recommended: Themes of books by Agatha Christie
The short story, Witness for the Prosecution is a murder mystery written by Agatha Christi. This story centers around a man named Leonard Vole who is charged for the murder of a rich, eccentric woman named Emily French. Suspicions were raised against Vole when French’s maid, Janet Mackenzie places him at the house at the time of the murder and he is named the primary heir to the estate. The only person who can give him an alibi is his wife Romaine Heilger but, she despises him and ends up being a witness for the prosecution. Fortunately, his lawyer, Mr. Mayherne receives a letter that ruins Romaine’s testimony and takes the focus away from Vole. The jury finds Vole innocent, however, Mr. Mayherne soon realizes that justice has not been served. …show more content…
Christi uses these conflicts to pull readers into the story.
The first conflict Vole faces is with the justice system. He has been charged with a murder he claims he didn’t commit. His lawyer, Mr. Mayherne, fears the evidence against his client looks very grave and he believes he is guilty. However, his job is to build the best defense possible. He knows prosecutors will question the relationship of a young man with an older woman. They will try to prove that Vole, who is poor, was seeking the company of the wealthy woman to take advantage of her. Vole claims he could not refuse her requests for his company because she seemed lonely and after some time he became fond of her. In fact, she reminded him of his aunt who had passed away. Mr. Mayherne is very concerned that Vole was handling Ms. French’s finances and was named as primary heir to
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This conflict presents itself when Mr. Mayherne meets with Romaine to discuss her husband’s alibi. She despises her husband and seems to be scheming a plan to get rid of him. She states, “… would like to see him hanged by the neck till he is dead.” Vole’s lawyer is shocked by this woman’s outburst and feels like, “She was trumping up the whole story”, and he realizes he cannot put her on the witness stand because she would certainly sink his client. Since they were married, Mayherne explains, “You cannot be asked to give evidence against your husband—". Romaine shocks him by revealing that they are not married. She is an actress from Vienna and they could not marry because she is still married to a man in a mental institution. When Vole is informed of Romaine’s response he does not seem surprised and this makes Mayherne a little suspicious. Romaine becomes a witness for the prosecution and the case seems doomed. One evening, Mr. Mayherne receives a note from someone who claims to have evidence that will discredit Romaine. He meets with a mysterious older woman who has letters from Romaine which reveal she has a lover and wants to get rid of Vole. When this is revealed in court her testimony is thrown out. The Jury quickly returns with a not guilty verdict. Mayherne is ready to congratulate his client he notices Romaine’s, “…right hand clenching and unclenching itself unconsciously all the time.” He
In the court room Mr. Hooks makes a point with the evidence he is given and testimonies by witnesses to prosecute Mr. Miyamoto. Mr. Hooks takes some drastic measures by using personal attacks and being prejudice towards the defendant to convince the jurors that Mr. Miyamoto is a killer. During the trail Alvin hooks b...
The Return of Martin Guerre, written by Natalie Zemon Davis, is the tale of a court case that takes place in sixteenth century France. Martin Guerre is a peasant who deserted his wife and family for many years. While Martin Guerre is gone, a man named Arnaud du Tilh arrives at Martin’s village and claims to be Martin Guerre. Bertrande, who is Guerre’s wife, Guerre’s sisters, and many of the villagers, accepts the imposter. After almost three years of being happily married, Bertrande takes the fraud to court under pressure of Pierre Guerre, her stepfather and Guerre’s brother. Arnaud du Tilh is almost declared innocent, but the real Martin Guerre appears in the courthouse. Throughout this tale, many factors of the peasant life are highlighted. The author gives a very effective and detailed insight to a peasant’s life during the time of Martin Guerre. Davis does a successful job of portraying the peasant lifestyle in sixteenth century France by accentuating the social, cultural, and judicial factors of everyday peasant life.
A year passes without any incidents and senior patiently waiting, knowing was once again junior’s mischief was upon them. Senior gets a call from Miss Daisy Windsor, her complaint about Junior was very sever and she had to speak with Lawrence Senior as soon as possible about his sons actions. Senior walked in and his flashy gold watch and diamond ring blinded Miss Daisy. She implied that he was a very wealthy man. She looked inside his eyes and saw dollar signs. Lawrence writes a check for his sons actions and a little more. He then walks out a very happy man. They had a deep connection and Senior realized he made a big mistake knowing he betrayed Mrs. Lawrence. The affair continued for 3 years. Mrs. Lawrence never found out, never even expected the
The use of eyewitnesses has been a constant in of criminal justice system since its very beginning. Unfortunately, people do not make the best witnesses to a crime. The person may not have seen the actual criminal, but someone that looks similar to them. The witness may lie about what he or she may have scene. Also the witness can be influenced by the police as to who or what they saw at the time of the crime. The witness or victims memory of the person may have faded so that they don’t remember exactly what had seen, which could be disastrous for the accused.
...r as if they were in the courtroom of a murder trial. In some ways, the use of advanced diction could cause problems for the reader to comprehend it, however the author has worked in small descriptions of what some of the more advanced judiciary terms are. Finally, the author uses a very advanced characterization of virtually all the characters mentioned within the story, from the mature and well-respected Theodore Boone to the every-so opinionated office secretary Elsa. Without a doubt, Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer entices the reader into the mystery that is will Mr. Duffy be proved innocent or guilty? John Grisham does a great job into hooking the reader into wanting more of this eye-opening crime and drama novel.
Psychological research shows that eyewitness testimony is not always accurate, therefore it should not be used in the criminal justice system. Discuss.
In A Jury of Peers by Susan Glaspell, the story revolves around the sudden death of John Wright. There are five characters that participate in the investigation of this tragedy. Their job is to find a clue to the motive that will link Mrs. Wright, the primary suspect, to the murder. Ironically, the ladies, whose duties did not include solving the mystery, were the ones who found the clue to the motive. Even more ironic, Mrs. Hale, whose presence is solely in favor of keeping the sheriff s wife company, could be contributed the most to her secret discovery. In this short story, Mrs. Hale s character plays a significant role to Mrs. Wright s nemesis in that she has slight feelings of accountability and also her discovery of the clue to the motive.
The article is predominantly a court dialogue of the Bradley’s and any witnesses about the alleged abuse from Mr. Bradley against Mrs. Bradley. Providing pictures of strangulation marks, blackened eyes, and witnessed whom Mr. Bradley threatened and or harassed, Mr. Bradley found a rebuttal for each of the claims. The answers that Mrs. Bradley provided Judge for his questions showed how hard it was for her to leave her husband, how scared she and her family were. This article also provides information about voicemails Mr. Bradley left her parents threatening to kill their daughter if they didn’t send her back to his home. The article discusses in detail their treacherous relationship and Mrs. Bradley’s death. The article is from a periodical and was not peer reviewed, however the article is a dialogue from court with no personal opinion from the author. I believe this to be my strongest
During the identification and prosecution of a suspect, eyewitnesses are the most important. Eyewitness testimony needs to be reliable as it can have serious implications to the perceived guilt or innocence of a defendant. Unfortunately, the reliability of eyewitness testimony is questionable because there is a high number of eyewitness misidentification. Rattner (1988) studied 205 cases and concluded that eyewitness misidentification was the factor most often associated with wrongful conviction (52%). Eyewitness testimony can be affected by many factors. A substantial literature demonstrates own group biases in eyewitness testimony. For example, the own-race bias, in which people are better at recognizing faces of their own race versus another
Eyewitness identification and testimony play a huge role in the criminal justice system today, but skepticism of eyewitnesses has been growing. Forensic evidence has been used to undermine the reliability of eyewitness testimony, and the leading cause of false convictions in the United States is due to misidentifications by eyewitnesses. The role of eyewitness testimony in producing false confessions and the factors that contribute to the unreliability of these eyewitness testimonies are sending innocent people to prison, and changes are being made in order to reform these faulty identification procedures.
The protagonists, The Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont, consider it their life’s ambition to sadistically control and dominate those around them through sexual intrigue. These two villains are indeed locked in psychological combat to see who can actually ‘out-do’ the other in stalking, capturing and destroying the souls of others. Taking absolute pleasure in ripping any virtue from the hearts of their prey, Merteuil and Valmont wave their accomplishments in front of each other like spoils of war. The less the chance of surrender, the more relentless is the pursuit.
There has been considerable debate worldwide, regarding the accuracy of eyewitness testimony in the criminal justice system. Particularly, arguments have surrounded wrongful convictions that have resulted from incorrect eyewitness evidence (Areh, 2011; Howitt, 2012; Nelson, Laney, Bowman-Fowler, Knowles, Davis & Loftus, 2011). The purpose of this essay is to consider psychological research about the accuracy of eyewitness testimony and its placement in the criminal justice system. Firstly, this essay will define how eyewitnesses and their testimonies are used within the criminal justice system and the current debate surrounding its usage. Secondly, the impact of post-identification feedback will be used to show the affect on the confidence of a witness. Thirdly, studies around gender related differences will show how a witnesses gender can affect memory recall and accuracy. Fourthly, empirical studies will be used to highlight how a psychological experience called change blindness can cause mistakes in eyewitness identification. Finally, the effect of cross-examination will be used to explore the impact on eyewitness accuracy. It will be argued, that eyewitness testimony is not accurate and highly subjective, therefore, the criminal justice system must reduce the impact that eyewitness testimony is allowed to have. Developing better policies and procedures to avoid wrongful convictions by misled judges and jury members can do this.
(a) Prosecutors have nearly limitless discretion in the most critical matters they must consider, yet they are held to very high ethical standards.
By the end of the play Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters found the dead canary in Mrs. Wright’s sewing kit. The canary had marks around its neck inferring that it had been strangled just like Mr. Wright, but they faced a dilemma on whether or not to turn in the evidence. In the end they decided to withhold the evidence from their husbands. By keeping this evidence from their husbands the two women chose to defend not only Mrs. Wright, but all women during this time period. They felt that the prejudices and discriminatory acts of men during this time period towards women were not acceptable. Men of this time belittled their wives and these women tried to challenge that philosophy. Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale help show the audience what women in this time period had to endure in order to get back their freedom.
The jurors’ room is not a very large room and to make matters worse they are in the middle of a heat wave. The condition of the building is in poor working order there is no air conditioner and the only fan available is broken. As the jury members try to deal with the unbearable heat it does not take long before the restless jury men take a vote. Eleven out twelve jurors find the boy guilty as charged; however Juror #8 refuses to convict this young boy because he believes there is reasonable drought. It is up to Juror #8 Henry Fonda, to convince the other members of the jury to go back through and revisit the evidence. As the group begins to sort through the facts their attitudes and viewpoints begin to produce enormous conflict. Juror #8 Fonda, refuses to back down he knows all too well that the fate of the young boy lies in their hands.