Character Analysis in Agatha Christie's Early Detective Stories: Women & Men, Study notes of English

Download Character Analysis in Agatha Christie's Early Detective Stories: Women & Men and more Study notes English in PDF only on Docsity! Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies The Traditional English Village and Its Stock Figures in Some Novels by Agatha Christie Zlata Leibnerová Supervisor: PhDr. Lidia Kyzlinková, CSc., M. Litt. Brno 2007 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………….. 1 Preface This thesis attempts to compare and contrast the English village and its inhabitants as portrayed in the novels by Agatha Christie. It is based on the analysis of eight detective stories that take place in the country and were written at two different periods of the twentieth century. Agatha Christie has been often reproached for having created “a timeless, changeless world, peopled by cardboard characters” (Barnard 133). Her portrayal of the country in particular represents the target for the criticism. The English villages the author created are referred to as Mayhem Parva, which is to be defined as “a world shut off from the political and social preoccupations of the day” (Barnard 34) and their inhabitants are said to be based on clichés and stereotypes, lacking any psychological depth. These assumptions led me to define the area of interest of my thesis, the village and its figures, and the aim of my work is to trace whether these claims are well-founded or not. A village is an ideal setting of a detective story because it provides the writer with an enclosed group of people. Throughout her career, Agatha Christie wrote many novels that take place in the country. Her rural settings are rarely anchored in space, they are predominantly fictitious. However, their creation was inspired by the places Christie visited during her life (Morgan 176). The best known village is without doubt St Mary Mead, a place where one of the author’s most famous detectives, Miss Marple, lives. It is a quiet, peaceful place where everyone knows each other and any one new stands out a mile. Other villages such as Wychwood, Sittaford or King’s Abbot are similar to this one. To show whether these communities can be really perceived as sealed from the outside world I decided to base my thesis on the comparison of the English village as portrayed at the beginning and at the end of Christie’s career. 2 However, the village serves only as a starting point of the thesis. At the core of the work lie the village characters. The detective stories of the Golden Age period do not usually leave any place for worked-out character analyses or complicated personal relationships. This allows the reader to concentrate solely on the resolution of the puzzle. In her stories, Agatha Christie introduced a set of figures that, as mentioned above, are referred to as “cardboard” or “flat”, terms used for types that “are constructed round a single idea or quality” (Forster 73). Thus, the reader usually knows what to expect from them and recognizes them as soon as they appear on the scene. The village in particular is a place where the author widely used her stock characters. It is due to the fact that unlike the city, the village is seen as a stable place where people do not stay just for a while. It can be associated with a small number of residents, usually elderly people, who settled there for the rest of their lives. Thus, the typical inhabitants of Christie’s villages are retired army officers, gossipy spinsters, a vicar, a doctor and a squire. Apart from these figures, the majority of villages also feature other characters that can be identified with Christie’s detective stories, such as independent women, wicked men, ne’er-do-well sons, ordinary wives and servants. These characters are definitely worth noticing as they are not only typical of Christie’s writing but their way of life might give us an insight into society of the time. It is also worth exploring whether it is true that Christie relied on these stock types throughout her whole career or whether she changed them, described them more elaborately or introduced some new characters. To provide a thorough analysis of the above mentioned figures, the thesis is divided into eight chapters, each dedicated to the respective characters. As the life in the countryside revolves around the vicarage and a consulting room of the local doctor is also of great importance, the roles of vicars and doctors are explored in one of the chapters. In the part entitled Servants, I illustrate how Christie wrote about these lower-class characters and the chapter called People Who Run 3 the Village Life is dedicated to the aristocracy and upper-class representatives. The thesis also focuses on the portrayal of women at different stages of their lives (Young Independent Women, Wives and Mothers, Spinsters and Widows) and the two remaining chapters concentrate on the description of qualities of Christie’s army officers and on the way the writer depicts the young male characters. Apart from this, the work also includes general background that relates to the period when the detective stories were created. This part provides information concerning the genre, the author and the English village of the twentieth century. As already mentioned, the principal task is to show what the village figures of Christie’s stories are like, what position they have in the village community and whether they undergo some changes or not. Christie’s work spans six decades. During that time British society underwent numerous significant changes. To demonstrate whether the author reflects this development and whether she creates new characters that correspond to the alteration of the village communities, the thesis concentrates on the analysis of eight novels that take place in the countryside. Four of them date back to the beginning of Christie’s career, to the period from 1925 to 1940, and they are as follows: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), The Murder at the Vicarage (1930), The Sittaford Mystery (1931), Murder is Easy (1939). The rest of the books were written towards the end of the author’s career, from 1960 to 1975: The Pale Horse (1961), The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side (1962), Hallowe’en Party (1969) and Nemesis (1971). 6 important role. Once the criminal is arrested, “innocence is restored” (qtd. in Hubly 512) and the community is purged from the sin. Thus, according to Auden, the detective stories play with the dichotomy of guilt and innocence and that provides the explanation of the portrayal of an innocent and idealized setting, for example a village. There were many detective story writers in Britain in the 1920s, however, a prominent position was held by female authors who brought some novelties to the genre, such as introduction of domestic features and social issues. The most famous women writers of the period are usually called the English Queens of Crime and they are as follows: Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham and Agatha Christie. These authors often break the restricting rules and their works bring more than just a masterly constructed mystery (Trodd 129-130). Later on, as the demands of the public on the authenticity of the story increased, the detective story genre gradually gave way to the different crime fiction whose form is not that limited by the fair-play rules which prevented the writers from concealing any important clues from the reader (James 5). The principal change is marked by the basic question: This time it is not who but why that matters. Thus, the psychology of the characters plays a much more important role. Furthermore, crime fiction also focuses on the police procedures and expertise which are rarely developed in the classical detective fiction (Symons 183-185). 1. 2 Agatha Christie As mentioned above, Agatha Christie started writing in the 1920s, during the period that is known as the Golden Age of detective fiction and the author herself is often called the Greatest Queen of Crime. During her career, she wrote over eighty crime novels and short story collections and many plays out of which the best-known is without doubt 7 The Mousetrap that appeared on the scene in 1952 and has become the longest-running play in the world. Besides, she is also an author of six romantic novels that were published under the name of Mary Westmacott (“Queen of Crime”). Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller was born in Torquay on September 15, 1890. She was the youngest of three children of an American, Frederick Miller, and his English wife Clarissa. She was educated at home and encouraged to write from the early childhood. During the First World War she worked as a nurse with the Voluntary Aid Detachment and later on, she joined the dispensary. This proved to be very important experience. Consequently, she profits from her knowledge of different poisons in her detective stories. It was during the war that she married Archibald Christie, an officer in the Royal Flying Corps. Unfortunately, the marriage did not last and the couple got divorced in 1928. Her second husband was an archaeologist, Max Mallowan, who she met in Iraq, in an ancient city of Ur. She often accompanied her husband on the archaeological excavations and his work inspired her to write several detective stories, including a novel entitled Death Comes as the End that takes place in ancient Egypt. At the age of eighty- one, Agatha Christie was appointed a Dame Commander of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II. The author was always interested in puzzle books and riddles and it was her sister Madge who inspired her to write her first detective story (Christie, An Autobiography 235- 236). Thus, in 1920 The Mysterious Affair at Styles was published. However, the turning point in Christie’s career came six years later when she wrote The Murder of Roger Ackroyd which was a huge success mainly because of the ingenious trick played on the readers. To mislead the public, Christie broke one of the conventions to which detective fiction conformed: The narrator of the story turned out to be the murderer. 8 During her career, Christie infringed many other rules, for example it was a policeman who became murderer in one of her novels. In her works, the writer introduced a large number of detectives and the most famous one was without doubt Hercule Poirot, a Belgian refugee with an extraordinary moustache and an egg-shaped head. He is in a way a great amateur detective in the style of Sherlock Holmes who relies on his “little grey cells” and his Watson is represented by not particularly intelligent Captain Hastings. However, this character is not a hero of the Edwardian period. In a way, by introducing this character Christie mocks the Great Detective of the past: “Poirot is a ‘little man’. Under stress he builds houses of cards or when the going gets really rough orders a special tisane” (Light 78). He is rather a creation of the post-war period which “made the notion of the conquering detective unpalatable to some” (Light 73) and in this sense the author made him modern, endowing him with modernist attitudes, such as love of geometric designs or central heating. The refusal of any heroism can also be seen in the portrayal of other well-known detectives, such as Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, a young and anti-romantic couple, or Miss Jane Marple, an old spinster from St Mary Mead who is an expert on human nature. There is another aspect of modernity typical of Christie’s writing. She changes the Victorian image of sweet home by bringing crime right into the middle of the family. The murderer is usually not someone from the outside, it is a member of an enclosed group of people within the family community. Furthermore, in her work, Christie is unsentimental about the past. She does not focus on the aristocracy but on the life of the changing middle class: “Her dream is not of a grander, nobler existence but of a quiet life. Her characters are not the large and sweeping aristocrats of the literary imagination but little people” (Light 106). 11 of the newcomers also influences village society. Thus, in the 1950s we usually cannot speak any more about closed village communities attached to the farmland. The population in the countryside is more heterogeneous and the romantic image of the traditional English village is almost gone. 12 2. People Who Run the Village Life Agatha Christie started writing after the First World War, during a period when the life in the British countryside changed significantly. However, the process of reshaping of the village hierarchical system began much earlier than that and to understand the position of the ruling class in the countryside of the 1930s, we have to go back as late as the nineteenth century whose impact on the village society was considerable. In the nineteenth century, a person in the head of a village community was a squire, member of the landed gentry. He usually considered it his duty to look after the village and according to Valerie Porter, author of the study of the British countryside, “a benevolent squire could be a great blessing to the village” (65) as he contributed to local charities, helped to promote education, built new houses etc. However, due to the Industrial Revolution, the old system began to crumble. As the position of the English agriculture weakened, the squires lost their influence and many were forced to sell their property. Although some of them exercised some power up to the end of the inter-war era, many of the old aristocratic families were replaced by nouveaux riches who sometimes procured titles and took over the function of the village landed gentry (Porter 67-68). After the First World War the power of the gentry received a final blow because “many of the old families were taxed half to death by estate duties” (Porter 74). The post-war situation was neither beneficial to the industrialists, however, in the first half of the twentieth century many villages were still under control of the rich upper-class representatives. Christie’s detective stories of the period do not ignore this development. For example, in the work from the 1920s, there is Roger Ackroyd, the owner of Fernly Park which is an old mansion in the village of King’s Abbot. Being very wealthy, he can afford to employ several servants, such as a butler, housekeeper, parlourmaid, cook and some housemaids. In spite of his background, he reminds Dr Sheppard of a country squire 13 of the old times. However, Roger Ackroyd is a self-made man who takes responsibility for the village: He is an immensely successful manufacturer of (I think) wagon wheels. He is a man of nearly fifty years of age, rubicund of face and genial of manner. He is hand and glove with the vicar, subscribes liberally to parish funds, […] encourages cricket matches, Lads’ Clubs, and Disabled Soldiers’ Institutes. He is, in fact, the life and soul of our peaceful village of King’s Abbot. (Murder of Roger Ackroyd 12) Nevertheless, in spite of the noble deeds he does in the village, Roger Ackroyd is very mean as far as his personal expenses are concerned. He lives with his stepson Ralph, his widowed sister-in-law, Cecil Ackroyd, and her daughter, young Flora, and they all constantly suffer from the lack of money. Moreover, Roger Ackroyd is a very stubborn man who exercises his great authority even in the household. He is firm and likes ordering people. Thus, he behaves in the same way as the old patriarchal country squire. Similar characteristics can be applied to another protagonist of Christie’s detective stories, Colonel Protheroe from St Mary Mead. Neither does he represent the village landed gentry that has occupied the farmland for generations. He is rather a newcomer who bought the Old Hall mansion and moved there with his second wife, Anne, and his daughter, Lettice. He is also rich as evidenced by the number of the servants he is able to employ and by the fact that he owns a car which was considered a luxury in the 1920s (Porter 61). Similarly to Roger Ackroyd, Colonel Protheroe is very careful with the financial matters and needs to know about everything that takes place in the village. He is obstinate and self-conceited and represents a familial patriarch as well as Roger Ackroyd. However, as opposed to Mr Ackroyd, Lucius Protheroe is a thoroughly unpleasant man. His first wife left him because she could not bear his bad moods and his 16 However, the village inhabitants mock him and they do not accept him as a local authority. In spite of his title and the things he has achieved in his life, the villagers still see Gordon as a working-class man and do not think he has a right to claim he is a member of the aristocracy. The behaviour of Whitfield’s chauffer, Rivers, well reflects the public opinion: You won’t have this and you won’t have that, you old bastard! Your estate! Think we don’t all know your father kept a boot-shop down here? Makes us laugh ourselves sick, it does, seeing you strutting about as cock of the walk! Who are you, I’d like to know? You’re no better than I am – that’s what you are. (Murder is Easy 154) Gordon is a stupid man and his character is ridiculed. In contrast to him, Christie introduced Honoria Waynflete, a member of a noble family. She is educated and behaves as a real lady. A long time ago, she was in love with Gordon and supported his career which was supposed to be highly inappropriate at the time. Honoria’s family strongly disapproved of their relationship because Colonel Waynflete was the most influential man in the village and Gordon was a poor lad. However, it was not Honoria but Gordon who broke the engagement and as the Waynflete family became poor, the roles changed. Lord Whitfield bought their house, turned it to the local library and offered Honoria to work there. Even though Honoria initially wanted to fight against the class distinctions and stood on Gordon’s side, she felt humiliated afterwards. She has never forgotten what he did. Her pride was hurt as she, a noble lady, was refused by a working-class lad who consequently made her his employee. Honoria hates Gordon and wants to take revenge: “Gordon Ragg daring to jilt me – Colonel Waynflete’s daughter! I swore I’d pay him out for that!” (Murder is Easy 204). 17 Although Gordon is a wealthy man and Honoria an impoverished woman, the class distinctions are still strongly felt not only by her but by the other village inhabitants as well. They do not take Gordon as superior, he will never be considered a real aristocrat which is evidenced by the words of Mrs Pierce, a woman of working-class origin whose son used to be one of Lord Whitfield’s gardeners: Well, of course, sir, he isn’t really gentry – not like Miss Waynflete […] My mother remembers Gordon Ragg serving in the shop – remembers it as well as anything. Of course he’s his lordship now and he’s a rich man – but it’s never the same [.] (Murder is Easy 86) We can see that there is still a barrier between the classes and that the people continue to make difference between true aristocracy and self-made men. Nevertheless, the times of aristocracy are gone and Christie is well aware of the fact. Miss Waynflete is proud of her origin but she lost all her wealth and has only the title left. She is portrayed as a bitter woman who cannot face the fact that she no longer has the leading position in village society. As far as the parvenus are concerned, their characters are usually ridiculed and their effort to imitate the gentry is openly criticised. The detective stories from the 1930s therefore reflect the gradual disappearance of the traditional village hierarchical society at the top of which is a squire and a parson. After the Second World War there are no traces of the classical structure any more. While in the 1930s we can still see a rich man in charge of the village, 30 years later the situation is completely different. The post-war development played a considerable role in shaping the society and as Valerie Porter says, “the welfare state […] finally supplanted the squire-and- parson role towards villagers” (76). Thus, the novels written in the 1960s do not feature a self-made man or an aristocrat who would provide for the village inhabitants. There are still people who are 18 involved in the social life of the village and help to organize all the important events. An example might be Rowena Drake (Hallowe’en Party), a bossy woman who takes responsibility for all the important fêtes, runs various societies etc. or interfering Heather Badcock (Mirror Crack’d) who is a secretary of the local charity. However, these characters do not contribute to the village development on such a large scale as those from the 1930s. They take part in the significant events and want to help the villagers but they do not support the village financially or provide work for the people any more. 21 Trying not to judge people, Leonard is sometimes too trustful and therefore can be easily deceived, especially by his wife who he loves intensely. It is Miss Marple, an expert on human nature, who says that the vicar is “too unworldly” (Murder at the Vicarage 29) and she is right. For instance, when his wife lies to him about her relationship with a local painter he trusts her. The vicar is also a person who should not spread gossips, is supposed to keep things a secret and not to push people to speak about personal matters. When invited by Mrs Lestrange for a tea, Leonard knows she wants to confide in him. Yet, he is able to suppress his curiosity and does not ask her any questions. He only waits if she dares to give away her secrets or not. However, Mrs Lestrange makes up her mind and decides not to tell him anything. Leonard does not force her, he simply leaves. On the other hand, if there occurs something that might do harm to other people, Leonard does not want to keep silent. When he finds out that a painter Lawrence Redding has an affair with a married woman he wants them to end the relationship immediately. He knows that the village people will soon learn about the affair and that some of them could get hurt. However, Leonard Clement is not an embodiment of a perfect village vicar. He is portrayed as a man who has his weaknesses. For example, in spite of his profession, he cannot bring himself to like some of the village people and even admits that “a world without Colonel Protheroe [country magistrate] would be improved for the better” (Murder at the Vicarage 42). Apart from that, he sometimes cannot make himself to prepare the sermons because he is too absorbed in reading a detective story and he often has an urge to be very impolite to some of the parishioners. Among his weaknesses can also be counted his young wife to whom he proposed after a day’s acquaintance. To conclude, Leonard Clement is honest, very fond of his wife and sometimes a bit naïve as far as relationships are concerned. In contrast to Griselda who is always full 22 of energy and does not take anything seriously, he is rather a meek man who takes responsibility over things. When a murder is committed in his study, he considers it his duty to help the police with the investigation. However, he cannot tell the inspector about important evidence. Being too polite, he cannot get a word in edgeways. Leonard is a narrator of the story but he does not talk much about himself. He prefers describing the events he witnessed. He tries not to let the reader find out about his feelings. Nevertheless, as shown above, a lot of information about his character is supplied by his behaviour to people. Quite a protagonist, vicar Clement is a plausible character, portrayed with his strengths and weaknesses. However, as judged from the other parsons from Christie’s detective stories, the vicar’s role is frequently rather diminished. He may appear in one or two scenes to lighten up the narrative or to give evidence. Vicar Wake (Murder is Easy) and vicar Caleb Dane Calthrop (Pale Horse) may be taken as illustrative examples of this point. “Alfred Wake [is] a small stooping old man with very mild blue eyes, and an absent-minded but courteous air” (Murder is Easy 42). He is meek and nice to other people. When asked to speak about the villagers he starts giving descriptions of them but when he hints at something unfounded, he stops, ashamed that he started gossiping. He continues because he is asked to do so, but only with deprecation: “I’m afraid one learns to take too much interest in one’s neighbour’s affairs. […] A gossiping old man I am afraid” (Murder is Easy 45). It can be seen that in the defining qualities, vicar Wake resembles vicar Clement: He is mild-mannered, does not want to gossip and also tries to give people the benefit of the doubt. Even though he knows very well that Dr Thomas had a reason to kill Dr Humbleby, he stands by him: “But I must say that I’m sure that Dr Thomas was deeply distressed at his partner’s unexpected death” (Murder is Easy 45). Nevertheless, 23 this is all the information provided about the character of the village vicar. He is definitely of no importance and is not given any space to develop. As for the Reverend Caleb Dane Calthrop, he represents a mere comic figure: “The vicar was a charming elderly scholar whose principal pleasure was finding some apposite comment from the classics” (Pale Horse 81). However, people barely listen to these comments. They pause a little in their conversation and then come back to the topic. The vicar is a good man who does not take such little consideration of his quotations as an insult because “his pleasure in having found an apt quotation [is] its own reward” (Pale Horse 81). This is more or less all we know about the vicar. As in the case of the Clements, it is Mrs Dane Calthrop who is a “whirlwind of activity” (Pale Horse 120) and runs the parish. Unlike her husband, she is not unworldly but very efficient. In Christie’s novels the village church plays an important role in the 1960s as well. Even though the role of the vicar is not as substantial as that of Leonard Clement any more, the people around the vicarage, including the parson, tend to know a lot about the village inhabitants and are therefore helpful in the investigation of a crime. However, in the 1960s the power of the church was decreased and its influence on the people was weakened. Throughout the twentieth century the British society underwent considerable changes and a great decline in religious observance was undoubtedly one of them. At the beginning of the 1950s not even “10 per cent of the population were regular churchgoers” (Marwick 97). Christie is well aware of a gradual loosening of the bonds between the church and the people and it is Miss Marple who makes an observation on this phenomenon: “[I]n my own village, St Mary Mead, things do rather revolve round the church. I mean, they always have. In my young days that was so. Nowadays of course it’s rather different” (Nemesis 91). 26 Another doctor in whom people have confidence is James Sheppard. He is a narrator of the story (Murder of Roger Ackroyd) as Leonard Clement and we are therefore provided with more information about him. He is a bachelor and lives with his sister, Caroline, who is also single. Sheppard is a respected doctor and people believe him. Even the richest man in the village, Roger Ackroyd, takes him for a good friend and invites him to his house for dinners. Moreover, when he is troubled because of a death of his friend, he confides in Sheppard. However, the truth is that in spite of the popularity he has, Sheppard is not at all satisfied with the life he leads. He finds it boring and wants to leave the village. He dreams of travelling and discovering new countries because as he sadly admits, the patients are probably his “only link with the outside world” (Murder of Roger Ackroyd 113). Yet, being a weak person, Sheppard is unable to carry out his plans. His lack of strength is also demonstrated by his relationship with Caroline. She looks after him as if he was her son. She represents the greatest authority and Sheppard obeys her. In spite of his profession, Caroline even tells him what medicine to take: “You seem very grumpy, James. It must be your liver. A blue pill, I think, tonight” (Murder of Roger Ackroyd 113). To escape the monotonous life and his sister’s incessant control, Sheppard starts to blackmail one of the villagers to improve his financial situation. When there is a danger that his action might be discovered which would ruin his position of a respected man, he murders the witness. However, being a man who gets easily deceived as far as investments are concerned, he soon loses all the money. As far as the main qualities are concerned, Sheppard is similar to Haydock and Humbleby. He is kind and attentive to his patients but also frank and sometimes even very sarcastic, in particular when talking to his sister or other village gossipers: “On this occasion I congratulated Miss Gannett on not joining in ill-natured gossip. Rather a neat counter-attack I thought” (Murder of Roger Ackroyd 16). This remark reflects his attitude 27 to gossips. As well as the vicars, the doctors gather a lot of delicate information from their patients but they do not spread it around, trying to respect people’s right to privacy. To Caroline’s disappointment Dr Sheppard “cannot bring himself to part with information” (Murder of Roger Ackroyd 156). As for Dr Haydock, he also laughs at gossipy ladies: “Sudden death at Gossington Hall and all the tongues of St Mary Mead are wagging” (Mirror Crack’d 57). In conclusion, it is obvious that the vicars and doctors may serve as an example of Christie’s stock village figures whose characters are described with little specificity. The qualities depicted are usually only those that are often attributed to the respective professions. Thus, the vicars are mild-mannered, a bit unworldly and confused and the doctors are endowed with attentiveness, directness and stubbornness. Apart from this, Christie also likes to play with the clash between the new and the modern. The doctors representing an old school are of strong personality and their young colleagues, who are not given much attention, appear a bit pallid when contrasted to them. However, there are two figures whose realization is more definite. These are the narrators of the stories, vicar Leonard Clement and Dr James Sheppard. Since they represent main protagonists, Christie gives us insight into their private lives and their weaknesses are presented as well. 28 4. Retired Army Officers At the beginning of the twentieth century, Britain was a great empire, governing about a quarter of the world’s land area. The order in the colonies was kept by the British professional army that consisted of about two million men (Mersh). Among British overseas colonial possessions were large territories such as India and East Africa, the colonies where the majority of Christie’s army representatives served. Christie’s villages are occasionally peopled with army officers. When describing the village of King’s Abbot, Dr Sheppard remarks: “Able-bodied men are apt to leave the place early in life, but we are rich in unmarried ladies and retired military officers” (Murder of Roger Ackroyd 12). However, this does not mean that all of them are old men. In the 1870s Edward Cardwell, Secretary of State for War, undertook an army reform that included shortening of the service. The length of enlistment of soldiers who served abroad was limited to six years that were followed by another six years in the Reserve (Bloy). That is why some of the army officers in Christie’s detective stories are in their thirties, for example a retired policeman from India, Luke Fitzwilliam, the main investigator in Murder is Easy. In the detective stories written in the 1930s, army officers are present in every village. Having finished their service, the men settled down in a quiet place and they enjoy their retirement. An illustrative example is Major Burnaby. He is a person “that you would know as a military gentleman the first time you clapped eyes on him” (Sittaford Mystery 140). As far as his career is concerned, Burnaby fought in the South African War, a dramatic conflict between the British and the Boers in South Africa at the turn of the twentieth century. He also used to be a great athlete and his house is full of trophies. Now when he is getting old, he spends his time working in the garden and participating in newspaper competitions, such as solving crosswords. He is single and feels uneasy 31 to himself, damn it all, he says, I can’t call my soul my own! But he gets broken in. It’s all discipline. (Murder is Easy 105) It seems that all the military officers that Christie introduced are proud of their career and their life conforms to that. What connects most of them is the delight they take in narrating their stories. Major Horton talks with pleasure about his Indian adventures as well as Major Burnaby talks about the Boer War. And some of the officers may go even further. For example, Colonel Carter has to mix his experience everywhere, including the conversation about weather: “Very cold evening, eh, Sheppard? […] Reminds me of the Afghan passes” (Murder of Roger Ackroyd 150). It is clear that no-one is interested in his boring stories and his remarks pass without comment. Moreover, the village people doubt that he has ever been in a Shanghai Club about which he incessantly speaks. However, as Dr Sheppard says: “[T]he colonel is determinedly military, and in King’s Abbot we permit people to indulge their little idiosyncrasies freely” (Murder of Roger Ackroyd 151). The preoccupation with the past is one of the characteristics of another veteran from Sittaford, Captain Wyatt. He represents a rough man who drinks a lot of alcohol and takes delight in shooting at the cats from the neighbourhood. Being an invalid, his past means much to him and he speaks with self-importance about his knowledge of the world: “I’ve knocked about the world and I’ve got judgement. I can size a man up for what he’s worth” (Sittaford Mystery 245). Similarly to Burnaby, Captain Wyatt is a grumpy man who disdains the young and it is only his Indian servant Abdul who keeps him company. He is one of the few people Captain Wyatt can stand because he is not talkative and obeys his orders. However, other village inhabitants are not particularly fond of him. For instance, Mrs Curtis, a cleaning lady, openly expresses her dislike for Abdul: “That 32 nasty native of his – what does he know about cleaning, I should like to know? Nasty black fellow” (Sittaford Mystery 241). During the colonial period it was frequent that the British officers who returned from India brought over a native servant. Even Christie’s brother, Monty, who served in India and in Africa, arrived home accompanied by his servant Shebani (Morgan 101). As far as the attitude of the British towards these strangers is concerned, feelings of animosity were not uncommon at the time. In her work about the Queens of Crime, Susan Rowland says that “Golden Age writers lived and wrote in a racist society” (66). Thus, the detective stories of Agatha Christie only mirror the approach of the people of her generation. Apart from being very military and self-conceited, the individual army officers are also very awkward as far as women are concerned. It is not only Major Burnaby who feels uneasy in the presence of women. His friend, Captain Trevelyan is said to be a woman hater because he avoids their company. However, the truth is that he is shy because a girl declined his invitation in the past. Another “woman hater” might be Major Blunt. In fact, he is in love with a beautiful young girl and cannot express his feelings. Even though Major Blunt shares some of the attributes of the other military officers, such as gullibility as far as money is concerned, his character is not ridiculed. Major Blunt is taciturn and does not show his emotions. In spite of his achievements in hunting, he is very humble and does not need to boast about his adventures which is in contrast to the behaviour of the other military representatives. When talking about his life he says: “I’m a rough fellow, no use in society. Never remember the things one’s expected to say” (Murder of Roger Ackroyd 89). He spent a lot of time on expeditions and thus he does not know how to treat young Flora. His clumsiness is shown when he speaks to her. To demonstrate his affection for her, Blunt offers to bring her fine skins 33 from abroad. However, when Flora is in danger because she is accused of stealing her uncle’s money, he stands by her and takes the blame on himself. Blunt does not represent a grumpy, self-conceited officer who puts stress on discipline, he is a man who is not afraid to speak about his weaknesses and prefers action to words. As far as the 1960s are concerned, a figure of a retired army representative does not appear very often. This might be due to the fact that Britain’s power over the colonies gradually weakened throughout the first half of the twentieth century and Britain started withdrawing its army from abroad (Cody). As for the novels studied, there is only one that features an army officer. It is The Pale Horse taking place in a small village of Much Deeping where Colonel Despard lives. In the rest of the novels, an army representative can be regarded as a figure of the past. Both Mrs Glynne (Nemesis) and Mrs Bantry (Mirror Crack’d) were married to army veterans but it has been several years since their husbands died. Colonel Despard, retired officer from East Africa, represents a figure that does not correspond to the usual veteran pattern. Unlike the rest of the army officers, he is definitely not shy in the presence of women. He is happily married to a nice woman and has children with her. In contrast to Major Horton, he is the head of the family. When his wife Rhoda wants to participate in a village séance, he prevents her from going there. Major Despard is a shrewd man who can read between the lines and discovers immediately when people do not tell him the truth. When his wife’s relative lied to him about his reason for going to a séance, he was not deceived: “Despard said no more. I don’t think he believed me. As I have said, he was a very perceptive man” (Pale Horse 244). Despard might be considered as a new type of an army officer that Christie introduced at the end of her career. However, he is one of the characters which the author depicts in different periods of their lives, such as Mrs Bantry who was first introduced in 36 5. Young Independent Women Christie’s writing is often associated with the new, post-war portrayal of the middle class that was characterised as anti-romantic and unsentimental modern class (Light 86). The majority of the young female characters Agatha Christie introduced in her work corresponds to this pattern and is therefore in sharp contrast to the feminine type of the pre- war years: [Christie’s] feminine ideal […] is of a humorous, unsentimental, level- headed companion, not the vulnerable, physically weak, ladylike woman whose life revolved around what she felt, and who was so beloved of romantic novelists. (Light 109) Returning home from the East, Luke Fitzwilliam, a retired policeman, still holds the pre-war image of a typical English girl that tends to be very sentimental: He had an acknowledged picture at the back of his mind […] – a picture of an English girl flushed and sunburnt – stroking a horse’s neck, stooping to weed a herbaceous border, sitting, holding out her hands to the blaze of a wood fire. It had been a warm gracious vision… (Murder is Easy 29-30) However, on meeting Bridget Conway, this picture is broken into pieces. She has nothing in common with the Edwardian feminine type. In fact, Bridget is “[t]all, slender, [has] a long delicate face with slightly hollow cheek bones – ironic black brows – black eyes and hair” (Murder is Easy 29). She reminds Luke of a witch and it is her hairstyle that contributes to this image. Bridget wears her hair loose and untidy and lets it fly in the wind. This particular hairstyle represents the very opposite of the elaborate hairstyles of the pre-war era. Furthermore, it reflects Bridget’s character. She represents a woman who values freedom and independence and her hairstyle corresponds to that. 37 Everything Bridget does clearly illustrates that she is a self-confident and unsentimental woman. Born into a family of impoverished gentry, Bridget could not rely on her parents to support her and she had to look after herself. She works as a secretary for Lord Whitfield in Ashe Manor, a house that originally belonged to her family and where she was born. Even though she has to earn her living and work for a man who is of humble origin, Bridget does not whine over the lost prestige and power of her family. Even the fact that her natal home was changed into a hideous place because of Lord Whitfield’s up-to-date reconstructions does not move her. The past does not mean much to her, it is the presence that matters. Being poor, her aim is to find a rich husband who would provide for her. She is not looking for love; she wants freedom and independence which the money can bring. To make her plan come true, Bridget wins the attention of Lord Whitfield who proposes to her. All the time, Bridget is well aware of her position and sees things clearly, without any touch of romance: I don’t tell myself fairy stories [.] I’m a young woman with a certain amount of intelligence, very moderate looks, and no money. I intend to earn an honest living. My job as Gordon’s wife will be practically indistinguishable from my job as Gordon’s secretary. After a year I doubt if he’ll remember to kiss me good night. The only difference is in the salary. (Murder is Easy 113) Her will to succeed is shown in the way she behaves to Gordon. Bridget is a very good tennis player. However, she knows that Gordon Whitfield hates losing, therefore she always lets him win because “[o]ne mustn’t quarrel with one’s bread and butter” (Murder is Easy 113). Bridget cannot be regarded as an ethereal human being to whom men look up and who needs to be protected. She is rather a woman who has “force, brains [and] a cool clear 38 intelligence” (Murder is Easy 40). As soon as she sees Mr Fitzwilliam, she knows that he is lying about his reason for visiting the village. She is not easily to be deceived and Luke’s performance is not convincing enough for her. Throughout the story, she helps Luke to investigate the crime but her role does not resemble an average side-kick. She rather represents his companion and is even able to find out the truth and suspects the right person much earlier than Luke. Although her life is in danger, she does not let him look after her: “I’m pretty good at taking care of myself [.] Hard boiled, I should think you’d call me” (Murder is Easy 164). The reason for Bridget’s bitterness is an experience from the past. Her boyfriend left her for a rich widow and Bridget decided never to get hurt again. However, in the end, she changes her mind and gives way to love again. Nevertheless, this change does not come immediately. Bridget does not want to marry Luke Fitzwilliam when he confesses his love for her. She does not want Luke to interfere with her plan and is very irritated when he strongly objects to her marriage with Lord Whitfield. It is not until much later that she overcomes her fear and rather unwillingly admits she cares for Luke: “She gave a short, rather bitter laugh […] ‘You win, Luke’” (Murder is Easy 165). Finally, Lord Whitfield is refused and it is Luke Fitzwilliam with whom Bridget stays. Yet, it is clear that marriage is not the aim of her life. She does not think it is her duty to get married. She accepts Luke’s proposal only because she cares for him and will find happiness in the marriage. Furthermore, even at that moment, Bridget has her feet on the ground, refuses to speak about love and prefers Luke to like her which matters more to her. This aspect goes hand in hand with Christie’s representation of young female characters. It is Susan Rowland who, in her study on British detective fiction, comments on this: “[Christie’s] works promote female self-expression, but finally do not trouble conventional social structures” (158). 41 the ladylike looks were back in fashion and Christie comments on this development in her novels: Major Burnaby finds young Violet pretty but he is definitely against the new trends: “What was the good of a woman if she didn’t look like a woman? Papers said curves were coming back. About time too” (Sittaford Mystery 12). These modern looks apply to Flora Ackroyd who has “square, boyish shoulders and slight hips” (Murder of Roger Ackroyd 31). As far as her character is concerned, Flora is not portrayed as a fussy girl who looks for protection. It is rather self-confidence and efficiency that are innate to her. Flora finds action more important than words. Consequently, when her step-cousin is in danger, she does not hesitate and tries to protect him. Believing in his innocence, Flora even asks the famous detective, Hercule Poirot, for help. Similarly to Bridget, Flora’s financial situation is bad. She stays with her mother at her uncle’s place and all the money they have comes from him. Unfortunately Roger Ackroyd is very careful about his possession and does not give them much money to spend. Flora finds her life in the village insupportable and wants to get away. Her despair is reflected in her conversation with Major Blunt. When they speak about money, she reacts strongly: “Why, [money] is everything. Freedom – life” (Murder of Roger Ackroyd 90). As well as Bridget, she is persuaded that money could help her. In order to get it, Flora agrees to marry her step-cousin. They do not love each other but they both want to escape and the marriage would ensure them a large sum of money from Roger Ackroyd. However, this plan does not work as they hoped and Flora is again at her wits’ end. Finally, she decides to procure the money in a different way – she steals it from her uncle. When the theft is uncovered, she is already fully aware of what she did, regrets it and despises herself for being so weak. All these events finally contribute to Flora’s 42 maturity. In the end, she seems to be more self-composed and finds happiness with Major Blunt, a reliable and caring man. It is the theft incident that marks a difference between Bridget and Flora and which can be attributed to their age. Bridget is determined to lead an honest life and does not let herself be overcome with emotions, whereas Flora, being too young, cannot keep calm and acts on the spur of the moment. She is portrayed as a straightforward girl who is not particularly popular among the villagers because as one of the ladies remarks, “[Flora] is like all these young girls nowadays, with no veneration for their betters and thinking they know best on every subject under the sun” (Murder of Roger Ackroyd 168). Her manners are often unacceptable, in particular in the village community which consists predominantly of the elderly people. For instance, when she speaks with Major Blunt who is much older than her, she openly mocks him: “How does it feel to be Methuselah?” (Murder of Roger Ackroyd 88). This attitude can only be excused by her youth. On the contrary, Bridget does not behave like this. She knows how to be very ironic but is well aware of the fact that she cannot afford to speak like that in front of Mr Whitfield. As for the character of Lettice Protheroe, she behaves like a spoilt child. The young girl tends to exaggerate everything. Her way of speaking is nebulous and reflects her boredom and carelessness. Phrases, such as “How dreadful!” and “How tiresome!” are her favourite ways of expression. Lettice is persuaded that her stepmother hates her and her father does not care about her. Pretending she does not mind at all, she can be very rude to them: “If only father would be decent and die, I should be all right” (Murder at the Vicarage 19). However, this behaviour is only a mask. Lettice plays this role to hide her loneliness and unhappiness. She desperately looks for a purpose in life. Consequently, when reunited with her mother, she finds a reason to live and she drops the mask 43 of vagueness. She starts to behave decisively and is able to take a resolute action. Her mother being ill, Lettice decides to leave the village and look after her. We can see that Lettice has a lot in common with Flora. Their characters reflect the carelessness and discontent of the youth. They both desperately try to find the way out of their families whose way of living stifles them. When they find what to live for, they stop revolting and acting foolishly and become satisfied. As shown above, Christie prefers introducing a modern type of a woman who is not afraid to take action, is confident and unsentimental in contrast to the romantic women of the past. However, we cannot deny the fact that, in spite of her pleasure in writing about modern women, Christie also portrayed several girls that correspond to the Edwardian type. Even though their role is supporting and unlike the new women, they are not given any place to develop, they deserve to be mentioned because they express the link with the pre-war era. These girls may be ranked among the cardboard village characters as they do not undergo any changes and we can describe them in a single sentence (Forster 73-74): They are very beautiful, vulnerable and extremely shy. An illustrative example is Rose Humbleby, an obedient daughter of the village doctor. She stutters and flushes when she speaks with Luke Fitzwilliam, who is a stranger to her (Murder is Easy 89). Rose looks fragile and is always worried about something. Another young girl, Violet Willet, resembles Rose (Sittaford Mystery). She is charming, yet very sensitive and unable to stand up to people. Moreover, she cannot face stressful situations. When interrogated by a police inspector, Violet faints. The two girls represent the romantic types of women who men adore and want to look after. For example, when Luke Fitzwilliam sees Rose, “he [feels] a longing to shield and protect this girl” (Murder is Easy 93). We can claim that these types are presented as slightly negative as their reactions are frequently exaggerated and in the novels mentioned they are contrasted with efficient and fearless heroines (Emily 46 6. Wives and Mothers In the work of Agatha Christie, crime usually takes place in an enclosed community, such as a large family. The relationships between its members are therefore of great importance as far as investigation is concerned. As the status of women and their attitude to children changed considerably during the twentieth century, it is worth exploring whether this development is reflected in Christie’s detective stories, as well. In the early twentieth century, the roles of a woman and a man still conformed to the traditional Victorian values. Husband was a head of the family, exercised the greatest authority and made all the important decisions. Wife was subservient to her spouse and she had to obey him (Murray 3). Such a woman is, without doubt, Anne Protheroe. Her husband, Colonel Lucius Protheroe, is the wealthiest man in the village who asserts his authority everywhere and is used to the fact that the people, including his wife, carry out his orders without question. Being self-centred, severe and mean, it is hard to get on with him. Anne finds it difficult to endure his bad temper but being a refined woman, she suppresses her feelings and does not confide in anybody. Thus, the villagers perceive her as “a quiet, self-contained woman whom one would not suspect of any great depths of feeling” (Murder at the Vicarage 38). This portrayal is also reinforced by Anne’s attitude to her stepdaughter. The girl hates her stepmother and Anne soon gives up trying to change the situation. She grows indifferent to Lettice and does not care about her feelings any more. However, her personality changes completely when she falls in love with a village painter, Lawrence. Up to this moment Anne has not acknowledged that she has suffered in the marriage with Lucius, but on meeting Lawrence, she loses her self-control. Once her feelings are aroused, she wants to preserve her love at all costs and even plans to leave her husband although she would be deprived of all the possession. Anne is under 47 Lawrence’s control and starts acting unwisely. To set herself free, she finally kills her husband. The desperate plight of a woman married to a dominant and ruthless man is also depicted in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. Similarly to Anne, Mrs Ferrars is a woman of ladylike manners and tries to stay detached. Her husband is a drunkard, who mistreats her, and Mrs Ferrars bears the pain as best as she can until she finds another man she cares for. To escape from the unhappy marriage and settle down with a man she loves, Mrs Ferrars poisons her husband. The emotional detachment of the two heroines corresponds to the upbringing of the time. Agatha Christie herself was raised in such a way. According to Janet Morgan, author of Christie’s biography, “Agatha was one of a generation that knew the value of discreet silence” (207). This attitude is also commented on in her detective stories. For example, old Miss Waynflete speaks about the way she was brought up: “I never showed my feelings. We were taught that as girls – a most valuable training. That, I always think, is where breeding tells” (Murder is Easy 204). As far as upper-class mothers from the early Christie’s works are concerned, the relationship with their children also seems to be deprived of affection which marks the traces of Victorian upbringing. Even the approach of Agatha Christie herself to her daughter Rosalind is described as “warm and loving but, ultimately, detached” (Morgan 108). A similar attitude is also reflected in the behaviour of Mrs Ackroyd, an elderly lady looking for her daughter, Flora. She represents an impoverished upper-class widow, to whom money and respectability means everything. Thus, her single aim is to find a suitable man who would provide for her and Flora. She is therefore horrified at the idea that Flora might marry a man of no status and possessions: “Just think of it! […] A private secretary – with practically no means of his own” (Murder of Roger Ackroyd 199). 48 When Ralph, stepson of Mrs Ackroyd’s wealthy brother-in-law, appears on the scene, Mrs Ackroyd becomes enthusiastic about the marriage. However, as her relative is rather careful with money, she remains preoccupied with the question of Flora’s settlement. Mrs Ackroyd seems to be an oversensitive woman who suffers incessantly. She makes a fuss on every possible occasion and is always carrying a handkerchief in case she might start crying. However, she never uses it, as this behaviour is only a mask she wears to make people do what she wants. Mrs Ackroyd also excuses her faults by constantly making a victim of herself. In addition, trying to be a lady, she finds it inappropriate to speak openly about certain matters and it is difficult to make her speak to the point. Thus, when Mrs Ackroyd feels guilty because she interfered in her brother-in- law’s private affairs, she cannot deal with the incident herself but invites the local doctor to settle the situation. However, she would never confess having searched Mr Ackroyd’s desk. Thus, she says in her lady-like manner that “men are so secretive” that “[o]ne is forced to adopt little subterfuges in self-defence” (Murder of Roger Ackroyd 137). Trying to be perceived as an attentive lady who does not mean to do any harm, she behaves hypocritically. When Ralph is suspected of murder, Mrs Ackroyd does not support him: “Not for a moment did I think dear Ralph had anything to do with poor Roger’s death. I don’t think so. But then I have a trusting heart – I have always have had, ever since a child” (Murder of Roger Ackroyd 122). Obviously, even at this moment, Mrs Ackroyd does not notice her daughter’s despair and concentrates only on their profit as she tearfully adds: “What would happen to the estate, I wonder, if Ralph was found guilty?” (Murder of Roger Ackroyd 122). Mrs Ackroyd is therefore portrayed as a disagreeable woman and her character is ridiculed. Christie openly makes fun of her attempts to imitate the manners of the aristocracy which is typical of her writing as “she is 51 also reflects the situation of the 1960s. Although the number of married women who entered work has increased by more than 10 per cent during the first half of the twentieth century (Halsey 107), the majority of them still stayed at home. In the novels studied, Christie also comments on the growing number of working women, however, the view of the situation is negative. For instance, in Hallowe’en Party, Rowena Drake, a woman who is in charge of the important village events, openly criticizes these tendencies: “I must say that mothers and families generally are not looking after their children properly, as they used to do. Children are sent home from school alone, on dark evenings, go alone on dark early mornings” (Hallowe’en Party 46). Although this view cannot be taken as evidence, one can claim, however, that Agatha Christie is very conservative, which is demonstrated by her answer to an Italian questionnaire: Asked about the cause of women’s increasingly active role, Agatha attributed it to ‘the foolishness of women in relinquishing their position of privilege obtained after many centuries of civilization. Primitive women toil incessantly. We seem determined to return to that state voluntarily – or by listening to persuasion, and therefore forfeiting the joys of leisure and creative thought and the perfecting of home conditions.’ (Morgan 350) In the late period of her career, Christie introduced another wife and mother, yet this figure is completely different from the women mentioned above. It is Marina Gregg, a Hollywood star, who took up and converted a residence in St Mary Mead that originally belonged to Mrs Bantry. At first, it seems that Marina embodies all the qualities of the celebrity stereotype as she has been married for five times, is extremely beautiful and very gifted and yet, she does not believe in herself and needs to be constantly reassured of her great talent. However, this time, Christie does not satisfy herself with such a basic description. Contrariwise, Marina’s character is depicted in detail. She is a woman 52 who strives for love and happiness. However, the life she leads does not make it possible. She does not live in the real world. Being constantly surrounded by fans and photographers, Marina always seems to play a role of an “unspoilt and natural” (Mirror Crack’d 24) actress. As her life is a whirlwind of various events and changes, she behaves accordingly when looking for security and affection. She often becomes fond of something but her enthusiasm soon fades away. Marina buys the Gossington Hall to settle down with her husband, Jason Rudd. She overflows with feelings and is overjoyed to have found home where she “can be quiet and happy” (Mirror Crack’d 33). However, her loving husband does not believe it will last long. Marina seems to have everything in the world and people admire her. Yet, there is one thing she desires and will never have – a child. She is obsessed with the idea of having children. However, due to problems with conception, Marina becomes desperate. To overcome grief and fill an empty place in her life, she decides for an adoption. She takes in three children. Nevertheless, she soon realizes they cannot replace what she has been really striving for – a child of her own. It is one of Marina’s children who describes the state of her mind: “She wanted children. But she didn’t want us! Not really. It was just a glorious bit of play-acting […] We’d done very well as little stopgaps, but she didn’t care a damn for us really” (Mirror Crack’d 154). This is evidenced by the fact that when Marina suddenly finds out she is going to have a baby, she provides for her adopted children and sends them away, never trying to meet them or inquiring about them. All her life, Marina has nourished the idea that only a child of her own could make her happy. However, as she falls ill with German measles, the baby is born mentally afflicted. Marina never fully recovers from the tragedy. The village of St Mary Mead is only one of the destinations where she wants to bury the past. However, here she accidentally meets a person who brought the misery on her. Marina cannot suppress 53 the feeling of hatred she has nursed all those years. Heather Babcock is a “woman who had destroyed her happiness and destroyed the sanity and health of her child” (Mirror Crack’d 220). Marina poisons Heather and later on, this time to protect herself, she kills two witnesses. Yet, in spite of the crimes she committed, Marina is not judged as a murderer. Her life has been filled with sorrow and she does not deserve to be punished. She killed a woman who represented the source of her ordeal because she did not have time to calm down. She acted on the spur of the moment and thus, she took revenge. It was this unforeseen event that triggered off the rest of the disasters. To save her from imprisonment and other suffering, her husband poisons her in the end. Christie’s attitude to marriage and children corresponds to the changes of society. However, the characters she introduced can be usually regarded as flat because they are “unalterable” and “can be expressed in a single sentence” (Forster 73-74). Apart from Griselda who is given more space to develop, Christie frequently provides us with a bare minimum and does not let us uncover the psychology of the protagonists. Yet, it has been shown that during her career, the author also ventures to deal with more complicated themes in her books and as far as Marina Gregg is concerned, she offers us a complex characterisation of the heroine. 56 abused. It suffices to make a flattering remark about her detective abilities and she reveals even what was to be kept a secret. Miss Sheppard is a self-confident woman who considers men simple and thinks that women are superior to them. It is therefore not surprising that she represents the head of the family and even tells her brother what medicine he should take. When referring to men Caroline often speaks with contempt: “Never worry about what you say to a man. They’re so conceited that they never believe you mean it if it’s unflattering” (Murder of Roger Ackroyd 206). As shown above, Caroline seems to be an embodiment of a bitter spinster who despises men and seems to do everything to get some news. However, as her brother admits, “buried under curiosity […] there is a lot of kindness in Caroline” (Murder of Roger Ackroyd 201). For instance, she tries to help and calm down young Ursula when her husband escapes or stands by Ralph who is suspected of murder. Caroline is a good- natured comic character, which is also demonstrated by the way she deals with problems. When her brother unexpectedly brings a guest for dinner, not to cause embarrassment because she had only two chops prepared, Caroline pretends to be a vegetarian and leaves him her portion. This figure plays an important role in Christie’s work and Robert Barnard, author of a study of Christie’s novels, considers Caroline one of her “best-realized minor characters” (107). A few years later after the publication of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Miss Sheppard was even used as a model figure to the creation of Agatha Christie’s most famous woman detective, Miss Jane Marple (Morgan 176). Another sharp-tongued elderly lady worth noticing is Miss Percehouse (Sittaford Mystery). She is a very strong woman “who goes straight to the point and needs to have her own way and bosses everybody she can” (Sittaford Mystery 183). Being an invalid, 57 she does not leave her little house in Sittaford and it is her nephew Raymond who occasionally comes to help her. He stands Miss Percehouse’s ordering only because he expects to get some money after her death. However, the lady is well aware of Raymond’s expectations and as she finds this weakness of his irritating she takes mischievous delight in giving him orders and mocking him. As she sadly admits, “he hasn’t got the brains to see that [she] would like him just ten times better if he stood up to [her] now and again, and told [her] to go to the devil” (Sittaford Mystery 189). This opinion gives a good insight into Miss Percehouse’s nature. She is a woman who likes efficiency and cannot stand people who are not able to take action. That is why she helps Emily Trefusis, a young woman who is the opposite of a “slobbering female” Miss Percehouse hates. Emily is not afraid of her and does not let her give any orders. Thus, she gains her respect and Miss Percehouse is kind to her. Unlike the majority of Christie’s village spinsters, Miss Percehouse is straightforward and does not pretend to be uninterested in gossips. Contrariwise, she openly admits that she “must have a finger in every pie going” (Sittaford Mystery 182). What she has in common with Caroline is a good insight into human nature. She is able to give a concise and apt description of everyone in the village. Yet, unlike Caroline, she is not a woman that people can flatter to achieve what they want. She would easily discover their intentions and become firm as she is when dealing with her nephew. Neither is Miss Percehouse inquisitive and proud of knowing more than others, as Caroline. When she wants to know something she asks a clear question and parts with information only when she finds it useful. Moreover, she is not shocked by the manners of the young which is frequently typical of Christie’s spinsters. For example, Miss Percehouse does not believe that a man with whom Emily is staying in the village is her cousin. Nevertheless, she does not tell anyone and supports the young woman. 58 To conclude, in contrast to Caroline, Miss Percehouse cannot be regarded as a comic figure. She represents a determined woman who hates being pitied and knows how to enjoy life in spite of her position: “You’ve got to take life from a different angle, that’s all” (Sittaford Mystery 183). She seems to be a bitter person who bullies everyone around but in fact, she is a strong woman who values self-reliance and appreciates and helps people who are not weak and are able to look after themselves. As far as the end of Agatha Christie’s career is concerned, in 1971 she introduced another strong personality who features in Nemesis, a detective story where Christie deals with the theme of possessive love that destroys the lives of several people. The woman in question is Clotilde, a spinster who lives with her two sisters in the village of Jocelyn St Mary. The three women represent the impoverished village gentry who cannot take care of their property any more. Their big house is almost crumbled and the garden remains neglected. Clotilde, as well as Miss Percehouse, is portrayed as a very intelligent, educated and self-confident woman. Her life has been marked by Verity Hunt, a young girl who she offered home to when her parents died in an accident. Clotilde looks after Verity as if she was her daughter. She procures her a good education, takes her abroad and gives her everything she wants. She soon becomes extremely attached to the girl and in return Verity looks up to her. Nevertheless, as the girl grows older she starts feeling uncomfortable. She wishes to escape from Clotilde’s great love that starts to be a burden to her. A desire to leave Clotilde becomes even stronger when she meets Michael Rafiel. In spite of his dark past, Verity falls in love with him and wants to marry him. However, Clotilde envisaged a different future for her. She is proud of her little girl, wants her to go to university etc. Thus, she strongly disapproves of the relationship and wants to prevent the marriage. Verity knows that her guardian will not change her mind and decides 61 8. Wicked Young Men and Prodigal Sons Throughout her career, Agatha Christie introduced a large number of young and ambitious men who are determined to achieve what they have envisaged, no matter what stands in the way. Being handsome and intelligent, they usually abuse women to pursue their plans. As for the eight novels studied, the village figures of this type can be divided into two groups: wicked young men and prodigal sons. As far as the first type is concerned, its representatives are without doubt Lawrence Redding, a painter, (Murder at the Vicarage) and Michael Garfield, a landscape gardener (Hallowe’en Party). These two men are both involved in what Robert Barnard, author of Talent to Deceive dedicated to the work of Agatha Christie, calls “the eternal triangle” (72). This is a recurrent motive in the author’s detective stories and according to Barnard, “[i]n its most usual form in Christie we are likely to be presented […] with a marriage that is threatened from outside by an alluring and sexually unscrupulous type” (72). This description well corresponds to the characters of the two artists mentioned above. Lawrence Redding is a man whose presence makes life brighter. People enjoy being in his company and even the vicar of St Mary Mead speaks highly of him: Lawrence Redding has an undeniably attractive personality. He is, I suppose, about thirty years of age. He has dark hair, but his eyes are of a brilliant, almost startling blue. He is the kind of young man who does everything well. He is good at games, an excellent shot, a good amateur actor, and can tell a first-rate story. He is capable of making any party go. (Murder at the Vicarage 44) It is therefore not surprising that he has always been successful with women. For example, he makes a great impression on Lettice Protheroe, a young girl whose painting he is creating, and even the vicar’s wife admits that before she met her husband she was keen on 62 Lawrence: “I had been rather in love with him […] I was – well, absolutely silly about him at one time” (Murder at the Vicarage 295). However, in spite of his likeable personality, Lawrence is a manipulative man, caring only for himself. Being a free-lance painter, his financial situation is unfavourable and he hardly makes both ends meet. Lawrence would like to become famous and gain respect and praise, however, he is not wealthy enough to start pursuing his plans. To improve his position, he gets acquainted with Anne Protheroe, a woman married to the most influential man in the village. As she is unhappy in the marriage, Anne represents an easy prey for Lawrence. She falls in love with him and would do anything not to lose him. Unfortunately, their relationship is discovered by the vicar who urges them to stop immediately. Thus, the painter is in an unpleasant situation. If Colonel Protheroe found out about his wife’s affair, he would have to leave the village. Anne is devoted to Lawrence and would even run away with him, however, “Lawrence Redding wouldn’t run away with a penniless woman” (Murder at the Vicarage 356). He therefore decides to get rid of the Colonel and manipulates Anne to the extent that in the end it is she who pulls the trigger. Even though Lawrence is present at the crime scene and later on says he murdered the Colonel, no one believes he could be involved in the crime. His attractive personality deceives everyone in St Mary Mead and his confession is seen as an attempt to protect Anne, which is a part of Lawrence’s scheme. It is obvious that he acts cold-bloodedly all the time, and in his hunt for money he destroys everything that prevents him from achieving his plans. Forty years later, Agatha Christie used a similar pattern. Another wicked young man was introduced in her novel Hallowe’en Party. As mentioned above, the person in question is Michael Garfield, a newcomer to the village of Woodleigh Common. His 63 character bears a resemblance to that of Lawrence Redding. As he is also a handsome man of great intelligence, he can easily manipulate the others. It is the relations he maintains with his employer, Miss Llewelyn-Smythe, that reflect the power he has over the people. The old lady hires him to create a garden for her. Michael does so but he always gives way to his own ideas and dreams. Never does he listen to what his client wishes. He always manages to make her believe that she wanted it that way: I carried out mainly my own ideas and I sold them […] to the client who employed me, as a direct carrying out of her plans and schemes. It is not a very difficult art to learn. There is no more to it than selling a child brown eggs rather than white ones. The customer has to be assured they are the best ones, the right ones. The essence of the countryside. (Hallowe’en Party 96) Michael Garfield is obsessed with beauty and he creates a magnificent garden out of nothing. He spends most of the time there, taking delight in his masterpiece. However, he soon gets bored and wants to leave Woodleigh Common because his work is not as satisfactory as it used to be. The garden ceases to give him pleasure, he has other dreams he wants to carry out. Michael loves beauty and “[t]o it he would sacrifice everything” (Hallowe’en Party 219). He wants to create a garden on a Greek island. However, he lacks money to make his dream come true. To procure it, he starts to manipulate the people around him and seduces Rowena Drake, a woman whose husband is an invalid. We can therefore see once again how the triangle theme is worked with in Christie’s detective stories. Rowena behaves in the same way as Anne Protheroe. “She [is] infatuated with [Michael]” (Hallowe’en Party 217) and would do everything to make him stay with her. Together, they kill several people so that Rowena inherits a large fortune. Similarly to Lawrence, Michael does not care about Rowena, he is only interested in her possession. 66 Payton. The end of the narrative is very similar to the end of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. Michael Rafiel is cleared of charges and released from prison. He wants to bury the past and turn over a new leaf, only his true love is not with him any longer. As far as the characters of Michael Garfield and Lawrence Redding are concerned, we can see that they are comparable. They seem to be agreeable and respectable inhabitants who are attentive to the others but it is rather ruthlessness and greed that are innate to them. Both Lawrence and Michael represent the villains of Christie’s detective stories. There is not a single thing about their characters that would arouse pity in the readers at their being discovered. They deserve to be caught and punished. As for the prodigal sons, they are not as ruthless and self-cantered. Falling in love with a good girl, they want to change for her. They are not driven by need of money, they are serious about it. Whether they would really succeed in changing their lives is of little importance. Agatha Christie apparently re-introduced the same figures at the end of her career. They only differ in details. Moreover, it can also be seen that the author puts an emphasis on love theme in her detective stories. 67 9. Servants The lower classes do not play an important role in Christie’s detective stories. This group is mainly represented by servants and they usually figure as mere witnesses or victims. It is the middle class that Christie focuses on and the working-class characters tend to be oversimplified and are usually distrusted by their masters: The lower orders are those who are ‘feckless’ or shifty, ungrateful and surly, essentially undomesticated […] Like the aristocracy they may be seen as ignorant and self-regarding, but above all, uninteresting: their appearances are minimal and carry little narrative weight. (Light 83) Coming from the middle-class family, Agatha Christie grew up in society where the servants had a significant role. In Ashfield, her parents employed three servants: a nurse, a parlourmaid and a cook. Small Agatha soon became well aware of the servants’ world, of the hierarchy in the household and of the types of address: “[C]ooks were always ‘Mrs’, housemaids equipped with ‘suitable’ names (even if they did not arrive with them), like Susan, Edith, and so on, and parlourmaids […] had names sounding vaguely like surnames” (Morgan 12). In her work, all the types of servants are present. However, the housemaids, who represent the employees of the lowest level, are the most numerous ones. Roger Ackroyd, an influential man in the village of King’s Abbot, employs a vast number of servants, including a housemaid called Elsie. She can be taken as a typical representative of the servants as portrayed by Christie: She is a nice but not very intelligent girl who feels ill at ease when encountered with the police. In another rich household, there is a kitchen- maid called Gladys. Similarly to Elsie, when Gladys is confronted by a man who wants her to say what she witnessed, she behaves “more like a shivering rabbit than anything human” (Murder at the Vicarage 232) and repeats all the time that she did not mean to do any harm 68 and only accidentally overheard a private conversation. Her biggest preoccupation is to prove she is a respectable girl and needs to be assured that all she may unclose will be kept a secret. Gladys is not the only representative of the female domestic servant in The Murder at the Vicarage. There is another character of the same class, Mary, who works at the vicarage. Not having enough money to keep a good servant, the Clements have to make do with this grumpy girl who will never be made to call her employers “sir” and “ma’am”, does not clean well at all and always seems “to have taken a perverse pleasure in seeing how best she could alternate undercooking and overcooking” (Murder at the Vicarage 43). As well as the other servants, Mary distrusts the police and is reluctant to give testimony because she fears she might lose her respectability. Another undesirable maid introduced in the 1930s is Amy Gibbs. Her mistress, Miss Waynflete, describes her as follows: Well, of course, she wasn’t at all a good servant. But nowadays, really, one can be thankful to get anybody. She was very slipshod over her work and always wanting to go out – well […] girls are like that nowadays. They don’t seem to realize that their time is their employer’s. (Murder is Easy 53) The old lady’s view of the domestic service reflects the post-war development. The portrayals of Mary and Amy correspond to the status of a female domestic servant of the time. Even though there was a sharp rise in prices in the 1920s, it was not considered an extravagance to employ a housemaid (Morgan 80-81). However, the servants represented a depressed class and the number of well-trained housemaids was scarce. Christie may be accused of treating them with lack of compassion but in fact, her descriptions derive from what she lived through: “In her experience kitchen-maids were ill- educated and inarticulate, so they are made such” (Barnard 43). 71 in the 1960s Miss Marple does not have a residential servant any more. It is one of the girls from the Development, a new housing estate that was recently built on the village farmland, who comes regularly and helps her with the household. Without doubt, this housemaid, Cherry Baker, represents a modern woman: She was one of the detachment of young wives who shopped at the supermarket and wheeled prams about the quiet streets of St Mary Mead. They were all smart and well turned out. Their hair was crisp and curled. They laughed and talked and called to one another. They were like a happy flock of birds. Owing to the insidious snares of Hire Purchase, they were always in need of ready money, though their husbands all earned good wages; and so they came and did housework or cooking. (Mirror Crack’d 11) Moreover, apart from this difference, there is another distinction between the maids of the old days and Cherry. Miss Marple’s little maids “had not been very good with the telephone, and no good at all at arithmetic. On the other hand, they knew how to wash up and how to make a bed. They had had skills rather than education” (Mirror Crack’d 12). On the contrary, Cherry Baker can spot a mistake in the bills and has no problems with answering the phone. Nevertheless, she is not good at cleaning and Miss Marple prefers to buy a new service rather than to let Cherry use a detergent on her Worcester tea set. In addition, Cherry would never call Miss Marple “ma’am” as the housemaids of the old times did, she rather talks to her as if she was her friend and she does the household chores as she likes, using all modern devices Miss Marple does not particularly like, such as a vacuum cleaner. Cherry definitely represents a modern woman of the post-war era. Her married life is also far from the Victorian patriarchal family pattern. For instance, when her husband 72 kindly asks her to clean the table because he wants to work there, she only puts the dishes into the sink and not being in the mood to do the washing up, she goes out to see her friend and “borrow one of her Vogue patterns” (Mirror Crack’d 163). As far as her personality is concerned, she is not just another example of the line of Christie’s not very intelligent, shy housemaids. She is positively portrayed as vital, warm-hearted and clever. Even though the life in the village has changed, there are still to be found servants of the old-school in Christie’s novels, such as Miss Knight, a nurse in her fifties who stays with Miss Marple and looks after her. However, as mentioned above, a domestic servant was accessible only to a few people and Miss Marple would not be able to afford such a luxury if it were not for her rich nephew, Raymond. For instance, her friend, Mrs Bantry, cannot afford to have a servant any more. She used to live in a big house and had four servants but after her husband’s death she could not retain the house any longer and thus she sold it, keeping only a small building nearby to which she added “the essentials of modern life” (Mirror Crack’d 23), such as a bathroom, electricity and a built-in kitchen. As the domestic service was not popular any more as a form of employment among the British women, the lack of servants was compensated for by the foreign help – au pair girls. It was mainly after the Second World War that the au pair service started to flourish and many girls, in particular from the Central and Eastern Europe, came to Britain to earn some money and learn a foreign language (Yodanis and Lauer). One of Christie’s representatives, Olga Seminoff (Hallowe’en Party), works in the household of a rich lady, Mrs Llewellyn-Smythe. As other servants introduced by the author, she is only vaguely described but her character provides useful information about the attitudes of the time of the British towards the foreigners. No one knows exactly where Olga came from but the fact that she is a foreigner is sufficient to arouse hostility of the villagers. These feelings are reflected in the statement of a cleaning lady, Mrs Leaman: “[T]he lawyers were against the 73 foreigner [Olga], like people always are. I’m not very fond of foreigners myself, I’ll admit” (Hallowe’en Party 160). When Olga suddenly disappears, nobody wonders what could happen to her. It is generally agreed that she must have either returned home or run away with a man. Being a foreigner, Olga aroused mistrust and animosity. This was a common attitude in the twentieth century, in particular after the Second World War when Britain was flooded by immigrants, mainly from the former British colonies (Marwick 163-5), and in the traditionally closed village communities, foreigners were undoubtedly noticeable. It is evident that the servants’ world in Christie’s novels reflects the important changes of the time. In her later novels, the author writes about the decline in the domestic service, the end of residential servants and introduces au pair girls. However, in the novels selected, Agatha Christie does not usually pay much attention to the personalities of the servants. They still constitute flat, unimportant figures whose main characteristics hardly change, as demonstrated by dishonest Guiseppe or gossipy Janet. However, Christie also introduced Cherry, a new type of an intelligent domestic helper whose character is described in greater detail and reveals a lot about the changing village society of the time. 76 Ackroyd), represent stubborn and narrow-minded patriarchs whose families feel oppressed. Those who attempt to imitate the life of the aristocracy are also criticised. Thus, Lord Whitfield (Murder is Easy), a benignant man living in a lavishly rebuilt manor house, and Mrs Ackroyd (Murder of Roger Ackroyd), a fussy woman trying to imitate ladylike manners, can be regarded as mere comic characters. In Christie’s later novels, the sense of decline of the manor house era is even more evident. In The Mirror Crack’d, the country house where Colonel Bantry lived with his wife is sold to an actress and in Nemesis, the Bradbury-Scott sisters can hardly make both ends meet. Moreover, a squire who takes charge of the village represents a figure of the past and does not appear in the novels from the 1960s. In the detective stories analysed, the members of aristocracy as well as of upper classes usually stand for old traditions which have little place in the modern world. This phenomenon can be also seen as far as upper-class families are concerned. The picture of the contented Victorian close-knit family crumbles in the work of Christie as she offers us an image of dissatisfied relatives who strive for money and may wish the death of the head of the family, such as Mrs Ackroyd (Murder of Roger Ackroyd) or Lettice Protheroe (Murder at the Vicarage). Moreover, this patriarchal pattern tends to be replaced by a modern relationship where a wife and her husband are companions and care for each other. The marriages of Leonard and Griselda (Murder at the Vicarage) or Rhoda and Hugh (Pale Horse) can serve as an example. In addition, the new approach to marriage is connected with the upbringing of children as well. In the modern household we do not come across the emotional detachment that was typical of the Victorian families any more. The mothers are devoted to their children and spend most of the time with them. The themes of motherhood and love towards a child are in particular related to the most interesting of Christie’s characters – Clotilde Bradbury Scott (Nemesis) and 77 Marina Gregg (Mirror Crack’d). These two heroines feature the detective stories of the later period of the author’s career and they prove that Christie’s novels do not always conform to the constrictions of detective fiction, as she embarks on exploring issues, such as possessiveness and destructive love of a woman for a child as well as the feelings of a mother whose baby was born mentally afflicted. In this case, the author puts emphasis on the psychology of the protagonists and justifies the motives that led them to commit a crime. Clotilde and Marina are not to be placed among the author’s recognizable types, they attempt roundness (Forster 78-81) and are interesting from the point of view of psychology. Clotilde is a strong-willed intelligent woman, who becomes attached to her foster daughter to such an extent that she cannot imagine living without her. Instead of trying to help her to become independent, Clotilde kills the girl to make her stay forever which only brings endless sorrow into her life. As for Marina, she represents a spoilt and volatile Hollywood star. However, in spite of being rich and adored, her life is full of suffering as a child she has always been longing for is born mentally handicapped. Christie depicts well Clotilde’s and Marina’s misery and grief which lead them to take revenge and destroy other people’s lives. The portrayal of the modern wives to which Cherry Baker can also be added, leads to the most important social stratum of Christie’s writing – the middle class (Light 106). The author herself was a member of this class and as Barnard claims, “most of the characters in her novels are ‘her sort of people’” (Barnard 39), the people she knows the best. Many of the middle-class female figures therefore represent Christie’s most realistic characters, such as the spinsters, Miss Percehouse (Sittaford Mystery) and Caroline Sheppard (Murder of Roger Ackroyd), and above all, the independent women. The oversensitive girls of the pre-war era who need men’s protection tend to be viewed as rather negative in the novels analysed. An illustrative example of this point might be Violet 78 Willet (Sittaford Mystery) and Rose Humbleby (Murder is Easy). The place is usually given to modern women who are thoughtful and energetic and can face the problems. Each of these characters is captured at an important stage of her life, such as marriage, motherhood and maturing and we are shown how they cope with these changes. Bridget (Murder is Easy), in spite of being of noble origin, adapts to the altering conditions and her life conforms more to that of a middle-class woman. Similar situation relates to Lettice Protheroe (Murder at the Vicarage) and Flora Ackroyd (Murder of Roger Ackroyd). They do not follow in the footsteps of their parents, who try to imitate the life of the village gentry, and want to escape from home. Apart from this feature of Christe’s writing, the writer offers us an insight into the changing position of women in society. For example, Ginger, who features in The Pale Horse, is to be considered an independent career woman. However, it is the life of these young heroines where Christie’s conservatism is reflected. The author pays much attention to the love theme in her novels and the heroines often get married in the end. Here we can see a trace of traditionalism, as Christie opposes the status of a married working woman which she even criticizes in some of her novels (e.g. Hallowe’en Party) and none of the married female protagonists from the detective stories explored goes out to work. As far as men are concerned, they seem to be overshadowed by their female companions. The male characters often play a role of gallant, romantic heroes who protect their ladies. These gentlemen are not only to be found among younger military officers, such as Colonel Despard (Pale Horse) and Major Blunt (Murder of Roger Ackroyd), but are also represented by e.g. Ginger’s boyfriend, Mark Easterbrook (Pale Horse). Romance relates to other male characters, as well. During her career, Christie introduced a large number of wicked men involved in a love triangle. However, their characterisation is only basic, as demonstrated on the figures of Lawrence Redding 81 Christie sticked to a group of the same types throughout her whole career and that all of them represent mere puppets, which may be claimed. As shown above, Christie created many credible figures and particularly her heroines tend to present a more complex style of characterisation. In the later period of her writing she also introduced some new types, such as Cherry Baker and Ginger that serve as evidence of the changing situation concerning women’s roles in society. To conclude, Agatha Christie’s detective stories cannot be perceived only as ingenious puzzles. In spite of the restrictions imposed by the genre, the author was able to provide the whole kaleidoscope of predominantly middle and upper-class figures, who despite considerable limitations, either bring back the rather monotonous life of bygone village communities or, in some cases, display the fundamental changes in traditional patterns of village hierarchy. 82 Bibliography Primary Sources: Christie, Agatha. Hallowe’en Party. 1969. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 1994. Christie, Agatha. Murder is Easy. 1939. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 1993. Christie, Agatha. Nemesis. 1971. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 2002. Christie, Agatha. The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side. 1962. London: Fontana, 1965. Christie, Agatha. The Murder at the Vicarage. 1930. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 1993. Christie, Agatha. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. 1926. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 1993. Christie, Agatha. The Pale Horse. 1961. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 1993. Christie, Agatha. 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