‘The process of detection is more interesting
than the characterisation.ʼ To what extent do
you agree with this view of the novel? (round
two)
‘The process of detection is more interesting than the characterisation.ʼ To what extent do you
agree with this view of the novel?
Murder of Roger Ackroyd
The victim being a flat character
Dr Sheppard
Caroline
Poirot both a character while allowing the process of detection to occur.
For centuries, critics have discussed whether the process of detection takes precedence over
the characterisation in crime fiction or whether both are fundamentally tied to each other. In this
essay I will therefore argue to what extent this is the case in ‘The Murder of Roger Ackroydʼ by
Agatha Christie discussing to what extent the ‘process of detection is more interesting that
characterisationʼ.
Christie has often been criticised for having “non complexed characters” as stated by
Thompson, instead making them ‘flatʼ characters so that the reader is provided with a
predictable list of suspects and is able to solve the case alongside the detective. This can be
seen as even the victim Roger Ackroyd is characterised by a single trait of being “extremely
mean in terms of personal expenditure”, with the adjective “mean” reflecting the other
characters motivation for his death being greed for his will. Dr Sheppard describes him as a
man more “more impossibly country squire than any country squire could really be” showcasing
the shallowness of his personality and how his only significant character traits are to provide
movement for the plot. Thompson stated that “no grief” passes Mr Ackroydʼs death and this is
key to the central focus of the novel being the detective focus. If the character of Mr Ackroyd
was complicated and the reader was given analysis into his history, emotions, and beliefs he
would become more human, and more sympathy would be felt for him. This allows focus to
instead be on the questions surrounding how and why his death occurred rather than the
sympathy a less Golden Age and more psycho-analytical element of crime writing. Other
characters in the ‘dramatis personaeʼ such as Flora Ackroyd and her mother all further embody
this shallowness seeming to only reflect different stereotypes of the English middle-class
society to personify its rotten core. Focus is therefore more on the process of detection than his
death.
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