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Summary A* ENGLISH LITERATURE - MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD NOTES Crime writing ideas
A* ENGLISH LITERATURE - MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD NOTES Crime writing ideas
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IdeasAQA Guide
The crime that actually propels the narrative is not the one alluded to in the title, but one
that predates the events of the novel and is entangled with it. The death of Mr Ferrars
which occurs a year before the narrative begins. Immediately a conspiracy is introduced of
Mrs Ferrars whom it is believed may have poisoned her brute of a husband and them
committed suicide as a result of her remorse.
Following a pattern popular in crime fiction the investigation reveals that almost all of the
characters have something to hide and therefore could potentially be the killer. As a result
all characters (aside from a few subconsciously) come under the scrutinising gaze of both
the reader and detective.
The text does not foreground a single crime as Christie foreground a plethora of immoral
behaviours which the characters are eager to keep hidden.
Ralph Paton is engaged to Flora and yet has married Ursula Bourne the housemaid, who is
significantly below his social standing; the butler, Parker, has blackmailed his former
employer, a crime for which he would be instantly dismissed; Elizabeth Russell is hiding an
illegitimate son who is a drug user and has aspirations to marry Ackroyd that defy her
social station as housekeeper; Flora has stolen forty pounds from Ackroydʼs room.
Many of the characters are more concerned of how they will benefit from Ackroyd's will
than bringing any criminal to justice.
Even Ackroyd is not immune to moral behaviour as his reaction to Mrs Ferrars confession
is unsympathetic although she clearly loves him.
The central crime is that of Dr Sheppard who is not only “the scoundrel who drove [Mrs
Ferrars] to death”, but the individual who betrays and murders a man who places immense
trust in him. The very fact that Sheppard is a doctor, a social position that affords him
access to peopleʼs homes, in an age when the local doctor was a family friend and
intimate, and who is tasked with the role of preserving life, makes his murderous actions
all the more heinous and shocking relating to Golden Age crime writing.
The crime writers Association in 2013 determined that Agatha Christie was the best crime
writer of all time.
Although the police are called in to investigate, Inspector Raglan proves humorously inept.
In keeping with an element of crime writing established by Conan Doyle in the Sherlock
Holmes stories it is the private investigator, not the trained police force, who is presented
as the more skilled in solving crimes. It is left to Poirot and his “little grey cells” to discern
the truth.
The questions of; who called Dr Sheppard to inform him of the murder?, who moved the
chair in the study?, whose bootprints lie on the window and whose ring lies in the pond
assume a logical method of questioning each individual and answering each question.
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