Analysis Of Well-Schooled In Murder

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Well-Schooled in Murder is a text written by Elizabeth George, shows the hierarchy in elite public schools and how they affect people. Matthew Whateley disappears one day and is assumed killed, and his roommates, Arlens, Wedge and Smythe Andrews, are interviewed, due to it being a mystery. Matthew was quite different than the other pupils. He didn’t follow their traditions and kept to himself. It’s one big mystery, and you would category the text as a crime mystery novel.

The story takes place in the late 1980’s at an imaginary elite public school called Bredgar Chambers and is situated in the South of England. It becomes apparent that it is an elite public school, as the boys are interviewed they tell Thomas Lenley, the detective inspector, that they wouldn’t have been at the school if their parents hadn’t forced them “We’re here because our parents sent us. Matt was no different” which also describes their attitude towards the school.
The atmosphere at the school is strange, as Lenley enters Matthew’s dormitory to interview his roommates. There is a senior prefect with the boys, and Lenley quickly realizes that the boys might not reveal anything having him around, describing it as “Chas’s physical presence alone would probably be more than enough to …show more content…

This is also why social differences are the main theme of the story, with the school being led by the older prefect and those higher in the hierarchy. Meaning you weren’t judged on your mind, but on your interests, social status and your attendance at school traditions. In the story, we quickly realize that Chas is an overhead, and has the power, hence why Lynley decides that he would have to go if he would want to get anything out of the boys. Hierarchy is also one of the main themes, bringing out the Darwinistic way of acting, also having to be the strongest, where Matthew couldn’t adapt to the high-class

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