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analyses of agatha christie's works
analyses of agatha christie's works
analyses of agatha christie's works
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Agatha Christie, one of the most highly rated authors of the twentieth century; her sales competed with the Bible and the works of William Shakespeare. Known for her persuasion and deception, Christie utilizes trickery to deceive and manipulate her characters. Despite her cunningness, false clues, and lack of emotion, Agatha Christie uses the concept of deception and a unique writing style to intrigue her readers by luring on their mind. Agatha Christie’s mystery novel “And Then There Were None” takes place on the coastline of Devon, England and one by one each guest vanishes. As the remaining house guests search for clues and the mysterious villain, they are all caught in a web of trickery and deception.
Ten guests are invited by a mysterious man, to stay on the isolated Soldier Island. As soon as the chosen guests arrive, they introduce themselves and explain why they were invited. Ironically, all of the guests were invited to the island for different reasons, and realize they have been deceived into coming to an island. On the first night, the guests gather for dinner. During, this time a recorded voice plays accusing all the guests of past crimes and murders. After the record plays, they began to discuss the abrupt circumstances and at that moment the first victim is poisoned by potassium cyanide. Terrified by the troubling events, the frantic guests go to their rooms where the guests become filled with guilt about their past. The following morning the guests discover that the butler’s wife mysteriously died in her sleep. As some of the guests examine the butler’s wife, another victim was murdered by the shore. After hearing news of a third guest being murdered, the guests began to make outlandish assumptions on who is the m...
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...ffin, 1939. Print.
Panek, LeRoy. “Agatha Christie” Watteau’s Shepherds. 1979. 62-63.Print.Rpt. in The Chelsea House Library of Literary Criticism. Ed. Harold Bloom. Vol.1. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1985. 334.
Partridge, Ralph. “Agatha Christie.” The New Statesman & Nation. The New Statesman & Nation Publishing Co., 1939. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism.Ed. DedriaBryfonski. Vol.12. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1980. 113-114.
Singer, Eliot A. “The Whodunit as Riddle: Block Elements in Agatha Christie.” Western Folklore. 43 (1984). 174-71.Print.Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism.Ed. Marowski, Daniel G. and Roger Matuz.Vol. 48. Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 75-78.
"Ten Little Indians."Novels for Students.Ed. Marie Rose Napierkowski and Deborah A. Stanley.Vol. 8. Detroit: Gale, 2000. 242-259. Gale Virtual Reference Library.Web. 29 Jan. 2011.
Showalter, Elaine. "The Not So Strange Addiction of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." The Haunted Mind in Victorian Literature. Eds. Elton E. Smith and Robert Haas. Landham, Maryland: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1999.
The critic of this paper Beth Snyder points out a similar view Hon's condemnation of both the narrator's imaginative vagaries and her writing impels his wife to write in secret and to seek a kind of obscurity in the bedroom, because no one must "find" her writing. Writing, then, becomes its own means for establishing inferiority. But because so much of the story relies on looking and being looked at, both obscurity and secrecy are problemised for Gilman's narrator. Hidden, she cannot hide, and is always illuminated for her spectator-husband "when the sun shoots in through the east window" or when "the moon shines in all night when there is a moon".
Stillinger, Jack, Deidre Lynch, Stephen Greenblatt, and M H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Volume D. New York, N.Y: W.W. Norton & Co, 2006. Print.
In conclusion Agatha Christie wrote this very popular novel called And Then There Were None , to teach the readers that free or not you are never free from justice. By using both external and internal conflicts with the characters, symbolism with the poem Ten Little Soldiersand the china figures both symbolizing each character and irony of Justice Wargrave. This book is one of the reasons why Christie became the first grandmaster recognized by the mystery writers of America
Damrosch, David, et al., ed. The Longman Anthology of British Literature: Vol. B. Compact ed. New York: Longman - Addison Wesley Longman, 2000. p. 2256
... structure (Agatha Christie - Her Method of Writing, Luzmore). Agatha Christie used a simplistic variety of language, one that everyday people could understand. She was repetitive with her ideas, rather than attempting to introduce new vocabulary (Agatha Christie - Her Method of Writing, Luzmore). Christie’s novels depended heavily on the dialogue they contained. This is the reason she used language that was easily comprehensible. The solution of the murders relied on the reader’s interpretation of the character’s dialogue (Agatha Christie - Her Method of Writing, Luzmore). If Christie used an extensive vocabulary in her books, the reader would be focusing on the challenging words instead of the important part, the plot. Agatha Christie’s unique style of writing gave her popularity of her time. She revolutionized the crime genre and changed it for future generations.
Evans, Robert C., Anne C. Little, and Barbara Wiedemann. Short Fiction: A Critical Companion. West Cornwall, CT: Locust Hill, 1997. 265-270.
Murphy, B. & Shirley J. The Literary Encyclopedia. [nl], August 31, 2004. Available at: http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2326. Access on: 22 Aug 2010.
Gilbert, S., Gubar, S. (2000) The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and Nineteenth Century Literary Imagination Yale University Press
164-69. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Jeffrey W. Hunter. Vol. 341. Detroit: Gale, 2013.Artemis Literary Sources. Web. 5 May 2014.
Howells, William D. “Heroines of Nineteenth Century Fiction.” Harper’s Bazaar XXXIII-26 (1900): 516-23. Rpt in Nineteenth Century Literature Criticism. Ed. Janet Mullane and Robert Thomas Wilson. Vol 19. Detroit: Gale, 1938. 8. Print.
Christie, Agatha. “Witness for the Prosecution.” The Hound of Death and Other Stories. October, 1933. PDF file.
Murder is the most sinister of any crime you can commit as you are taking life away from someone who isn't ready to go. It is especially irrational when murder is carried out with no motive. This could only be the work of a madman. With crime people seek justice and will make their best efforts to achieve it. In the ABC Murders by Agatha Christie we explore the mystery of not one, but four murders carried out meticulously and with proper planning. In this novel we get to see the solving process of an interesting murder case through two private detectives who have gotten back together after some time apart in retirement. We get to see how they are able to think like a murder and determine the motives and planning behind the crimes.
Agatha Christie wrote most of her books with the same recurring themes. One of the themes that Christie has in her books is feminism. The definition of feminism is the belief in the need to protect rights, and opportunities for women to be equal to those of men. It is also saying they can go through life without having a man in their lives and living as independent women. Anti-feminism is the opposite of feminism and says women are all the same and do need a man in their life. Christie uses feminism and anti-feminism to view women during the twentieth century in the three books.
Reidhead, Julia, ed. Norton Anthology of English Literature vol. 7, 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2000.