FRQ #3

FRQ  1:

In the novel Murder on the Orient Express, Agatha Christie employs revenge and morality as motives behind several characters who are deceitful in order to convey the belief that the murder they committed is justified because of Mr. Ratchett’s past, ultimately illustrating that fighting for justice comes with deceitful or dirty behavior in order for it to be won.

Christie initially uses revenge as one of the central motives behind the deceit and murder of Mr. Ratchett, in order to convey the complex emotions that were left on many characters as a result of his past transgresses ultimately leading to the belief that his murder was justified. In the early chapters of the novel, detective Hercule Poirot is assigned the case of Mr. Ratchett’s murder on a train. While collecting information about him, Poirot discovers that Ratchett has been living under an alias and is actually named Mr. Casetti, who fled the US after murdering a little girl from the Armstrong family. Because of this discovery, Mr. Ratchett’s murder becomes not a careless murder, but a frustrated, passionate crime. Consequently, by revealing Ratchett’s past this passionate crime can be pointed out as being revenge. Therefore, by revealing the true identity of Mr. Ratchett, it becomes more clear that revenge is the reason why so many characters on the train lied to Poirot about their inclusion in the crime. Moreover, the need for revenge goes a step further when more is revealed about the passengers on the train. After Ratchett’s murder, Poirot investigates everybody on the train one by one. Each character seems to have a strong alibi, however Poirot eventually cracks the case, as he always does. Every single passenger on the train was involved with the Armstrong family and personally knew the little girl, from Mrs. Debenham being the little girls nurse to Colonel Arbuthnot being the family’s driver. Because Christie reveals this information about the passengers on the train, she also reveals that all of them were being deceitful. Consequently, by illustrating just how close each character was to the little girl, it can be inferred why there was so much frustration and need for revenge behind the murder. Therefore, avenging the Armstrong girl is an important motive behind the passengers’ deceitful behaviors which allow them to feel that they have earned justice for her.

As more is discovered about the past of Mr. Ratchett and why the passengers would murder him, Poirot begins to question his own morality and what he should do about this discovery. Furthermore, Christie utilizes morality as another central motive behind the deceitfulness of the train passengers in order to demonstrate why they would believe a murder was the justified action in this circumstance. Throughout the novel, while Poirot interrogates the passengers, each and every one of them are trying to deceive him as to not reveal their pasts to him. They all pretend to have nothing to do with Ratchett nor the Armstrong girl. Because of the attempts to deceive Poirot, the train passengers believe that he wouldn’t share their beliefs on the morality behind Ratchett’s murder. Since they continued to deceive Poirot they dug themselves into deeper holes when he began to find holes in their stories, he started to question the morals of the passengers before finding out the real story. Therefore, by questioning the morals of the passengers, Christie shows that there the justification behind a crime comes to morality in the end. Furthermore, after being unsure for a while, Poirot makes a final decision on the morality of the passengers behind the crime. After solving the case and realizing what truly happened the nights following up to and the night Ratchett died, Poirot made an unusual decision. He decided to pretend that he never solved the case and let all of the passengers go because of what they did for the Armstrong girl. Because of Poirot’s decision, Christie reveals that there can be morality behind a murder. Since the passengers acted out of emotion in earning justice for a little girl, the morality behind the murder was revealed to be completely justified. Therefore, the morality behind the passenger’s deceitfulness was called for because it helped to take out a dangerous man who committed act of violence with no morals behind it. 

The motives for the passengers deceitful tendencies were revenge and morality which conveyed the belief that the murder of Mr. Ratchett was a just and moral act because of what is revealed of his past, ultimately illustrating that earning justice for evil acts takes deceitful and possibly unmoral behaviors although it’s for a moral cause. There are many crimes across the world that are violent and seem malevolent, but are ultimately decided as just or moral because of the motives behind the behavior.

FRQ 2:

In the novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Agatha Christie employs detailed imagery and Hastings’ first person point of view in order to convey the significance of the crime scene of Emily Ingelthorp’s murder in Poirot’s investigation, ultimately illustrating that paying attention to more than relationships between people reveals better and more trustworthy information.

Christie initially uses detailed imagery in order to demonstrate the importance of the setting of the crime scene even when the characters ignore it. As Poirot first enters the scene of Mrs. Inglethorp’s murder, he takes record of the locks on the three doors to the room. After asking a few questions about the locks, he puts it off and seemingly forgets about them. However, by the end of the investigation Poirot brings the resolution of the case back to his thoughts on the bolts and finds out the murderers are Mr. Inglethorp and Evelyn Howard. Because of these seemingly tiny details that are described with detail, it is inferred that they may be a central part to the crime scene even when being ignored by some characters. Consequently, by coming back to little details, Poirot is able to solve the murder. Therefore, by including detailed imagery when describing the scene of the murder, Christie demonstrates that paying attention to more than just the characters reveals in most cases more helpful information. Furthermore, Christie wrote many additional detailed descriptions of the crime scene that Poirot and Hastings used in their investigation of the crime. Throughout Poirot and Hastings’ investigation they continuously come back to the scene of the crime, Mrs. Inglethorp’s room, for evidence. This room is where Hastings takes account of every little detail of the room such as some candle wax dripped onto the rug, a smashed cup of tea, and the victims box of Bromide which is empty. Due to his recognition of these small details, he alongside Poirot are able to find out exactly who went in and out of the room the night of the murder and eventually finding the murderers. Because of the extensive detail that Hastings paid attention to, he was able to gain significant evidence against Evelyn Howard and Mr. Inglethorp. Since he was able to use that evidence to his advantage, it demonstrates the importance of paying attention to the little details. Thus, by adding a detailed crime scene Christie successfully advocates the importance of taking a minute to take in the scenes around someone in order to gain more knowledge of any situation that may be at hand. 

Additionally, the intricate details that are described from Hastings’ point of view reveal the significance of being in the scene of the crime to the case. Moreover, Christie utilizes first person point of view in order to demonstrate the crime scene in his point of view as a new detective to make the connections that Poirot creates understandable. From Hastings’ point of view, initially he doesn’t see too much that sticks out in the crime scene because he believes that the death was of natural causes. However, upon meeting Poirot, a famous detective, and learning of the murder, Hastings is distraught by not realizing the horrifying scene he witnessed and decides to join Poirot to solve the case. Because of Hastings’ first person point of view of seeing the murder and the crime scene, he is struck with emotion of needing to help and becomes a detective. Consequently, if he hadn’t been there to see Mrs. Inglethorp die, he may have not been prompted to join Poirot and the case wouldn’t have been solved. Therefore, by using a first person point of view, Christie reveals that the crime scene is significant to characters who experience it in order for the entire story to be revealed. Hastings’ first person point of view also reveals the differing opinions between him and Poirot on the murder scene. As Hastings and Poirot are looking for clues in Mrs. Inglethorp’s room they discover a cup of cocoa that she would drink every night in the middle of the night, which Hastings believed was significant evidence. However, Poirot did not think so, but believed that the smashed tea cup on the floor was more significant to finding out who poisoned her. Because of the use of first person point of view, Hastings reveals the perspective of a new and inexperienced detective that can be related. Since Hastings has an argument with Poirot, the perspectives of a new versus an experienced detective is shown in order to illustrate the different way the crime scene may be interpreted. Therefore, by using first person point of view Christie reveals that a first person point of view communicating with other characters opens up a broader idea of what the crime scene really reveals.

The crime scene depicted in The Mysterious Affair at Styles was a very significant factor that contributed to the case being solved. Having a violent scene of Mrs. Inglethorp dying illustrated the clues and investigation until Poirot and Hastings eventually solved the case. Overall, paying attention to other factors rather than characters opens up a chance for more information to be relayed.