Universidade de Lisboa Faculdade de Letras

138 Pages·2014·1.26 MB·English

Universidade de Lisboa

Faculdade de Letras

A Man’s Job Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple with

Special Reference to Murder at the Vicarage

Maria João Faria Pessoa Terenas

Mestrado em Estudos Ingleses e Americanos
Especialização em Estudos de Cultura

2014
Universidade de Lisboa

Faculdade de Letras

A Man’s Job Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple with

Special Reference to Murder at the Vicarage

Maria João Faria Pessoa Terenas

Tese orientada pela Professora Dra. Adelaide Meira Serras

Mestrado em Estudos Ingleses e Americanos
Especialização em Estudos de Cultura

2014
Acknowledgment

This dissertation has taken me longer than I ever expected to be complete due to all the
problems I had to face and try to solve in recent years. It turned itself into a sort of
‘crutch’ that helped me to limp all along and at the same time helping me to stay
focused. Agatha Christie’s stories are my favorite readings while on holidays, although
my perspectives have obviously changed. This paper was done in my spare time, when
everything else came first even taking the dog to the vet. At first, all the information I
had gathered looked like an enormous puzzle, but little by little it began to make sense;
the bits started to piece themselves together and suddenly sentences became chapters.
I want to thank all the love and support I have received from my daughter, teachers
especially from Professora Adelaide Meira Serras, who has been my mentor, it was she
who challenged me to do this dissertation, and friends who gave me ideas, critics,
advice and a helping hand when everything seemed to go wrong, not knowing a better
word I simply say to You all: Thank You.

Abstract

This dissertation is focused on only two of Agatha Christie’s earlier works on detective
fiction featuring her second most famous sleuth Miss Marple namely: Thirteen
Problems (1930) which was published in the United States of America under the name
of Tuesday’s Night Club and Murder at the Vicarage (1932).
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From 1900 to 1930 goes a time span of just thirty years, but they were crucial to
Humanity. They were days of development and devastation, of suffering and enjoyment
as the world had to deal with one World War and its aftermath.
In order to better understand the character Miss Jane Marple several events of Agatha
Christie’s own private life were taken into consideration. Agatha Christie places her
character in the tiny village of Saint Mary’s Mead to make her look credible and
between these two elements there is an interchange that helps in the characterization of
both. In the end Miss Marple reveals herself, she is far more than the frail, old spinster
who enjoys snooping and has a knack for murder, is the embodiment of Englishness.
Key Words: Agatha Christie, Miss Marple, Detective-fiction, Victorian times,
Englishness.

Resumo
Esta dissertação baseia-se nas duas primeiras obras de Agatha Christie em que o
personagem principal é a famosa detective Miss Jane Marple, nomeadamente Thirteen
Problems (1930) que foi publicado nos Estados Unidos da América sob o título de
Tuesday’s Night Murder Club, e Murder at the Vicarage (1932).
De 1900 a 1930 vão apenas trinta anos que, no entanto, se revelaram cruciais para a
Humanidade. Dias em que o mundo assistiu a progressos e devastação, a sofrimento e
alegrias, e se viu confrontado com a Guerra Mundial I e as suas consequências.
Com o intuito de conseguir compreender melhor o personagem Miss Jane Marple vários
acontecimentos da vida pessoal de Agatha Christie foram tomados em linha de conta. A
autora coloca o personagem na minúscula aldeia de Saint Mary Mead, a fim de a tornar
credível e entre estes dois elementos há um entrecruzamento que ajuda à caracterização
de ambos.
Miss Marple acaba por revelar-se muito para além da frágil e idosa solteirona, que gosta
de bisbilhotar e tem uma queda para resolver crimes. Na verdade, ela encarna o espírito
inglês da sua época.
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Palavras-chave: Agatha Christie, Miss Marple, Ficção Policial, Era Vitoriana,
Englishness
Contents

Chapter I – Introduction …………………………………………………4

Chapter II – Detective Fiction ………………………………………….12
1. Origins and Roots of Detective Fiction …………………….17
2. Form ………………………………………………………….34

Chapter III – Agatha Christie’s Britain - 1900 to 1930 ………………36
1. New Woman and Decadent Man ………………………………50
2. Feminism and Socialism ………………………………………..55
3. Imperialism and Feminism ……………………………………..55
4. The New Woman, the Decadent and the Dandy ……………....61
5. New Woman in the Modern City ……………………………….62
6. New Woman Modernism and Male Culture …………………..62
7. About the Philosophy of Gender ……………………………….66

Chapter IV – Female Detectives ………………………………………..71
1. Form: from Short Story to Novel ………………………………73

Chapter V – Agatha Christie
1. A Biographical Note …………………………………………….78
2. Christie the Writer ……………………………………………...78
3. Christie – the Theater …………………………………………...82
4. Conservative and Modernists Traits in Christie……………….84
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5. Christie’s Characters…………………………………………….87
6. Settings……………………………………………………………88
6.1. Geographical Settings ………………………………………91
7. Miss Jane Marple ………………………………………………..95
7.1.The Character’s Life ……………………………………….103

7.2. Psychological Traits ………………………………………104

7.3. Miss Marple’s Methods …………………………………..104
7.4. Weapons……………………………………………………106
7.5. Saint Mary Mead………………………………………….110

Chapter VI – Murder at the Vicarage, a Brief Analysis ……………111
1. Setting ……………………………………………………...114

Chapter VII – To Conclude …………………………………………..116

Appendix ……………………………………………………………....119

Bibliography …………………………………………………………..123

Chapter I – Introduction

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At head start anyone dealing with detective fiction faces two major issues: is it
Literature?
Can it be included in literature? Is it a genre?
Until quite recently detective fiction books could be found on the bottom shelf of any
good library and none of its authors up to the present has been awarded any ‘canonical’
prize. In spite of their enormous popularity and huge sales, they seem to be ignored by
those, who look upon themselves as producers of ‘real literature’. Only their peers seem
to recognize their talents, in a close circle, similar to the settings so much in use during
the Golden Age.
Firstly one must consider, if just briefly what is literature, the ambiguity of the term
becomes immediately patent, since it is used to advertising matter and any kind of
imaginative writing however bad. (A. A. Hill: 1998, 243).
The term itself can be misleading, putting aside oral literature and getting hold only of
the written word. Basically it is a form of human expression, but not everything is
literature. Those writings that are primarily informative are excluded by some critics of
its ‘realm’.
Literature can also be defined as a body of written works. Traditionally, the name has
been applied to those imaginative works of poetry and prose, distinguished by the
intention of their executors and the perceived authentic excellence of their authors. In
this sense Lisbeth Goodman in her work About Gender (2004) defines literature as: a
body of writing that aims to be creative. It includes poetry, prose, fiction and drama, but
usually excludes shopping lists, business letters and newspaper journalism. As such,
literature may be classified according to a variety of systems including: language,
national origin, historical period, genre and subject matter.
The debate whether detective fiction may, or may not, be considered literature is an old
argument. Detective fiction authors are still kept at bay and their place in literature
remains uncertain. One thing is sure, detective fiction belongs to the great branch of
fiction, its main theme the fight between Good and Evil is the corner-stone issue of all
Literature; its form, nowadays, mostly the novel format, began under the short-story
form and only later it expanded itself to the novel. Even under the wide fictional
category does it belong to the center or to the margins of Literature? This is another
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problem far from being solved. Johanna M. Smith in her article entitled Hard-Boiled
Detective Fiction: Gendering the Canon (1991) states:
“Allowing some popular fiction into a Literature canon would maintain the
hierarchical division between these categories that assumes Literatures relative
autonomy from the realm of ideology and places popular fiction in that grubby
milieu…. We need to rethink center and margins so I might teach detective
fiction as a canon in its own right”. (Smith: 1991, 16)
Theme and form do not exclude it from the realm of Literature. Quality is also
guaranteed. A huge number of writers and readers are a reality, so why are there still so
many critics reluctant in considering it Literature?
Maybe the answer is linked to its origins. Detective fiction was born for the delight of
the lower classes and has not forgotten its roots, or been allowed to forget them. It was
branded ‘low-brow’ and so it seems to remain by those who represent the highest
authority in the literary field Marjorie Nicholson (1894-1981) in her work The Professor
and the Detective (1929) opposes detective to literary fiction of her time and gives
testimony of the appeal the first had on the latter by providing an escape:” An escape
from literature itself “. “ The same people who spent their days reading Joyce were
reading Agatha Christie by night”. May be this is the secret that keeps detective fiction
alive and well. (Nicholson: 1929, 14)
Today academic writers of detective fiction are consciously crossing over literary
borders, the high and the low culture and at the same time showing that it can claim
literary status. There is a complex articulation between biographical and detective
fiction and its implications for our notions of selfhood and for the subjective authority
both claimed and renounced by the narrative vices of our times. Maurice Blanchot
(1907-2003) wrote in his work The Book to come? (2000):
“A book does not belong to a genre; every book depends exclusively of
literature. Genre is precisely one of those links through which the book connects
itself with the universe of literature” (Blanchot: 2000, 133).
So, once detective fiction is accepted as belonging to literature, the question of its genre
arises in more than one perspective.
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Basically, Genre is a French term that denotes types or classes of literature. The word
itself ‘genre’ derived not only from the French, but also from the Latin meaning ‘a
class’, ‘kind’ or sort. It is an ‘umbrella’ concept because it allows for many disparate
and often related concepts to be conveniently divided and subdivided. So, Genre can be
viewed as a literary type or class. However, works can be classified by subject – thus
carpe diem – each subject may eventually be said to constitute a genre, but the more
usual classification is by form and treatment. Some of the recognized genres are: epic,
tragedy, and lyric. From the Renaissance through the 18th century, the various genres
were rigorously distinguished and were governed by set of rules which a writer was
expected to follow. Recently, however, criticism has become less directly prescriptive
and less concerned with distinctions among them, although they are still considered
useful. (Beckson: 1961, 45).
So, the Classical classification into the already mentioned three recognized genres – or
poetic kinds – as they were then called, were widely thought to be fixed literary types
through the Renaissance and much of the 18th century. They were also commonly
ranked in a hierarchy. Actually, it was in the course of the 18th century that the
emergence of new types of literary productions and the querelle between Ancient and
Modern Literature, as depicted in Swift’s (1667-1745) The Battle of Books (1697) and
also presented in
Fielding’s prefaces helped weaken the belief in the stability and fixity of the literary
genres. In result of all the turmoil, nowadays genres are conceived to be more or less
arbitrary modes of classification, whose justification is their adequacy in terms of
aesthetically, that is, in literarily, presenting a subject. (M. H. Abrams: 1999, 67).
When trying to approach Agatha Christie’s work, and especially Thirteen Problems,
with her detective Miss Jane Marple, a feminine character in a usually male dominion,
the gender issue becomes of the utmost importance.
Gender in common usage refers to the differences between men and women.
Encyclopaedia Britannica notes that gender identity is ‘an individual’ self-conception as
being male or female, as distinguished from actual biological sex (1993). Although
gender is commonly used interchangeably with ‘sex’ within the academic fields of
cultural studies, gender studies or the social sciences in general, the term ‘gender’ often
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refers to mainly social rather than biological differences. Some view gender as a social
construction rather than a biological phenomenon. People whose gender identity feels
incongruent with their physical bodies may identify themselves as gender queer or
transgender.
In addition to age, gender is one of the universal dimensions on which status differences
are based. Unlike sex, which is a biological concept, gender is a social construct
specifying the socially and culturally prescribed roles that men and women are to
follow. According to Gerda Lerner (1920-2013) in The Creation of Patriarchy (1986),
gender is
“the costume, the mask, a straightjacket, in which men and women dance an unequal
dance” (22). As Alan Wolfe (1942-) observed in The Gender Question (The New
Republic) published in 1994.
“0f all ways one group has systematically mistreated another, none is more
deeply rooted than the way men have subordinated women. All other
discrimination is pale by contrast.” (Wolfe: 1994, 25)
Lerner takes this argument even further and blames the ‘subordination of women’
responsible for all the other ‘isms’:
“Subordination of women preceded all other subordinations and to rid ourselves
of all other ‘isms’ – racism, classicism, (…) it is sexism that must be
eradicated.” (Lerner: 1968, 75)
All societies seem to recognize the existence of different sexes and therefore group them
according to it for several reasons. (Reskin & Padavic: 1994, 42) Every human being
borne under Western culture immediately belongs to a specific sexual category. For the
Greek philosophers man is the creator of law and order, while woman is linked to chaos,
disorder, an inferior being by nature. The Enlightenment’s speech pretends to put an end
to the differences of sex and race, but the truth is that in a somewhat perverse way it
ends up by justifying women’s inferiority. She is seen as ‘The Other’. The French
Revolution with its quest for Liberty, Equality and Fraternity went on considering
women as men’s property. She is nothing more than ‘la femme du citoyen’, with no
legal identity. Sandra Bem (1994-) in her book The Lenses of Gender (1993) says that in
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