hidden messages

Hi everyone ,just wanted to check especially who re-read AC alot if Mrs.Christie did ever hide a message in her books except the message of " the murderer will be caught no matter how clever he is, or crime never can be hidden..etc" I want something which is more related to social life you know things like morals.. If yes please mention the moral with book , because I read somewhere that every author hide a message in their writing and I wanted to know if AC did that ^_^

Comments

  • With the book**
  • edited May 2015

    Maybe the message from "The Hollow" is that the victim got what he deserved because he cheated on his wife, and the murderer was driven to kill him because of his cheating.

    Also the mistress is left unhappy at the end, with only her art, so is that Christie's way of saying she is paying the price for her adultery?

    Interesting when you consider what Archie did to Agatha in her own life.

  • There are many messages Christie communicates in her books. Some messages get delivered more frequently than others.

    The most frequent message is "Don't Judge a Book by Its Cover": in almost every book, people make false assumptions about the detective (usually Poirot or Miss Marple), the murderer, the victim, or the beautiful heroine based on their ethnicity, age, looks, or other superficial qualities. As the mystery unfolds, Christie delights in showing the reader and the characters the hidden qualities in these people that were not immediately apparent or were obscured by stereotypes.

    Another frequent message is the difference between detective fiction and real life. In some of Christie's stories, characters jump to false conclusions because they expect the mysterious circumstances they are currently experiencing to adhere to generic tropes of detective fiction. Hastings often makes this mistake and Poirot frequently corrects his false assumptions. The absurdity of some elements of Ariadne Oliver's plots also conveys this message. Another example, if I remember correctly, in The Mirror Crack'd Inspector Craddock says jokingly that Miss Knight must be the murderer because in detective fiction it is always the least likely suspect who is the murderer and Miss Knight is least likely suspect, but Miss Marple counters that in her experience it is generally the most likely person doing exactly what she expects him or her to be doing. There are many other examples (like the intelligence of the police, how guns work, etc.).

    Christie also teaches her readers to be wary of narrators. Some of Christie's narrators actively mislead the reader, whereas other narrators (like Hastings) inadvertently lead the reader down the wrong path. These stories teach readers to read sources critically to distinguish objective facts from the narrator's distorted opinions.

    Christie also usually emphasizes that seemingly supernatural circumstances are the products of human deception and overactive imaginations. Poirot declares in "The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb": "What I meant was that I believe in the terrific force of superstition. Once get it firmly established that a series of deaths are supernatural, and you might almost stab a man in broad daylight, and it would still be put down to the curse, so strongly is the instinct of the supernatural implanted in the human race." With some exceptions (namely, some of Christie's short stories), Christie and her characters usually exploit supernatural atmospheres to make others believe in the illusions and lies they have created to hide their crimes.

    Some of Christie's books raise ethical questions about justice (namely, Murder on the Orient Express, And Then There Were None, and Ordeal by Innocence) which it is up to the reader to decide where he or she stands on the given issue.

    Other stories investigate the nature of love and teach the reader healthy and unhealthy forms of love. (Some examples include Death on the Nile, Murder is Easy, Sad Cypress, Death Comes as the End, The Hollow, Endless Night, Nemesis, and Elephants Can Remember).

    Some stories explore power relations and illustrate both the impossibility of exercising absolute authority over others and the dangers of attempting to do so. (Examples include The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Death on the Nile, Appointment with Death, Hercule Poirot's Christmas, Ordeal by Innocence, and Elephants Can Remember).

    Another fertile ground which Christie explores is how crime affects the minds of both the guilty and the innocent. Correct detection, Christie repeatedly illustrates, is essential for the protection of the innocent from the pain caused by internal and external manifestations of suspicion. (Some examples include: The Body in the Library, The Moving Finger, and Ordeal by Innocence).

    Christie also represents Truth as a thing of beauty which can heal old wounds created by uncertainty. While seeking the Truth can be dangerous, Christie represents its potential to heal as worth the risks a proper investigation of old sins generates. (Some examples include Five Little Pigs, Mrs. McGinty's Dead, and Elephants Can Remember).

    In some novels, Christie expresses her political views. (Some examples include One, Two Buckle My Shoe, Sparkling Cyanide, and Passenger to Frankfurt).

    Christie also explores the influence of the past on the present and how memory works. She shows how memories often change to present the past in the way in which the individual wants the past to be remembered. Christie also recognizes the unconscious grains of truth people communicate even in fuzzy or distorted memories. (Some examples include Hercule Poirot's Christmas, Five Little Pigs, After the Funeral, Dead Man's Folly, At Bertram's Hotel, Endless Night, and Elephants Can Remember).

    Christie is also very interested in the nature of evil. (Some examples include Evil Under the Sun, Death Comes as the End, After the Funeral, Dead Man's Folly, and Endless Night).

    Christie also warns her readers to distrust utopias because it is impossible to achieve a perfect world. She shows how easily villains can cloak their wickedness under utopian schemes. Christie also emphasizes the devastating effect good intentions can produce when individuals thoughtlessly pursue abstract concepts without heeding practical realities. (Some examples include One, Two Buckle My Shoe, Destination Unknown, The Mirror Crack'd, Hallowe'en Party, and Passenger to Frankfurt).

    Christie is also very concerned about the role of art in society and the dangers of the pursuit of the beautiful or art for art's sake. (Some examples include Five Little Pigs, The Hollow, and Hallowe'en Party).

    This is only a small sample of "hidden messages" Christie communicates to her readers. As you can see, there are lots of things one can learn from reading and thinking about Christie's books.
  • Wow @P_Lombard that's what am talking about .. Thanks ^_^
  • Thank you too @anne.clough.3 I liked how you related the hollow to what happened in christie's life ^_^
  • great analysis, anne.clough!
  • AnubisAnubis Ontario, Canada
    Agree with all of the above. In addition: 
    • A secret will burden you. Consider Capt. Hastings, who has no secrets and no burdens. In most of AC's mysteries, every suspect has a secret, which the detective discovers on the way to catching the culprit. When the secret is revealed, there is relief.
    • In Hercule's Poirot's Christmas, one person abides by the proverb, "Take what you want and pay for it, says God." Throughout, the books, think AC is intimating that if you do "take what you want", then you should recognize that you will pay a high cost.
    • In AC's fictional world, every person has the potential to be "the guilty party". Obviously this not true in the real world (at least I hope it isn't) but SPOILER for Curtain, HP says this, and in most stories, when HP goes around the room saying, "you could have done it", he is talking to us. 
  • It also seems that Poirot says on numerous occasions that the obvious person to have committed a murder is often he or she who has indeed perpetrated the foul act. I think this is one of AC's messages, that murders are often homely affair inspired by ordinary situations.  In some of her novels, the obvious person is indicated, and creates a number of red herrings to make their crime less apparent SPOILER ALERT  (Murder At The Vicarage, The Moving Finger) In one, clever but believable plot, the murderer hams up his assumed role to make it seem that it would be very unlikely that he would act so suspiciously if he were planing a murder. SPOILER ALERT: Evil Under The Sun and Death On The Nile. SPOILER ALERT. In one brilliant work, the murderer will only be suspected if an earlier crime he has committed gets known about. Hence, he kills someone to prevent them from publicising the earlier crime to leave the decks clear for him to commit his latest murder project. SPOILER ALERT Carribbean Murder.

    I was moved when Miss Marple said in TMF that we are not put on this earth to avoid danger when an innocent life is at risk. I think AC believed that we must be bold in the interests of justice; this links to Anne's point about the beauty of truth, which is what HP believes in.
  • Tommy_A_JonesTommy_A_Jones Gloucestershire, United Kingdom
    A Murder Is Announced, A Caribbean Mystery, At Bertram's Hotel, The Mirror Crack'd and They Do It With Mirrors are all books where It should have been obvious who was the Murderer but there was so much to distract us you could ignore the obvious.
  • You are so right, Tommy. A Murder is Announced should have been completely obvious SPOILER ALERT due to the fact that only if it were your own home could you issue an invitation, and make plans re entry and exit. How clever AC is with that denouement.  Without being rude about AC's powers, I think ABH and Pale Horse, never really got off the ground plot wise, and frankly, anything could have happened, and we would have to accept it, the background was so bizarre and confoluted.
  • Tommy_A_JonesTommy_A_Jones Gloucestershire, United Kingdom
    I was thinking more that SPOILER ALERT! Only if it were your own house you would know about the Door and The Photo's It would be quite easy  for Patrick or the Girls to organise the Murder Advertisement but not the rest.
  • Yes, it is convincing plot because it is conceivable that Patrick and the girls could just about have done it - especially, as readers would think Julia and Patrick might be working together so one keeping the household distracted, and one would be adjusting or managing some aspect of the planning. I saw the dramatisation before I read the book, so I don't know if I would have rumbled the true murderer from the written clues.
  • Tommy_A_JonesTommy_A_Jones Gloucestershire, United Kingdom
    I don#t know if I would have rumbled it either Griselda for the exact same reason, I watched it years before reading it but the Book is so good It didn't bother me, 4.50 From Paddington is the only MM Iread before seeing the Adaptation.
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