Agatha's Axioms and Articles of Faith
SiddharthaS
Michigan, United States
"An axiom or postulate is a premise or starting point of reasoning. As classically conceived, an axiom is a premise so evident as to be accepted as true without controversy. The word comes from the Greek axíōma (ἀξίωμα) 'that which is thought worthy or fit' or 'that which commends itself as evident.' "
Agatha Christie's books and short stories suggest several such postulates and articles of faith which she not merely subscribed to, but based her plots on.
Here is a list that by no means is complete, and I deliberately do not list her faith that British Justice, which has already been discussed at some length under the topic "Taking Disgraceful Liberties with Christie's loyalty to and Faith in British Justice".
Can we identify more of such axioms and name titles that support the axiom concerned? In fact it will be even more interesting if we can identify novels or stories which CONTRADICT a listed axiom.
- Life has a Purpose (Faith based antithesis of Nihilism) - Towards Zero, ...
- Never trust a black sheep - Ordeal by Innocence, A Pocket Full of Rye, Sparkling Cyanide / Yellow Iris, Towards Zero, ...
- Give 'em enough rope ... make them talk - Funerals Are Fatal (After the Funeral), Five Little Pigs (Murder in Retrospect), ...
- "You see, but you don't observe!" - Murder on the Links, ABC Murders, ...
- The victim's personality itself is often a clue - Hercule Poirot's Christmas, Five Little Pigs (Murder in Retrospect), Murder on the Links, ...
- Psychology of the Individual in murder investigations - A Pocket Full of Rye, Death in the Clouds, ...
- ... ??? ...
Comments
Some additional examples for SiddharthaS's axioms:
1. The Moving Finger
5. Evil Under the Sun, The Mirror Crack'd
New axioms:
7. "It is romantic, yes [...] It is peaceful. The sun shines. The sea is blue. But you forget, Miss Brewster, there is evil everywhere under the sun." (Evil Under the Sun, 15): In other words, evil is everywhere, even in the most unlikely places - Examples = Evil Under the Sun, Dead Man's Folly, The Moving Finger, etc.
8. "I have said over and over again, not only to you, my dear Dermot - if I may call you so - that it is always the obvious person who has done the crime." (The Mirror Crack'd, 185): This is one of Christie's favorite tricks, to trick us into thinking it is not the most obvious suspect only to show us that it was the most obvious person after all (of course she does not use this trick in every book, otherwise one would always be able to work out who the killer is) - Examples = The Mirror Crack'd, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, The Hollow, etc.
The Patriot Murders are for people who don't know (I didn't) One Two Buckle My Shoe.
Macbeth and Lady Macbeth were a highly ambitious couple. They were unscrupulous in the pursuit of what they selfishly sought. The brain behind their adventures, indeed the motive force, was Lady Macbeth; while Macbeth himself was the one who acted out his Lady's ambitious schemes. When he finds himself in difficulty without Lady Macbeth around, he feels lost like a rudderless ship. Such people in such situations are naturally going to feel what Macbeth felt - he merely voices that frustration by calling life meaningless.
In "Death on the Nile", when the modern Lady Macbeth's grand scheme fails, Christie's Macbeth ends up feeling lost and helplessly asks his Lady "What shall we do now?".
This is but one example of how deeply Agatha Christie's characters were influenced by their Shakespearean counterparts. Perhaps that is why they seem so real, and perhaps it also explains why her mysteries became classics rather than the lowly whodunits in literary rankings.
But just because Shakespeare's Macbeth said it, Life does not become meaningless. While we may often feel that Life is meaningless, we ought to have the Faith that there is some "cosmic" purpose behind all creation, like Christie's nurse tells us at the beginning of "Towards Zero". Our failure to comprehend the larger scheme of things is merely a measure of our ignorance; and so we ought to strive to find that meaning and travel our own journeys to draw conclusions, never giving up on keeping an open mind.
Christie is great because her books and her characters have the power to make readers reflect on life.
I used to watch Coronation Street but for me it has lost its humour anyway, my point is when hearing an Actress talk about her Plot once she mentioned Shakespeare and another Actress said if Shakespeare was around he would be writing for the series so perhaps as AC mentions The Bard a lot perhaps she would write for Corrie if she was around today perhaps she would if her Books became unfashionable or perhaps to raise extra Cash.
I think The Contestants of Talent Shows have mediocrity as an Ambition.
Who canonical authors envisioned as their audience also has changed immensely over time. Shakespeare famously wrote his plays for both the highest of the high and the lowest of the low. Plays during Shakespeare's life were not considered a form of literature. Thus, to cement his literary reputation, Shakespeare wrote his sonnets. When Shakespeare's contemporary, Ben Jonson, included his plays in an anthology of his works, the critics were appalled. This innovation paved the way for the posthumous publication of Shakespeare's collected plays in the first folio.
Charles Dickens and most 19th century authors wrote for popular audiences. Copyright was appallingly lacking in the 19th century. Consequently, 19th century authors' works were frequently plagiarized or re-printed without their permission. As a result, 19th century authors often struggled to make a living off of their writings. For example, Edgar Allen Poe was widely read in 19th century America, but mostly in unauthorized editions. Consequently, Poe died practically penniless (but his poverty was somewhat exaggerated by the guy who gave the speech at Poe's funeral [the guy who gave the speech was Poe's biggest enemy and tried to insult him throughout the speech] and this speech served as the foundation for many modern misconceptions of Poe).
In the 20th century, T.S. Eliot and other modernists thought writing for popular audiences was beneath them. They purposely tried to create difficult work that were intended to be appreciated by a discerning few. Some early modernist critics alleged that Dickens' works could not possess any literary merit because he wrote for "the masses". Today, some critics see Agatha Christie and other authors writing during the Golden Age of detective fiction as reacting to the elitism, cynicism, and difficulty of the modernists.