THE PERFECT

MURDER by
Jeffrey Archer
Dr. Premalatha Nair
Week 3
Author:
Jeffrey Archer
 Background:
• Bestselling English (British) author
• Former politician whose political career ended in conviction
and imprisonment for fabrication and perverting the course
of justice.
• Served as a member of the British Parliament (1969 – 1964)
• Deputy chairman of the Conservative Party (1985 – 1986).
 • Born in London on April 15, 1940
• Physical education teacher at Vicar’s Hill, a Prep School in
Hampshire
Dover College in Kent.
• Earned a diploma in teaching.
• Suspected of providing the university with false academic
Background qualifications to get into the course.
• Was a successful athlete during his years at Oxford
• Worked part time as a charity fundraiser for Oxfam and
was eyed with suspicion by other students for owning a
house and personalized number plated cars by working
part time.
• Met his wife, Mary Weeden, whom he would marry in
July 1966.
Background

• After being appointed the Deputy Chairman of the Conservative party in

1985, Archer was forced to resign a year later after being reported on
having paying a prostitute for sexual services.
• However, Archer won the case named, libel trial, after suing and was
presented £500,000 in damages.
• He was arrested in 2000 after a trial that found him guilty of persuading a
friend to lie in court in the 1987 libel trial.
• After being imprisoned for four years, Archer was released on July 21, 2003.
He wrote, A Prison Diary, a three volumes long memoir during his days in
prison.
 • The opposite of expectation
• What we expect to happen doesn’t happen
• Creates conflict
• Irony is when the reality is opposite of what
What is we expect. The key here is "opposite," not
just different. This incongruity can be found
irony? in language (what we say vs. what we mean)
or circumstances (what we expect to happen
vs. what actually happens).
• Irony can be sad and tragic, or it can funny
and satirical.
 • we have more information about the
circumstances than a character.
• Ex. When you know a trap has been
set and watch someone walk into it.
• That is dramatic irony.
• Dramatic irony occurs when
the audience knows a key piece of
information that a character in a play,
Dramatic Irony movie or novel does not. This is the
type of irony that makes us yell,
“DON’T GO IN THERE!!” during a scary
movie. Dramatic irony is huge in
Shakespeare’s tragedies, most
famously in Othello and Romeo and
Juliet, both of which we’ll examine
later.
• In Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Macbeth appears
to be loyal to Duncan, but he is actually plotting his
murder. Duncan doesn't know Macbeth's plans, but the
audience knows what is going to happen.
 Is when someone says something, but means the opposite.

Example: When you get an "F" on your term paper and say,
"Wow, I did a really
good job on my term paper!"

Example:
Verbal Irony
In the episode of Friends where the friends go to London for
Ross and
Emily's wedding, Chandler says, "I'm so glad we're having this
rehearsal
dinner. You know, I so rarely get to practice my meals before
I eat them."
 There are 4 types of
verbal irony

Understatemen
Sarcasm Overstatement Socratic irony
t
 • Situational irony is when we expect one thing, but get the
opposite.
• Ex. When you buy a can of Coke but it has Pepsi inside.
• That is situational irony.

Situational • Situational irony occurs when the actual result of a

situation is totally different from what you’d expect the
Irony result to be. Sitcoms often use situational irony. For
example, a family spends a lot of time and money
planning an elaborate surprise birthday party for their
mother to show her how much they care. But it turns out,
her birthday is next month, and none of them knew the
correct date. She ends up fuming that no one cares
enough to remember her birthday.
 • The whole story of The Wonderful Wizard of
Oz by L. Frank Baum is a case of situational
irony. Dorothy and her friends are in search
Situational of external forces to help them get what
they need, but discover that they each had
Irony what they needed the whole time. Dorothy
learns that the shoes she was wearing can
get her home. Scarecrow discovers he was
smart all along. The Tinman finally learns
that he has a good heart. The cowardly Lion
turns out to be extremely courageous.
 • Olfactory imagery
• I’m starting to smell just like that trash bin
• Irony:
Literary • Allusion:
elements • The police words allude to the Miranda warning
• Foreshadowing
• Visual imagery: The cops knock down my
apratmen door and I fall off my chair
 PERFECT MURDER THE STORY
• Written in 1988
• The story is told in the first person by a married man who has been having an affair with
beautiful, 32-year-old Pimlico secretary Carla Moorland. After he sees another man leaving her
flat, he assumes it's her lover and the two quarrel, ending in him accidentally striking her dead.
He leaves unnoticed, then anonymously tips off the police so that the man he saw, a
51-year-old insurance broker called Paul Menzies, will be arrested. The murder inquiry receives
vast media attention and Paul Menzies is eventually arrested and brought to trial. The
protagonist is eventually sacked from his job, and puts his family life on hold, attending the
courthouse hearings everyday. His guilt grows ever larger, and he is consumed by the fear that
Menzies will be found innocent and the police will identify him as the real murderer. Despite his
fears of being caught, the protagonist returns to the courthouse every day, waiting for the court
of law to find Menzies guilty. The protagonist's fears that he will be caught continue to grow,
and after a lengthy trial and jury deliberation, he is happy to find out that the jury has reached a
verdict. The protagonist returns to the courthouse for the verdict, and when the judge asks the
foreman to stand and read the verdict, the protagonist stands and delivers the verdict of
"Guilty", thus bringing out the twist in the tale, which is so aptly described by the book’s title.
 • Read the story and come up with a time line
on the plot (events) that has taken place.
• What is your view of the main character?

TASK • You should work in groups (max. 4 in one

group)
• You can answer the questions by making
reference to the Appendix attached. (Task 1
and Task 2)