BHAVYA MAHAJAN

SECOND YEAR, 3 RD SEMESTER

1561, Popular literature (2020)

B.A. ENGLISH (HONOURS)

WRITE A SHORT NOTE ON FIRST CHAPTER OF THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, a detective fiction novel by Agatha Christie published by Williams

Collins in June 1926, when she was thirty-five. It is a novel of standardised plot with genre proffering
clues, diagrams, stock suspects, etc. Throughout the novel, she had tried to set up a realistic society
of her contemporary time when law and order were falling into their places. The novel is in first
person narrative i.e. through the viewpoint of Dr.Sheppard.

The very first chapter of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd- ‘Dr Sheppard at the Breakfast Table’, opens
when Dr Sheppard , the narrator of the novel had sent to look at Mrs. Ferrars’s  body who had been
dead some hours before, the night of 16-17 th September. He had just returned from there and his
sister Caroline Sheppard calls him to join for the breakfast. Their conversation begins while having
breakfast on the table and end when Dr. Sheppard gets up.

Agatha Christie launches two characters in this chapter- JAMES SHEPPARD AND CAROLINE, his sister

both of opposite personality from each other. Dr Sheppard, being the narrator and doctor tries to
win readers trust by not disclosing facts to Caroline. He considers himself as professional man
because of which he aims discretion as he says “Therefore I have got into the habit of continually
withholding all the information possible from my sister.”

 Caroline being always the most curious asks him for the reason of Mrs.Ferrars death which she had
get to know from her house parlourmaid , Annie and the milkman. No information could be hidden
from her because she had a large network of spies. She was the one who could easily gather
information by sitting in her home and will go out to spread it. Though she had a habit of rushing to
conclusions by information she has. She immediately comments when Dr. Sheppard tells her about
Ferrars’s death “Nonsense, she took it on purpose. Don’t tell me.”  Caroline believes this because
she wasn’t able to hold the guilt of poisoning her husband who died a year ago. She being observant
reminds Dr.Sheppard that Mrs.Ferrars was looking different from past six months and she might
have left a letter stating the reason of her death.

James indignantly denies her theories by labelling them as illogical and nonsense. Caroline asks him
if he confidently believes that Mrs.Ferrars hadn’t committed suicide, he gets up leaving it
unanswered.

Christie lets us ponder over the reason of the Mrs. Ferrars’s death and Dr. Sheppard’s silence over it.
James had been discreet throughout the novel through which Agatha Christie tries to hint about him
being the murder which surfaces in the end.
2. Write a short note on King’s Abbot as an idyllic village.

In Agatha Christie’s “The Murder of Roger Ackroyd”- King Abbot is a social setting where murder
takes place. The village largely makes up of unmarried women and retired military officers. Agatha
through her detective novel wishes to take away her contemporary readers from their terrible past
experiences of First World War by establishing a place which seems safer. This closed innocent
seeming world works as an escape from the horrors of world war.

The flare of the village was gossiping about marriage relations, affairs, and many more. Everyone
including both men and women have it as their hobby. Other popular source of entertainment was
Mah Jong party, which again served a great deal of gossips. The two houses of greater significance
were King’s Paddock left to Mrs Ferrars and Fernly Park owned by Roger Ackroyd.

 In the novel Trent’s Last Case (which had deeply influenced Christie and her style of writing) the
detective Trent notes ‘‘a spacious lawn and shrubbery’’ and a house that is ‘‘beautifully kept, with
that air of opulent peace that clothes even the smallest houses of the well-to-do in an English
countryside. Agatha similarly uses such a place which seems so quiet and well- ordered, disciplined
and simple living where murder takes place making it fascinating for the readers.

Narrator claims to know about each other through gossips but fails to do. He, himself turns out
as biggest traitor when convicted guilty by Poirot, the one hiding his greed behind blackmailing
Mrs. Ferrars and his offense of murdering Roger Ackroyd when he was about to know about it
through Mrs. Ferrars letter. Stephen Knights writes in his article ‘...done from within’- Agatha
Christie’s world “The setting of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd supports the class limitations and the
moral perspectives embodied in the characters. King’s Abbot is a village immune to the industrial
and social realities and turmoil of the mid-twenties.”  

These novels did create cosy, comforting worlds in the British countryside with a few characters but
they weren’t necessarily free of menace and did engage with ideas of evil. King’s Abbot appears an
idyllic village where everyone has their own guilty secrets to hide which gets revealed during the
enquiry.  Poirot in the novel works as a cleanser of evil and bringing the village back to its normal
state by disclosing various guilty secrets of individuals during the enquiry.