Analysis of Elements of Plot in Agatha Christie's 'Towards Zero'.

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iii Maranatha Christian University

ABSTRACT

Dalam tugas akhir ini saya membahas sebuah novel berjudul Towards Zero yang ditulis oleh Agatha Christie. Buku ini menceritakan tentang misteri

pembunuhan yang terjadi di sebuah reuni keluarga. Seorang detektif bernama Battle ditugaskan membantu pihak kepolisian untuk memecahkan teka-teki kasus pembunuhan tersebut. Seiring dengan berjalannya cerita, perlahan-lahan sang detektif mulai menemukan titik terang melalui proses investigasi yang cukup rumit dan membingungkan.

Setelah membaca novel tersebut, penulis memutuskan hal penting yang akan dibahas dalam tesis ini adalah unsur-unsur plot, yaitu: suspense, surprise dan artistic unity. Penulis memutuskan untuk menganalisis hubungan antara suspense

dan surprise dan bagaimana keduanya terhubung sehingga membentuk sebuah artistic unity yang masuk akal sehingga dapat dipercaya oleh pembaca.

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APPENDICES

Summary of Agatha Christie’s Towards Zero

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Biography of Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie was born on 15 September 1890 in Torquay, a town in England. Her real name is Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller. She was born in a high-class family. Her father was an American stockbroker with good income, while her mother was a daughter of an English army captain. Her father died when she was eleven years old. She never went to school. She was educated by her mother and sometimes got an educational tutor in her house. Her mother taught her to write short stories and poems. Agatha spent a lot of time alone because of the great age difference between her and her sister’s age, about ten years. Her moments of solitude increased her imagination ability.

Agatha started her first detective novel when she was 25 years old. Her first work is titled The Mysterious Affair at Styles. The year 1930 is the most productive period for her because in this year she wrote many novels. She made 27 novels, which consist of 14 Hercule Poirot novels, 2 Jane Marple novels and 4 non-serial mystery novels. During the World War II, she wrote 2 novels, Curatin (1975) and Sleeping Murder (1976), which were published after her death. Christie was awarded a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1956. Such a reward related to her services as a military nurse. She died in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, when she was 85 years old, in 12 January 1976.

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of The Study

Agatha Christie is a British author in the 20th century who is famous for her novels. She is also famous for her plays, such as The Mousetrap, and short stories, such as The Submarine Plans and The Second Gong. She is considered to be one of the most famous murder mystery writers. She is clever at making stories and unforgettable detective characters. Agatha Christie has made a great contribution to the world of literature, especially in the genre of detective story.

Most of her works have been filmed and the stories of her two famous detective characters, Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot, have been made into a serial in television and radio versions. Miss Marple looks like an ordinary old woman. She does not like a detective at all, yet with her ability to observe human nature, she can solve a murder case with her shrewd observation.

Hercule Poirot is a Belgian man who has interesting physical appearance and also eccentric manners. His first appearance is in Christie’s first book, Mysterious Affair at Styles. It is difficult for someone to argue with him for he has

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2 Maranatha Christian University In this thesis, I would like to analyse one of the many world famous Christie’s books, Towards Zero. This novel, which is a whodunit story, was written in 1944. Whodunit story is “a novel or drama concerning a crime (usually a murder) in which a detective follows clues to determine the perpetrator” (“who-dun-it”). Such type of story makes the readers want to keep reading because they cannot find out who the murderer is until the end of the story. In this novel, Christie does not use Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple as the detective (Towards Zero).

This novel presents a new detective named Battle. Actually, Christie does not lose her touch on creating good murder mystery story. She beautifully forms a story that discusses separately how each character has connection to the others, which brings them to be involved in a mysterious murder. She is able to create an atmosphere that makes the readers continue to guess until the end who is likely to be the murderer.

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3 Maranatha Christian University together for the achievement of its central purpose where the suspense and surprise are acceptable and believable for readers” (“Artistic Unity”).

Statement of The Problem

The problems in this study are formulated in the following questions:

1. Which parts of the story act as suspense in the novel? 2. Which parts of the story act as a surprise in the novel? 3. How is the artistic unity presented in the novel?

Purpose of The Study

The analysis is conducted with the following purposes:

1. To show parts of the story which act as suspense in the novel. 2. To show parts of the story which act as surprise in the novel. 3. To show how the artistic unity is presented in the novel.

Method of Research

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Organization of The Thesis

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CHAPTER THREE

CONCLUSION

After I finished reading and analysing the novel, I conclude that Agatha Christie is very clever in creating such a good murder mystery story. She creates a story that is full of mystery and also a good surprise ending. In addition to that, she is very good at raising the readers’ tension and curiosity. This makes the story have good elements of plot.

After analysing the elements of plot, I am of the opinion that this book has four suspenses as the important part to build the readers’ tension. The first suspense is when the author tells that there is someone who is writing a scheme of a murder that will be executed in September. Furthermore, the readers know that September is the time the reunion will be held in Gull’s Point. The murder scheme makes the readers question about who the murderer is and who is going to be the victim of this murder plan.

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20 Maranatha Christian University the readers find out that the victim is Lady Tressilian, the readers may think that the death of Lady Tressilian may have connection with the conflict yet the reason why she becomes the victim makes the readers question about the motive of the the murderer to kill her. This event rises the reader’s tension and curiosity; the readers will read further to reveal the mystery.

The third suspense is when the police find out that the fingerprints on the niblick used to kill Lady Tressilian belongs to Nevile Strange and Mr. Strange is also reported to be the last person who meets her before she dies and both of them has a quarrel at that time. Then, detective Battle decides to do more investigations to make sure of his suspicion. This situation rises a question in the readers’ mind on whether it is true that Mr. Strange is the murderer.

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21 Maranatha Christian University more beautiful than her. As a result, the readers wonder whether or not Audrey is the murderer of Lady Tressilian.

Another important element of this novel is surprise. In my own opinion, the third and the fourth surprises are good as both of them reveal the mystery of the murder case as a whole. The third surprise reveals the real murderer and the motive of the murder.

The third surprise answers the first and the fourth suspense, when the detective explains about the scheme of the murder plan and how the murder is done. The scheme of the murder is very nicely planned. In order to make the murder plan succeed, good physical strength is required. This brings detective Battle to determine that Nevile Strange is the murderer for he is a famous athlete with good physical strength.

The fourth surprise is when detective Battle finds out that the motive for Mr. Strange to kill his own surrogate mother is to make Audrey, his ex-wife, suspected as the murderer. He does such a crime because he wants to take revenge on his former wife, Audrey, who has left him for another man.

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22 Maranatha Christian University directly though he really hates her because he thinks that framing Audrey to be a criminal who has to deal with the punishment of the court will make his ex-wife suffer more than killing her directly. He chooses his own surrogate mother to be the victim to cover his crime. He believes it will make everyone think that it sounds like something impossible for a person to kill someone who has been like a mother to him. Mr Strange makes such a clever plan to put himself firstly suspected by making all the evidences lead to him blatantly to create an image that someone else deliberately does that to frame him. Then, his final purpose is to make the suspicion turn to Audrey as the one who wants to frame him.

In my opinion, Agatha Christie’s success in writing this novel has come from the interesting subject of the novel and the good development of the plot, especially by using suspense and surprise. Christie has successfully written such a good story as the answers of the mystery are held back until the end of the story in order to raise the readers’ tension and curiosity. She provides so many events to mislead the readers in order to make a surprising ending which is not expected by the readers.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Text :

Christie, Agatha. Towards Zero. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1972. Print.

References :

“Agatha Christie Biography.” Biography Online. Web. 2010. 21 April. 2013.

Perrine, Laurence. Story and Structure: Fourth Edition. New York. Harcourt

Brace Javanovich, Inc, 1959. Print.

“Who-dun-it.” The Free Dictionary. 2005. Web. 25 September. 2013.

“Artistic Unity.” Glossary definition. Web. 4 June. 2014.

“Poirot.” Agatha Christie. Web. 27 July. 2014.

“Miss Marple.” Agatha Christie. Web. 27 July. 2014.