Analysis of Misleading Scenes in Agatha Christie's Detective Series Through The Use of Deixis, Reference, and Presupposition, and Their Effects in Supporting the Elements of Plot.

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ABSTRACT

Dalam skripsi ini saya menganalisis bagaimana adegan-adegan mengecoh yang terdapat dalam serial detektif karangan Agatha Christie dibentuk melalui

deixis, reference, dan presupposition, dan bagaimana adegan-adegan tersebut memberikan efek terhadap alur cerita.

Salah satu keunikan dari serial detektif adalah bahwa pengarang senang menantang para pembacanya untuk membuat hipotesis sebelum sang tokoh detektif mengungkap misteri di akhir cerita. Agatha Christie merupakan salah seorang pengarang yang banyak menciptakan adegan-adegan mengecoh, sehingga para pembaca seringkali membuat hipotesis yang salah. Karangannya yang dibahas di dalam skripsi ini berjudul The Body in the Library dan The A.B.C

Murders.

Dalam menganalisis adegan-adegan mengecoh ini, saya menerapkan teori Pragmatik, bagaimana pesan yang disampaikan seseorang lebih dari sekedar apa yang diucapkannya. Untuk mempersempit lingkup analisis, ada 3 area dalam Pragmatik yang akan diterapkan di dalam analisis, yakni deixis, reference, dan

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yang menjelaskan tentang sesuatu yang merupakan asumsi si penutur sebelum membuat suatu tuturan.

Analisis dimulai dengan menceritakan adegan yang dianggap dapat mengecoh pembaca, dilanjutkan dengan pembahasan mengenai pembentukan adegan tersebut melalui teori deixis, reference, & presupposition. Lalu, penjelasan tentang bagaimana peran adegan-adegan tersebut dalam mendukung alur cerita.

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APPENDICES

Synopsis of The Body in the Library

There is a murder case in St. Mary Lead. Colonel Bantry wakes up in the morning and finds an unknown dead body lying in his library. The body is later identified as Ruby Keene, a dancer in the Majestic hotel. Her cousin, Josie, is the one who identifies the body.

It seems that Mr. Jefferson, a guest in the Majestic hotel, is the only one that is worried about Ruby. Mr. Jefferson, who has lost his daughter and his son in an accident, comes to like Ruby so much that he plans to make her his foster daughter, and then leave a large sum of money to her. This causes Mark and Adelaide, Mr. Jefferson’s son-in-law and daughter-in-law, not to like Ruby’s existence so that both of them have strong motives to kill her. However, there are other suspects as well: Bazil Blake, the Colonel’s neighbours, and of course, the Colonel himself.

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Every suspect seems to have an alibi, so that no one can be accused of killing both girls. However, Miss Marple eventually uncovers the truth, and then reveals the mysteries one by one, which starts with the fact that the bodies of those two girls have been exchanged. The girl found dead in the library is actually Pamela Reeves, while the girl found burnt onside the car is Ruby Keene. It is surprising that Mark, along with his partner, who turns out to be Josie are in fact the murderers of both girls.

Synopsis of The A.B.C. Murders

The story begins with Poirot receiving a challenging letter, which is signed by A.B.C. He tells Poirot to look out for Andover on a given day. Then a murder occurs there, and it is followed by more letters sent to Poirot. It soon becomes clear that the criminal is committing his crimes based on the alphabet. Alice Ascher is killed in Andover, waitress Betty Barnard is murdered in Bexhill, Sir Carmichael Clark is killed in Churston. Yet in the fourth murder case, the criminal seems to make a mistake by killing Mr. Earlsfield in Doncaster. A railway timetable, which is called ‘The ABC Rail Guide’, is left next to each victim.

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Table 1. The Misleading Scenes Found in The Body in the Library

No. Utterances Deictic Expression Referring

Expression

Presupposition Elements of plot supported 1 1. ‘The flamboyant figure of a girl. A girl with

unnaturally fair hair… Her thin body was

dressed in a backless evening dress of white spangled satin…’

2. ‘Ruby Keene, eighteen, … believed to be

wearing white diamante evening dress….’

3. ‘It’s Ruby all right.’

a girl

2 1. ‘The girl was a dance hostess or something at the Majestic.’

2. ‘Colonel Bantry dined at Majestic last week.’ 3. ‘…Conway Jefferson, He’s staying at the

Majestic…’

Majestic Majestic Majestic

Suspense

3 1. ‘…They were both playing bridge from twenty minutes to eleven until midnight.’

2. ‘By midnight, according to the medical evidence, she was dead.’

4 1. ‘There she was – on the heartrug – strangled!” 2. ‘You’re lucky that she wasn’t strangled in your

hotel.’

there

Factive

presupposition

Surprise

5 ‘Josie, no doubt, who had encouraged the intimacy.’

Factive

presupposition

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No. Utterances Deictic

6 ‘Yes, I did like her. I thought she was a good sport.’ Structural

presupposition

Surprise 7 1. ‘After that she asked me to help her soothe The

Jeffersonsdown. She said it was important.’ 2. To himself he thought, ‘It was important, all

right! Fifty thousand pounds!’

The Jeffersons it

it

Surprise

8 ‘I expect that will be the girl guide who’s missing – Patience – no, Pamela Reeves.’

that the girl guide who’s missing

Factive

presupposition

Foreshadowing and Surprise 9 ‘The disappearance of Pamela Reeves had taken

place in Redfordshire though her body had been found in Glenshire.’

10 ‘He’d not rest until he’s hunted down the man or womanwho’d killed her.’

the man or woman Suspense and

Surprise 11 1. ‘Who’s he?’ ‘Young fellow connected with the

film industry…’

2. Josie said, ‘She wouldn’t be with him. What can she be up to? She isn’t with that film man, is she?’

3. ‘I’ve found out it was Blake, she meant. He’s employed with the Lemvilles Studio, you know.’

4. ‘She was going into Danemouth for a film test after the rally! She’d met a film producer – just back from Hollywood, he was.’

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No. Utterances Deictic Expression

Referring Expression

Presupposition Elements of plot supported 12 ‘… that her nails had been long, only caught one

and broke it. So then, of course, she might have trimmed off the rest to make an even appearance…’

her

she Foreshadowing

and Surprise

Total 3 9 5

The number of misleading scenes containing deictic expression: 3 The number of misleading scenes containing referring expression: 9 The number of misleading scenes containing presupposition: 5

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Table 2. The Misleading Scenes Found in The A.B.C Murders

2. ‘Mr. Alexander Bonaparte Cust rose from his seat and peered near-sightedly round the shabby bedroom…’

A.B.C

Mr. Alexander Bonaparte Cust

Surprise

2 ‘…it cannot be coincidence. Three crimes – and every time a man selling stockings and spying out the land.’

a man selling

stockings and spying out the land

Foreshadowing

3 ‘Mr. Cust came out of the Regal Cinema and looked up at the sky.’

Lexical

presupposition

Suspense and Surprise 4 1. ‘You really mean my sister was killed by some

horrible homicidal maniac?

2. ‘… after all, it will be the cooperation of several million people, looking out for a madman…’

5 ‘That’s the way of it,’ said Crome. that Foreshadowing

and Surprise 6 ‘Franz Ascher would have been arrested for the

murder of his wife – Donald Fraser might have been arrested for the murder of Betty Barnard – if it had not been for the warning letters of A.B.C.’

Counter-factual presupposition

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No. Utterances Deictic 7 ‘Always, up to now, it has fallen our lot to work

from the inside.’

Lexical

presupposition

Suspense and Surprise

8 ‘… in fact, to be somebody instead of nonentity.’ somebody Surprise

9 ‘This man must have been spying out the land beforehand and discovered your brother’s habit of taking an evening stroll.’

10 1. ‘The next little incident will take place at Doncasteron September 11th.’

2. ‘But old Cust wasn’t going to Cheltenham. He was going to Doncaster.’

Doncaster Doncaster

Surprise

11 ‘There are things I want to know. Why did he

commit these murders? Why did he choose those particular people?’

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

In this thesis, I would like to analyse how deixis, reference, and

presupposition are used in the misleading scenes in Agatha Christie’s detective series entitled The Body in the Library and The A.B.C Murders. Besides, I would also like to relate these misleading scenes to their effects in supporting the elements of plot: suspense, surprise, and foreshadowing.

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Agatha Christie is considered the most famous writer of detective stories in the twentieth century. Her detective stories use either first-person or third-person point of view. However, when the story applies first-third-person point of view, oftentimes the first person is not the detective who is investigating the crime and finally solving the mystery. And, when the story applies third-person point of view, oftentimes the third person who seems to dominantly appear in the story and make the investigation is not the detective who is going to reveal the mystery, either. Therefore, the readers are not able to read what is in the detective’s mind.

Still, Agatha Christie provides the readers with hints and clues in order to enable them to participate in the process of solving the mystery. Yet, the readers will possibly be faced with two problems. First, they may have to know which hints are considered the real hints, and which ones will lead them to a wrong interpretation. Second, they have to be able to apply the real hints in the process of making a hypothesis.

Occasionally, it happens that some readers are excited when they think they have successfully solved the mystery before the story ends. Yet, when reading the final conclusion delivered by the detective, they find that their hypothesis is quite different or even far different from the conclusion. This may happen since the readers sometimes misjudge the real hints to be the fake ones, or vice versa. Certain scenes seem to contain hints and clues to help the readers to solve the mystery, but Christie actually provides such scenes to mislead the readers.

In this thesis, I would like to show how linguistic aspects such as deixis,

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scenes. Those misleading scenes build the relationship between the readers and the writer. In order not to be misled, the readers have to be able to interpret the writer’s intended meaning of the linguistic forms. Therefore, the linguistic area of my analysis will be Pragmatics, as it is concerned with ‘the study of meaning as communicated by a speaker (or writer) and interpreted by a listener (or reader).’ (Yule, 1996:3). Furthermore, the hints provided in the misleading scenes which are applied in Agatha Christie’s detective series deal with the use of deictic and referring expressions, as well as building the reader’s presupposition.

In my opinion, the misleading scenes in Agatha Christie’s detective stories are provided not only to challenge the readers to solve the mystery on their own, but also to support the elements of plot in the story, which are suspense, surprise, and foreshadowing. In order that the readers can have the awareness of these elements, the readers are expected to read the story thoroughly.

Suspensedeals with the readers’ curiosity in revealing the truth behind the mystery, as well as finding ‘whodunit.’ In reading a detective story, the readers will generally grow eager to read on to find the answer to the mystery. On the other hand, the author will present foreshadowing, which plays an important role in a detective story since it contains hints and clues to help the readers solve the mystery. The last element, surprise, deals more with the solving of the mystery. It takes place when the resolution departs from the readers’ expectation.

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through the use of deixis, reference, and presupposition. The misleading scenes can surprise the readers at the end of the story.

Statement of the Problem

I would like to state the problems as follows:

1. Which scenes in Agatha Christie’s detective series are considered misleading? 2. How are deixis, reference, or presupposition applied in The Body in the

Library and The A.B.C Murders (by the author as the speaker) to create misleading scenes?

3. How do the misleading scenes support or build surprise, suspense, and

foreshadowing?

Purpose of the Study

Based on the problems stated above, I would like to show:

1. the scenes in Agatha Christie’s detective series that are considered misleading. 2. the way deixis, reference, or presupposition are applied in The Body in the

Library and The A.B.C Murders (by the author as the speaker) to create misleading scenes.

3. the way those misleading scenes build surprise, suspense, and foreshadowing.

Method of Research

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form the misleading scenes. Then I elaborate how those misleading scenes build and support the elements of plot: surprise, suspense, and foreshadowing. Finally, I write a report of my research.

Organisation of the Thesis

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CHAPTER FOUR

CONCLUSION

After analysing the novels, I find that there are twelve misleading scenes in The Body in the Library and eleven misleading scenes in The A.B.C. Murders that can be analysed using such linguistic aspects as deixis, reference, and

presupposition. Of the twelve misleading scenes found in The Body in the

Library, I find out that there are three misleading scenes containing deictic expressions, nine misleading scenes containing referring expressions, and five misleading scenes containing presupposition. While out of eleven misleading scenes analysed in The A.B.C. Murders I find that two misleading scene contains a deictic expression, five misleading scenes contain referring expressions, and six misleading scenes contain presupposition. Those findings show that most misleading scenes in both stories are created using reference and presupposition.

In my opinion, the use of reference and presupposition are quite effective in creating the misleading scenes, since they may let the readers have incorrect inferences and false assumptions, which lead to a wrong hypothesis. In The Body

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in the library is Ruby Keene, and the girl found burnt inside the car is Pamela Reeves. The second one is to mislead the readers so that they do not expect that the villains in this story are Mark and Josie. In other words, the misleading scenes are used to divert the readers’ attention from the fact that the bodies of those girls have been exchanged and the fact that Mark and Josie are husband and wife who have planned those murders. Thus, I find that most referring expressions in this story make the readers infer that the girl found dead in the library is Ruby Keene, while the girl burnt inside the car is Pamela Reeves. Besides, some references are provided to emphasise the presence of a particular character. This makes the readers think that this particular character has a significant possibility of committing the murders. In fact, this character is not the murderer. Furthermore, I find that the utterances provided in the misleading scenes make the readers have presuppositions which ensure them that their inferences are correct. Thus, in The

Body in the Library, the misleading scenes are created using references which later on form the readers’ presuppositions.

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considered mad. Therefore, the readers will infer that this character is the serial killer. Thus, unlike in The Body in the Library, in The A.B.C. Murders the misleading scenes are first created using the false presuppositions and then these presuppositions are supported by the use of references.

Next, my findings show that in The Body in the Library there are eleven misleading scenes supporting the element of surprise, three misleading scenes supporting the element of suspense, and two misleading scenes supporting foreshadowing. While in The A.B.C. Murders, there are nine misleading scenes supporting the element of surprise, five misleading scenes supporting the element of suspense and two misleading scenes supporting foreshadowing.

This shows that most misleading scenes in both stories support the element of surprise. Before analysing the novels, I think that both stories are good because I am impressed with the tricks used in the crimes, and I am also really satisfied with the solving of the mysteries. However, after doing the analyses of the misleading scenes in both stories, I find that the way the misleading scenes support the element of surprise in these novels is impressive. I agree that a good and successful detective story should have a surprise ending. And, to create a surprise ending, the misleading scenes must indeed be provided to lead the readers to a wrong hypothesis. In my opinion, the misleading scenes provided in Agatha Christie’s stories can surprise the readers because not only do they find their hypotheses wrong, but they also find that they have easily followed the false hints provided in the misleading scenes.

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scenes which support this element of foreshadowing, since the purposes of misleading scenes and foreshadowing are quite contradictory to each other. A misleading scene is intended to let the readers have a wrong expectation of the ending, while foreshadowing gives the readers clues to something that is going to happen later in the story. However, I find that still, there are misleading scenes which support the elements of foreshadowing. I think these kinds of scenes will either mislead the readers or give them a hint. Misleading scene 12 in The Body in

the Library informs that Ruby has trimmed off her nails before she disappears, while the dead body found in the library has short nails. It convinces the readers that the body found dead in Colonel Bantry’s library is really Ruby Keene’s. However, it foreshadows that the trivial information about the nails will later be revealed as an important key to solving the mystery. While misleading scene 5 in

The A.B.C Murders informs that the detective thinks that the killer’s mistake in writing Poirot’s address on the third letter is done unintentionally. However, the fact that the wrong address is written in the third letter foreshadows that this third crime is the key to the facts about the serial murders. Thus, I think that the readers who have had a false assumption from the beginning will be more convinced that these assumptions are true. On the other hand, the readers who have not been misled may find out that such scenes contain hints and clues to help them make a correct hypothesis.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

References

Levinson, Stephen C. Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983. Yule, George. Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.

Primary Texts

Christie, Agatha. The A.B.C Murders. New York: The Berkley Publishing Group, 1991.

Analysis of Misleading Scenes in Agatha Christie's Detective Series Through The Use of Deixis, Reference, and Presupposition, and Their Effects in Supporting the Elements of Plot.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT

APPENDICES

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER FOUR

CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY