Analysis of The Elements of Plot of Agatha Christie's 'The ABC Murders'.

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Maranatha Christian University

ABSTRACT

Dalam tugas akhir ini, saya akan membahas sebuah novel karya Agatha Christie yang berjudul The ABC Murders. Novel yang bergenre misteri ini menceritakan tentang pembunuhan berantai yang selalu diawali dengan adanya kiriman surat kepada seorang detektif. Pembunuhan berantai ini menjadi fokus utama sekaligus daya tarik bagi pembacanya. Oleh karena itu, saya memutuskan untuk menganalisis elemen-elemen yang membangun alur cerita seperti suspense, dan surpsrise dan bagaimana keduanya terhubung membentuk artistic unity

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Thrillers, whodunits, mysteries, crime fiction, and detective fiction refer to the same kind of genre; it is the mystery or crime story (“Mystery Genres”). Mystery is “a genre of fiction in which a detective, either an amateur or a professional, solves a crime or a series of crimes” (Wiehardt). During the year 1910 till 1950 England, mystery novels are really demanded and liked by middle-class readers (Rubinstein).

Agatha Christie is one of the most popular mystery writers in the world (Curran). She is an English writer who has written “80 novels, 30 short story collections and 15 plays” (“Agatha Christie is born”). It is during 1919 when she started writing and began her works as a writer (“Agatha Christie Biography”). Some of Christie’s novels are The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), Peril at End House

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In her novel The ABC Murders, Christie tells about a serial crime murder which is done by one murderer. The murderer’s target is only one but then he kills four people to confuse the detective or the police. Furthermore, the murderer succeeds to make the police and the detective confused. Victim by victim, who has been killed, makes the reader curious even more about the murder. Moreover, at the end of the story the reader finds surprising facts about the mystery, who the murderer is and what the motives are.

M.J. Murphy states that “novels of adventure, mystery, crime, and detection, espionage and often science fiction, usually have well worked-out plots” (134). In addition, as the plot in The ABC Murders is the most outstanding literary element, I would like to discuss it in my thesis. Plot is “a carefully thought-out plan in which all the events, all the actions and reactions of the characters, contribute towards the forward movement of the story” (134). Plot consists of three elements, they are suspense, surprise, and artistic unity. Suspense is “the quality in the story that makes the reader asks ‘what is going to happen next?’ or ‘how will this turn out?’ and impels him to read on to find the answers to these questions” (Perrine 45) while surprise is “proportional to the unexpectedness of what happens; it becomes pronounced when the story departs radically from the reader’s expectation” (47), and artistic unity means

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Maranatha Christian University that is essential to it, and the parts are arranged in the most effective order for the achievement of the purpose (“Artistic Unity”).

Statement of the Problem

The problems are stated as follows: 1. What are the suspenses in the novel? 2. What are the surprises in the novel?

3. How is the artistic unity presented in the novel?

Purpose of the Study

The purposes of the study are stated as follows: 1. To show the suspenses in the novel.

2. To show the surprises in the novel.

3. To show how the artistic unity is presented in the novel.

Method of Research

I use library research in writing my thesis. First, I read Agatha Christie’s The ABC Murders as the primary text. Then, I take some data from the Internet sites and sources to support my analysis of the elements of plot in the novel. In the end, I draw some conclusion.

Organization of the Thesis

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CHAPTER THREE

CONCLUSION

After analyzing the novel, I can conclude that Agatha Christie has succeeded in creating a very good story. In her mystery novel, The ABC Murders, she makes a detective rather hard to guess the murderer of a serial murder. He gets a letter every time a murder will happen. Victim by victim is killed until it stops at the fourth victim. Believing Mr. Cust, a stocking seller, as a murderer, Poirot as a very skillful detective feels a bit strange about this. Yet, Poirot’s clever thought leads him to the real murderer, Franklin Clarke, at the end of the novel. From the simple explanation above, it can be seen that Christie’s story is well-told because she succeeds in keeping the tension until it reaches the climax so that the reader feels the real surprise at the end of the novel.

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As the story tells about a serial murder, repetition of suspenses is unavoidable. The second suspense has the same type of question as the fourth, sixth, and the eighth suspenses. In these four suspenses, the reader shares Poirot’s curiosity to know who actually ABC is. However, these four suspenses which ask about the real murderer are not answered directly after each suspense emerges.

The third suspense happens when the reader wants to know whether the suspect of Mrs. Ascher’s murder is her own ex-husband. However, the first surprise comes right after the third suspense appears. It turns out that the suspect, Mr. Ascher, Mrs. Ascher’s husband is not ABC.

After the first murder happens, there comes the second one with Betty Barnard as a victim. In the fifth suspense, again the reader feels even more curious to know about the real murderer. So, the reader agrees with Poirot’s accusation to a suspect name Donald Fraser. Shockingly, Donald Fraser is not the killer of Betty Barnard, which means he is not ABC.

The tension keeps rising when another victim, Carmichael Clarke, is killed. The reader’s curiosity continues and the reader agrees with Poirot’s suspicion towards Miss Grey in the seventh suspense because Miss Grey is seen talking to a stranger on the day Carmichael dies. Surprisingly, Miss Grey is only meeting a stocking seller who tries to persuade her to buy his products.

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Maranatha Christian University real murderer for he is there every time a victim is killed. What really surprises the reader is that Mr. Cust proves to be the real ABC so far. Every proof leads to him.

As the real ABC is known, the story seems to come to an end. Yet, another suspense arises when Mr. Cust denies his being the murderer of all the four victims. The previous questions which have not yet been answered, along with this suspense, is answered in one big surprise. As a skillful detective, Poirot, thinks again and connects all the information he gets; he concludes that actually Franklin, Clarke, the brother of the third victim, is the real ABC.

Concerning the arrangement of events in the story, I am of the opinion that Agatha Christie as the author has succeeded in making a very interesting plot. Making some of the suspenses unanswered for some time is a smart way of the author to keep the tension of the story. In doing so, the author has indirectly forced the reader to keep on reading, until the surprise is revealed at the end of the story. The unanswered suspenses make the reader keep on thinking of the real ABC. The novel succeeds in building the reader’s tension while reading it.

Based on the above analysis, I can conclude that the arrangement of events in

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Text:

Christie, Agatha. The ABC Murders. London: Collins Crime Club, 1936. Print.

References:

“Agatha Christie Biography.” Biographyonline.net. 2010. Web. 10 Mar. 2014. “Agatha Christie is born.” History.com. 2014. Web. 6 Mar. 2014.

“Artistic Unity.” Humanitiesweb.org. n.d. Web. 6 Mar. 2014.

Curran, John. “The Top 10 Agatha Christie mysteries.” Theguardian.com. 2009. Web. 6 Mar. 2014.

Murphy, M.J. Understanding Unseens. Oxford: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1972. Print.

“Mystery Genres.” Mysterynet.com. 2012. Web. 14 Mar. 2014.

Perrine, Laurence. Story and Structure. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1974. Print.

Rubinstein, William D. “Detective Novels: A Very British Crime Wave.” Historytoday.com. 2010. Web. 14 Mar. 2014.