Analysis of The Elements of Plot of Agatha Christie's 'The ABC Murders'.
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
sehingga cerita menjadi masuk akal dan dapat dipercaya oleh pembaca. Pada akhir
analisis, dapat disimpulkan bahwa Agatha Christie berhasil membuat kausalitas
dari alur cerita novel ini terjaga dengan baik. Ketegangan demi ketegangan
diciptakan dan dipertahankan sampai akhir cerita. Keingintahuan pembaca pun
terjawab oleh keterkaitan antar kejadian yang masuk akal.
ii
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
i
ABSTRACT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
ii
CHAPTER ONE : INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
i
Background of Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1
Statement of the Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3
Purpose of the Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3
Method of Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3
Organization of the Thesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3
CHAPTER TWO : ANALYSIS OF THE ELEMENTS OF PLOT OF
AGATHA CHRISTIE’S THE ABC MURDERS . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5
CHAPTER THREE : CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
16
BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
19
APPENDICES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Summary of The ABC Murders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Biography of Agatha Christie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
20
20
21
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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
(1932), Murder on the Orient Express (1934), and The ABC Murders (1935)
(Curran). In my thesis I would like to discuss The ABC Murders.
1
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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
. . . the condition of a successful literary work whereby all its elements work
together for the achievement of its central purpose. In an artistically unified
work nothing is included that is irrelevant to the central, nothing is omitted
2
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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
The thesis is organized into three chapters, which are preceded by the Table of
Contents and the Abstract. Chapter One contains the Background of the Study, the
Statement of the Problem, the Purpose of the Study, the Method of Research, and the
3
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Organization of the Thesis. Chapter Two contains the analysis of the elements of plot
of Agatha Christie’s The ABC Murders. Chapter Three is the Conclusion. The thesis
ends with the Bibliography and the Appendixes, which consist of the Synopsis of the
Novel and the Biography of the Author.
4
Maranatha Christian University
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.
First of all, the first suspense begins when Poirot receives a letter from an
initial ABC. The reader feels curious about who actually ABC is. Nevertheless, this
suspense is not answered directly.
16
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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.
So far, all the clues cannot answer who the real ABC is. In the eighth
suspense, Poirot and a police officer are sure that Mr. Cust, the stocking seller is the
17
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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
The ABC Murders is systematically arranged. Moreover, the relation between each
suspense and surprise is acceptable and believable so that the events are artistically
unified. Therefore, this novel is a well-written novel as well as a worth-reading novel.
18
Maranatha Christian University
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.
Wiehardt, Ginny. “Mystery Novel.” Fictionwriting.about.com. 2014. Web. 14 Mar.
2014.
19
Maranatha Christian University
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
sehingga cerita menjadi masuk akal dan dapat dipercaya oleh pembaca. Pada akhir
analisis, dapat disimpulkan bahwa Agatha Christie berhasil membuat kausalitas
dari alur cerita novel ini terjaga dengan baik. Ketegangan demi ketegangan
diciptakan dan dipertahankan sampai akhir cerita. Keingintahuan pembaca pun
terjawab oleh keterkaitan antar kejadian yang masuk akal.
ii
Maranatha Christian University
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
i
ABSTRACT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
ii
CHAPTER ONE : INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
i
Background of Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1
Statement of the Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3
Purpose of the Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3
Method of Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3
Organization of the Thesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3
CHAPTER TWO : ANALYSIS OF THE ELEMENTS OF PLOT OF
AGATHA CHRISTIE’S THE ABC MURDERS . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5
CHAPTER THREE : CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
16
BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
19
APPENDICES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Summary of The ABC Murders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Biography of Agatha Christie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
20
20
21
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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
(1932), Murder on the Orient Express (1934), and The ABC Murders (1935)
(Curran). In my thesis I would like to discuss The ABC Murders.
1
Maranatha Christian University
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
. . . the condition of a successful literary work whereby all its elements work
together for the achievement of its central purpose. In an artistically unified
work nothing is included that is irrelevant to the central, nothing is omitted
2
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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
The thesis is organized into three chapters, which are preceded by the Table of
Contents and the Abstract. Chapter One contains the Background of the Study, the
Statement of the Problem, the Purpose of the Study, the Method of Research, and the
3
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Organization of the Thesis. Chapter Two contains the analysis of the elements of plot
of Agatha Christie’s The ABC Murders. Chapter Three is the Conclusion. The thesis
ends with the Bibliography and the Appendixes, which consist of the Synopsis of the
Novel and the Biography of the Author.
4
Maranatha Christian University
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.
First of all, the first suspense begins when Poirot receives a letter from an
initial ABC. The reader feels curious about who actually ABC is. Nevertheless, this
suspense is not answered directly.
16
Maranatha Christian University
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.
So far, all the clues cannot answer who the real ABC is. In the eighth
suspense, Poirot and a police officer are sure that Mr. Cust, the stocking seller is the
17
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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
The ABC Murders is systematically arranged. Moreover, the relation between each
suspense and surprise is acceptable and believable so that the events are artistically
unified. Therefore, this novel is a well-written novel as well as a worth-reading novel.
18
Maranatha Christian University
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.
Wiehardt, Ginny. “Mystery Novel.” Fictionwriting.about.com. 2014. Web. 14 Mar.
2014.
19
Maranatha Christian University