Analysis

=Setting:= //A Murder Is Announced// takes place in Chipping Cleghorn, a sprawling picturesque village in the British countryside,highly residential, with cottages and houses inhabited by many elderly residents. The historical period is shortly after World War II, giving a sense of unfamiliarity between the neighbors and characters because many people just come and settle in different countries without family ties after WWII. Yet Christie shows a major contrast in her portrayal of the cozy village as a peaceful and ordinary town as opposed to a town where every single neighbor is a suspect of the murder, and they all suspect each other. As a result, the murder is even more disruptive and unthinkable.

=Narrator Point-of-View:=

The narrative point-of-view in //A Murder is Announced// by Agatha Christie is a Third Person Objective narrative. The narrator follows around the main characters and sometimes the minor characters to give us setting and dialogue. The reader is only given this to understand the full meaning of the text, because there are no points in the book where the reader has incite on what is occurring in the mind of the characters. For example when the shooter opens the door of Little Paddocks we are given the description of the situation in the room through the eyes of multiple characters because the narrator jumps from character to character using mainly dialogue to give the reader an idea of what is occurring.

Using this point-of-view the reader gets the best insight on each character’s life because we don’t see the world of the novel through one point-of-view, but many views from each character. When Craddock was questioning the people that were in Little Paddocks we didn’t only see from, for example, Julia Simmons perspective but multiple characters like Mitzi and Patrick.

=Tone:= is skeptical, uneasy, and ironic. The tone is skeptical because throughout the book characters doubt what other characters say about the crime and how it was committed. Someone might say that the murder was on purpose and someone else might say it was an accident. Detective Inspector Craddock does this a lot because it is his job to doubt everything and suspect everyone; even if he has a large amount of data supporting one theory he keeps searching until he has proof that his theory was right. The tone is also uneasy because all the residents of Clipping Cleghorn share that same anxiety because a murder was attempted right in their own (supposedly safe) neighborhood. They don't know if the same thing will happen to them so they are all on edge which conveys a sense of uneasiness when the characters discuss the crime and its peculiar announcement in the Clipping Cleghorn Gazette. The tone of the book is also ironic because the characters claim that they don't keep secrets from each other. They are all so close that there is no need to keep secrets, but when readers can tell rather quickly that isn't true; there are in fact many secrets that they keep from each other.

=Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory:= __Miss Marple’s stories in the Bluebird Cafe__: Each of her anecdotes about people she had met or recalled told about a certain human trait or tendency that could show up in many different people. These universally applicable stories show that Miss Marple really understands human nature, and uses this insight to help unravel mysteries. Each character in her anecdotes has a parallel character in the case of the murder at Little Paddocks. She might just be a little old lady who drinks tea and knits socks, but her keen observations of human nature show there is a lot more than what meets the eye.

__Jewelry__: Fancy bling is often used to disguise ugly truths in this story. Miss Blacklock’s large and conspicuous choker of false pearls (“noovo art - that’s what they are, costume jewelry”) is used to (spoiler alert!) hide the scar on her neck that would reveal her true identity as Charlotte Blackwood (55). They allow her to blend in with respectable society while hiding her murderous intentions (not to mention committing a huge fashion faux pas by pairing them with her worn out clothes). Young Miss Simmons is also described as often wearing jewelry, including “gold ivy leaves and dogs and such like” (55). She, too, is hiding her real identity of Emma and her motives of acquiring a part of Miss Blacklock’s inheritance. Finally, Miss Blacklock gives Miss Bunner a small diamond brooch as a birthday gift. Though the brooch indicates Miss Blacklock’s affection for her friend, it belies her plans to poison Miss Bunner that evening. The glamorous and conspicuous jewelry described throughout the story symbolize outer appearance of happiness, but suggesting there is something darker hidden right beneath the surface.

__Imagery__: In //A Murder is Announced// by Agatha Christie, many instances of imagery are given to the reader by the descriptions of other characters. For example, when told to give their account of the incident, many told the inspector of their location, which was usually by some table or the mantelpiece. There are also times when imagery is tied in with clues, such as Inspector Craddock noticing a “thin line horizontally across the panels of the door he had been trying to open” (87). Another example of this would be at the night of the incident where “Blood was still trickling down Miss Blacklock’s neck over her blouse and skirt” showing the severity of Miss Blacklock’s wound (28). Christie also uses imagery to show human emotion such as when Mrs. Haymes’s “face [grew] white, and her hands close[d] and unclose[d]” enabling the reader to see the anxiety in Mrs. Haymes (159).

=Allusions:= __World War II__: Since the story takes place shortly after the war, it is evident that the war’s impact is still being felt both on the characters’ psyche and their everyday lives. The residents of Chipping Cleghorn are still getting rationed coal, flour, and other basic necessities, to the point that Julia Simmons can hardly imagine a world where the supply of coal is unlimited. The illicit trade of butter among the households demonstrates how their access to small luxuries was restricted as a result of the war. Phillipa Haymes feels the impact of the war most closely, as she lost her husband during battle in Italy. Anti-foreign sentiment is strongly felt, as in Myrna Harris’ casual statement “I’m always on my guard with foreigners, anyway. They’ve often got a way with them, but you never know, do you” (34)? It’s all part of the misdirection that Christie uses to lay suspicion on Mitzi, the Central European refugee.

__Tanqueray__: Bunch Harmon suggests that Mrs. Easterbrook was mixed up “that old Tanqueray stuff, but surely that’s as old as hills now” (125)? Throughout the books, other hints are dropped suggesting some dark secret that fluffy Mrs. Easterbrook is keeping from her husband, but it is neverly clearly revealed. The Tanqueray hint references “The Second Mrs. Tanqueray,” a play by Arthur Pinero written in the late 1800s about a former prostitute who struggles to be accepted when she marries into high society. The allusion suggests that perhaps young Mrs. Easterbrook had a similarly shady background before she met her husband, the respectable Colonel Easterbrook. But this is one of the mysteries in the book that is never satisfactorily resolved.