Analysis Project Unfamiliar Vocab Concocter to devise make up or prepare Credo any creed or formula of belief Pother commotion Expenditure the act of expending something Metaphysics the branch of philosophy that treats the first principles ID: 650520
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Slide1
Murder on the Orient Express Analysis ProjectSlide2
Unfamiliar Vocab
Concocter – to devise, make up, or prepare
Credo – any creed or formula of belief
Pother – commotion
Expenditure – the act of expending something
Metaphysics – the branch of philosophy that treats the first principles
Onus – burden
Indignation – strong displeasure at something unjust
Irremediably – not admitting a remedy, cure, or repair
Delineation – a description
Verisimilitude – appearance of truthSlide3
Van Dine’s Rules
All clues must be comprehendible by the reader so that they have the same chance to solve the case as the detective
No tricks on reader; only on the detective by the criminal
There shan’t be a love interest
The detective can’t be the criminal
The case must be solved with logic – no accidents or confessions
The detective must analyze the clues
The crime shall be murder
No supernatural ways of solving the case
There shall be only one detective
The criminal shall be a major characterSlide4
Van Dine’s Rules continued
A servant shan’t be the criminal
There shall be only one criminal
The criminal cannot have a secret gang as a safety net
No fantasy ways of detecting
The truth is obvious throughout the book, if the reader was clever enough
No side tracking with imagery or such
Criminal must be an unexpected character
Crime shan’t be an accident or a suicide
The motives are personalSlide5
Van Dine’s Rules continued
No using:
Ciggarette
butt left at the crime compared to what the suspect smokes
Fake séances to scare the truth out of the criminal
Forged fingerprints
Dummy – figure alibi
A dog that recognizes the criminal so it doesn’t bark
Framed twin
Knock – out drugs
Murder cannot be committed in front of police
Using word psychology to get the criminal to confess
The detective figures out the criminal’s secret code, thus revealing the culpritSlide6
Point #1
“The Classic List of Rules for the Detective Story”
“12. There must be but one culprit, no matter how many murders are committed. The culprit may of course have a minor helper or co – plotter, but the entire onus must rest on one pair of shoulders. The entire indignation of the reader must be permitted to concentrate on a single black nature” (Van Dine).
Explanation:
This rule does not fit
Murder on the Orient Express
. In the novel, there are twelve different criminals that each stabbed the victim once. This rule is stating that there cannot be more than one, so it is obvious that Agatha Christie did not care for this rule.
Murder on the Orient Express:
“We decided then and there (perhaps we were mad – I don’t know) that the sentence of death that
Cassetti
had escaped had got to be carried out. There were twelve of us – or rather eleven; Susanne’s father was over in France, of course.” (Christie 248).Slide7
Point #2
“The Classic List of Rules for the Detective Story”
“7. There simply must be a corpse in a detective novel, and the deader the corpse the better. No lesser crime than murder will suffice. Three hundred pages is far too much pother for a crime other than murder. After all, the readers trouble and expenditure of energy must be rewarded.” (Van Dine).
Explanation
:
This rule follows the novel because in the book Cassetti was murdered. The rule is plainly saying that there must be a dead body and that the crime committed must be murder because it is silly to write a novel of any lesser crime. In
Murder on the Orient Express
, there are multiple murders, both direct and indirect, indicating that the novel follows this rule.
Murder on the Orient Express:
“Followed by Dr. Constantine,
Poirot
made his way to the next coach and to the compartment occupied by the murdered man.” (Christie 53).Slide8
Point #3
“The Classic List of Rules for the Detective Story”
“16. A detective novel should contain no long descriptive passages, no literary dallying with side-issues, no subtly worked-out character analyses, no “atmospheric” preoccupations, such matters have no vital place in a record of crime and deduction. They hold up the action and introduce issues irrelevant to the main purpose, which is to state a problem, analyze it, and bring it to a successful conclusion. To be sure, there must be a sufficient descriptiveness and character delineation to give the novel verisimilitude” (Van Dine).
Explanation:
This novel does break this rule because when
Poirot
asked M.
Bouc
and Dr. Constantine to stop and think about the clues Dr. Constantine gets way off track of the case and starts thinking about the mistress that he is seeing behind his wife’s back.
Murder on the Orient Express:
“Dr
. Constantine's thoughts ran thus:
‘He
is queer, this little man. A genius? Or a crank? Will he solve this
mystery? Impossible—I can see no way out of it. It is all too confusing.
... Everyone is lying, perhaps. ... But even then, that does not help one.
If they are all lying, it is just as confusing as if they were speaking the
truth. Odd about those wounds. I cannot understand it. ... It would be easier to understand if he had been shot—after all, the term 'gunman'
must mean that they shoot with a gun. A curious country, America. I
should like to go there. It is so progressive. When I get home I must get
hold of Demetrius
Zagone
—he has been to America, he has all the
modern ideas. ... I wonder what Zia is doing at this moment. If my wife
ever finds out
—’
His thoughts went on to entirely private matters. ...
“ (Christie 162).Slide9
Point #4
“The Classic List of Rules for the Detective Story
”
“9. There must be but one detective – that Is, but one protagonist o deductions – one
deus
ex
machina
. To bring the minds of three or four, or sometimes a gang of detectives to bear on a problem, is not only to disperse the interest and break the direst thread of logic, but to take n unfair advantage of the reader. If there is more than one detective the reader doesn’t know who his
codeductor
is. It’s like making the reader run a race with a relay team” (Van Dine).
Explanation
:
Christie breaks this rule in
Murder on the Orient Express
as
Poirot
has the assistance of M.
Bouc
and Dr. Constantine to deduct and solve the case. From the very beginning, they were there. They attempted to help
Poirot
in the case, but they didn’t do too much.
Poirot
could have probably figured it out all on his own, but I personally think that Christie does it to rebel against these rules.
Murder
on the Orient Express:
“M.
Bouc
and Dr. Constantine had started by trying to obey
Poirot's
instructions
. They had
endeavoured
to see through a maze of
conflicting
particulars to a clear and outstanding
solution” (Christie 162).Slide10
Point #5
“The Classic List of Rules for the Detective Story
”
“19. The motives for all crimes in detective stories should be personal. International plotting and war politics belong in a different category of fiction – in secret-service tales, for instance. But a murder story must be kept
gemiitlich
, so to speak. It must reflect the reader’s everyday experiences, and give him a certain outlet for his own repressed desires and emotions” (Van Dine).
Explanation:
Murder on the Orient Express
most certainly carries out this rule. The motive was the Armstrong case and that
Cassetti
did not get proper sentencing for what he did to little Daisy. They all planned it for revenge although they all had thought that it was justice. Their mindset was that they were simply carrying out what society had deemed, but the main motive was probable that he had killed so many people that were apart of the family or household.
Murder on the Orient Express:
“It
wasn't only that he was responsible for my daughter's
death
and her child's and that of the other child who might have been
alive
and happy
now” (Christie 205).Slide11
Work Cited
Christie, Agatha.
Murder on the Orient Express
. Toronto:
Bantam
, 1983. Print.
Van Dine, S.S,. "The Twenty Rules for Writing Detective
Stories
."
American Magazine
Sept. 1928: n.
pag
. Print.