Murder of Roger Acryod as a Detective Fiction

What is Detective Fiction? Discuss in reference to The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. 

Detective Fiction is a popular subgenre of crime fiction which centres around investigating and solving a mystery to find the culprit.

Features of the Detective Fiction include:

◉ Setting: The first thing we need is a mysterious setting, for example, a train, a theatre or a school.

◉ Crime/Target: Next, your students will need to think about the crime and the victim, and this is the heart of the story.

◉ Suspects: Every detective fiction story needs suspects (suspects are people who may have done the crime). To write their own story, children need to think of a couple of people who could have done it. Think about who might have been around the crime scene and, very importantly, why they might have committed the crime (this is called a motive).

◉ Clues: Clues are the objects that can help the detective track down the criminal. It should be something that could belong to one of the suspects. 

◉ Resolution: The final piece of the puzzle, is the resolution. This comes at the very end of the story and answers all the reader's questions about the crime.

Detective fiction can be traced back to the 1800s, around the time of the Industrial Revolution. Before this time, most people lived in smaller towns and worked and socialized in closer circles, so people knew everyone they came into contact with for the most part. But with the rise of industrial jobs, more people began moving to cities, which lead to interacting with more strangers on a daily basis, a heightened sense of suspicion and uncertainty, and yes, more crime. It was around this time too where police forces were first established. London’s police force came to be in 1829, and New York City got its police force in 1845. With more people living in cities and crime rates on the rise, the setting was right for detective genres to flourish.

One notable example of detective fiction is "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" by Agatha Christie. Published in 1926, it is considered one of Christie's most famous and influential works. The novel features her iconic detective, Hercule Poirot, as the central character.

It is set in the fictional village of King's Abbot in England narrated by Dr. James Sheppard who becomes "Poirot's Assistant".

The novel is weaved beautifully with the introduction of the murderer himself. It is quite conventional for any detective fiction to start with a murderer itself. The murderer of Roger Ackroyd was Dr. Sheppard himself who ironically is also the narrator of the story. The case was resolved by the detective Hercule Pairot who is a renowned detective and has been used in many of Christie’s novels.

As a detective fiction , it has a lot to do with criminality and their participation to hide their secrets. Many detective fiction reveals the true nature of criminals who try to hide their inner realities but is exposed later in the novel. Dr. Sheppard s motive was to save himself from financial strain due to his investments and started to blackmail Mrs. Ferrars. Critically , the novel can also be seen as a social critique on materialism. Christie may have used a genre of detective novel but she is criticizing the material power that is engulfing the mind of the individual during that time and the path one can undergo to extract money from their own friends and family members. This situation is seen in the novel where Dr.Sheppard was involved with the murder of Roger Ackroyd who was in a financial strain and he wanted to overcome the financial crisis by killing him. This shows the dark side of realities of human life associated with being materialistic. 

In addition to this , the detective fiction shows the characteristics of detectives who unfolds the stories and catches the murder. The detective is Hercule Patriot who with the help of Dr.Sheppard tries to solve the murder of Roger Ackroyd. Patriot was a smart detective who dig out many clues and especially played with the psychology of the criminals. He was good in the game of psychology that he was able to hint other characters hiding their secrets. It was Cecil Ackroyd and Raymond who came forward to expose their secrets. There were many suspicions to the case of Roger Ackroyd’s murder where Kent was accused including Parker. It is later revealed that Flora lied about communicating with Ackroyd before the night of the murder. After looking at the facts and assumptions, Hercule Patriot was able to determine the murderer as Dr. Sheppard because Patriot was able to prove that other characters are left with the suspicions but revealed the reasons that they are not the murderer. The family members who were in financial debts were of a great suspicion but it is later understood that they were not but simply the timing and incidents that provoked their innocence. 

Patriot clarified all the characters innocence including Charles Kent , Parker and other family members as well as friends of Roger Ackroyd who were involved with the murder of Roger Ackroyd. Throughout the investigation, it is revealed that these characters were only hiding their inner secrets that has no relevance to the murder. It is then revealed that the night when Raymond and Blunt heard Ackroyd talking to someone else was just a misunderstanding. It was a dictaphone that he bought a week before. Sheppard had already stabbed him back while he was returning home and put him in his study room locked the room and planted the shoes of Ralph Paton to make him look like a murderer. It was full plan and a plot at the beginning to make others look like a murderer and eliminate the true murderer. Critically , one can see the mindset of a criminal that the criminal tries to remove any evidence that relates to them and tries to provide alibi for himself and brings innocent lives to put into suspicion. 

The text does not focus on just a single crime. Christie foregrounds a plethora of

immoral behaviours which the characters are eager to keep hidden: Ralph Paton is engaged to Flora and yet has married Ursula Bourne, the housemaid, who is significantly below his social standing; the butler, Parker, has blackmailed his 

former employer, a crime for which he would be instantly dismissed; Elizabeth Russell is hiding an illegitimate son who is a drug user and has aspirations to marry Ackroyd that defy her social station as housekeeper; Flora has stolen forty pounds from Ackroyd’s room. Moreover, very few of those who are living under Ackroyd’s roof and off the wealthy industrialist’s financial munificence, express any real sorrow at his passing. They are far more concerned with how they might benefit from his will and hiding their own unsavoury secrets from those investigating his death, than bringing the real criminal to justice. Even Ackroyd is not immune to immoral behaviour: his reaction to Mrs Ferrars’ confession is unsympathetic – even though she clearly loves him, and he behaves in a money grubbing fashion to his relatives so they continually feel beholden to him, even forcing the engagement between Ralph and Flora against their wishes. However,the central crime is that of Dr Sheppard who is not only “the scoundrel who drove [Mrs Ferrars] to death”, but the individual who betrays and murders a man who places immense trust in him. The very fact that Sheppard is a doctor, a social position that affords him access to people’s homes, in an age when the local doctor was a family friend and intimate, and who is tasked with the role of preserving life, makes his murderous actions all the more heinous and shocking.

The text also portrays the cunning and manipulative nature of the criminal mind.Sheppard manoeuvres all those around him,insinuating 

himself into a position of trust, ensuring through his use of the most advanced technology in the form of a dictaphone that Ackroyd appears alive when the opposite is true, and arranging his own alibi through a cleverly timed telephone call. His intelligence and manipulation of the situation make him a formidable adversary to Poirot thus preventing his early detection and maintaining the novel’s suspense.

For a long time, detective fiction has always been regarded as something lowly and

unimportant. It is apparent that this kind of opinion is one-sided and not in-depth. From

“elite literature” to “popular literature”, this trend attests to the viewpoint that detective

fiction can no long be treated as something vulgar. Instead, it is full of artistic value and

it should be paid much attention to. As one of the masters in detective fiction world,

Agatha Christie has produced a number of world-renowned works. Almost in all of her

works, she has done a perfect job in suspense creation such as making good use of the

arrangement of plot and nursery rhymes to produce suspense. Her detective fiction is a combination of recreation and seriousness.

"The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" tells about the murder of Roger that was stabbed with a dagger in his room when he was reading the letter from his fiance. There are two ideas that appear in the novel briefly and give way to another minor theme, greediness and blackmail. This novel has strengths and weakness inside, but the weak points are covered by the strong points. The strengths of this novel are logical deduction, full of suspense, and interesting description of some characters. The author presents some clues, but still manages to completely surprise the reader at the end of the novel. That is what makes this novel full of suspense.

Written by: 

Tanisha Nausheen, B.A 3rd Semester