Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies

5Conclusion

The genre of the detective story has been capturing the readers’ attention since the publication of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Murders in the Rue Morgue. From the stories of Sherlock Holmes to those of Hercule Poirot, the readers have been enjoying detective mysteries for more than a century. The Golden Age of detective fiction, in the 1920s and 1930s, produced a number of detective story writers, most notably the Queens of Crime. One of them was Agatha Christie, two of whose novels have been analysed in the thesis.

In both of the novels examined, Crooked House and Evil Under the Sun, children play a huge part of the story. The way in which they are portrayed suggests that Christie was an empathic person who knew how children and teenagers feel. She captures the feelings of childhood and adolescent age very well and in a way which is relatable to. All the children in the novels examined are loved by their families (except for the mutual dislike of Linda Marshall and Arlena Stuart) and the people surrounding them, but they do not feel that way. They feel like outcasts or burdens to their parents and stepparents and that makes them act the way they do. While in Crooked House Josephine is the murderer, Linda in Evil Under the Sun does not murder anyone but thinks that she did. Their perception of the world is in one way very similar to each other’s: both feel like outcasts in their families, Josephine because she is the ugly child and Linda because her stepmother does not notice her. On the other hand, their characters are very different: Josephine murders her grandfather and does not experience any feelings of regret or guilt, but Linda, when she is convinced that she killed her stepmother, is so paralysed with guilt that she attempts to commit suicide.

The reader feels deep compassion for the children in the novels, which is a cleverly developed part of the plot. While Linda Marshall deserves the reader’s understanding, Josephine Leonides is an evil character who plots against the people in the novel to achieve what she desires: something which is not seen in the characters of children much. Josephine acts more like an adult than like a twelve-year-old child. In contrast, Linda is portrayed like a typical sixteen-year-old teenager who experiences confusion and feelings of being misunderstood.

Parallels can be found between the behaviour of Linda Marshall and Eustace Leonides, too. They share a hatred of the world surrounding them, probably just because of their age. Their characters are similar in the way that they are both bad-tempered and frustrated with their families.

The parental figures in the stories do not really know how to deal with their children. In Crooked House, Magda Leonides does not seem to care much about either of her children and is only interested in herself, much like her husband Philip, who is not even seen talking to Eustace of Josephine. Kenneth Marshall in Evil Under the Sun understands that Linda’s unhappiness is caused by the fact that he married Arlena Stuart, but rather than thinking about the well-being of his child, he thinks about the happiness of Arlena and his duty as a husband, not as a father.

In Crooked House there are several characters who act in a more childish way than the children in the story. As mentioned above, Josephine Leonides is one of the characters who (for the most part of the novel) do not act or think in a childish way at all. It is her mother Magda who is the true, spoilt child in the story. It is not the same in Evil Under the Sun, where the only character who acts in a childish way is Linda. This may demonstrate Christie’s attempt to make a difference between the guilty child and the innocent one: acting and thinking like an adult makes Josephine a character more prone to being cunning and evil. Another difference between the two main child characters is that Josephine plays detective, she pretends to be investigating the murder on her own, while Linda does not seem to want to have anything to do with it. This is due to the fact that Josephine answers the description of a typical killer perfectly (with her constant need to talk about the crime and to show off), while Linda is too scared that it might have been her who is responsible for the death of her stepmother. Josephine knows she is the killer and it gives her great pleasure to watch the police as they come to the wrong conclusion about who the culprit is.

The detectives’ attitude towards the children in the novels is a very different one as well. Charles Hayward does not seem to be too worried about Josephine and takes her only for a silly, if somewhat morbid, child. His surprise at who the killer is is genuine, because he did not consider her at all, not only as the murderer, but also as a real human being. Hercule Poirot, on the other hand, acts very kindly towards Linda, because he knows she is a troubled teenager who needs sympathy and compassion. He is worried about her and at the end of the book he even gives her his advice.

In Josephine Leonides and Linda Marshall, Agatha Christie created two well-developed main characters without whom the stories would not have been the same. Josephine’s evil and cunning personality is a great surprise to the reader and because she is the killer, she is essential for the novel. Linda Marshall’s dislike of her own persona is described very typically of a child her age and the hatred of her stepmother helps the reader understand the personality of the victim, which, according to Hercule Poirot, is crucial to solving the murder. “Murder springs, nine times out of ten, out of the character and circumstances of the murdered person.” (Evil Under the Sun 111).

As the thesis through the two novels examined testifies, Agatha Christie was not only an exceptional writer of mystery stories; she was also able to create very well developed characters, of elderly, middle, or very young age. Christie’s portrayal of Josephine Leonides in Crooked House is a particularly disturbing one. Her empathy with Linda Marshall, on the other hand, is very visible in Evil Under the Sun and, when Poirot talks to Linda at the end of the novel, it is as if it was Christie herself speaking through the mouth of Hercule Poirot and giving advice to all adolescents in the world.

In conclusion, Agatha Christie, the acknowledged English Queen of Crime and one of the most famous representatives of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction in Britain, can always provide something unexpected: This time the reader can find out that this writer is capable of impressively detailed studies on teenage children, who due to unhappiness and the troublesome world around them either contemplate or successfully and ruthlessly commit murders.

6Works Cited

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Christie, Agatha. An Autobiography. London: HarperCollins, 1993. Print.

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RÉSUMÉ

The aim of the thesis is to demonstrate how Agatha Christie depicts children and teenagers in two of her novels, Crooked House and Evil Under the Sun. The thesis is divided into three main chapters. The first one introduces detective fiction and Agatha Christie herself, and is mainly focused on the history and principles of the Golden Age of detective fiction. The second chapter analyses the depiction of children in Crooked House and the third chapter examines children in Evil Under the Sun. The children are looked at from various points of view and their relationships with their parents, siblings, and the detective figures are examined. Additionally, the part of the thesis dealing with Crooked House also examines other characters in the novel who behave in a childish way.

RESUMÉ

Cílem této bakalářské práce je ukázat, jak Agatha Christie zobrazuje děti a adolescenty v knihách Hadí doupě a Zlo pod sluncem. Práce je rozdělená do tří hlavních kapitol. První z nich se zabývá detektivní fikcí a samotnou Agathou Christie, s důrazem na historii a principy zlatého věku detektivky. Ve druhé kapitole je analyzováno zobrazení dětí v Hadím doupěti a třetí kapitola se zabývá dětmi ve Zlu pod sluncem. Děti jsou analyzovány z různých úhlů pohledu a práce zkoumá také jejich vztahy s rodiči, sourozenci a postavami detektivů. Část zabývající se Hadím doupětem navíc zkoumá další postavy v knize, které se chovají dětsky.