"Murder on the Nile" Detective Program Analysis

Agatha Christie wrote more than 80 novels, more than 100 short stories, and 17 plays in her lifetime. Its sales are second only to those of the Bible and Shakespeare . Her main works include "The Curious Case of Styles Manor ", "The Mysterious Case of Roger ", "Murder on the Orient Express " and " Murder on the Nile ". In general, the conception pattern of her detective novels is: puzzle-solving development - puzzle-solving climax - puzzle-solving end. "Murder on the Nile" is quite representative as a work of Christie's mature period. Although it is innovative to some extent, it still integrates many modes of traditional detective novels and is quite stylized.

Like other genres, the development of detective fiction has deep historical roots. The detective fiction factor has been bred as early as biblical stories and ancient Greek mythology. However, it was the American writer Edgar Allan Poe who really created the basic formula of modern detective novels. His five short stories "Murder in the Rue Mogue" (1841), "The Mystery of Marie Roger" (1842), "The Gold Bug" (1842), "You Are the Murderer" (1844) and "The Stolen Letter" (1845) established the formulas commonly used in detective fiction. Conan Doyle inherited and developed the program of Edgar Allan Poe's detective novels, making detective novels a highly stylized style. After that, G. K. Chesterton 's "Brown's Grandfather" series kicks off the "golden age" of detective fiction. And although Agatha Christie, the most outstanding detective novelist in the "Golden Age", "corrected" Poe's original writing to a certain extent, increasing the artistic and literary quality of detective novels, but its basic model has not changed much. The author of this article will interpret the stylization in "Murder on the Nile" from three aspects: detective mode, plot design and writing skills.

1. Detective Mode

"Murder on the Nile" about the fortune of Miss Lynette Ridgway and her friend Jacqueline de Belfort's lover, Simon Doyle Go on a honeymoon. This yacht is carrying nobles, celebrities, and fallen aristocrats from all over the world. . . This is a charming, romantic and luxurious tour, but the serial murders that happened on the yacht turned the whole cruise into a "death tour".

In detective mode, the novel imitates the basic programming of Edgar Allan Poe's detective novels. First, the murder took place at a certain time, between a certain group of people, in a relatively closed space. The murder took place on the yacht, and those on board had to wait until the voyage was over before they could leave. Therefore, the passengers traveling on the ship are all full of a sense of crisis, and have the possibility of committing crimes and motives for crimes. This relatively closed environment locked the killer's reach. Readers will guess who is the real murderer in such a "stuffy gourd". Detective Poirot also started from here, and finally solved the mystery of the murder by talking with various characters on the ship, and then conducting reasoning analysis. This detective mode follows the formula of the "room murder" case pioneered by Edgar Allan Poe in "The Murders in the Rue Morgue".

Secondly, in the investigation of the case, it seems that the strongest murder motive is Linnett's rival Jacqueline. This is because for one, Lynette robbed her sweetheart, and she risked murdering the victim in revenge. Second, Detective Polow remembered what Jacqueline had said to him before: "I really want to put my dear little pistol to her head and pull the trigger". It also suggests that Jacqueline had a motive for the murder. But on the night Lynette was killed, Jacqueline and her lover, Simon, had a heated argument and shot him, after which Miss Powers accompanied her back to her room and watched over her all night, with an alibi. If it is said that Simon killed Linnett in order to inherit her property, but that night he was shot in the foot and could not leave the room where he lived, which was also confirmed by the doctor Bethner. The two most suspects have alibi, but the real murderers are the two of them. Such an outcome was unexpected, but as explained by Poirot, it also made sense. This formula also inherits another formula pioneered by Edgar Allan Poe: the seemingly most inconceivable solution is the right one.

Furthermore, Christie also borrowed Poe's "code-solving" program in detective mode. Simon inadvertently mentions potatoes and artichokes when he tells Rees a telegram, and Detective Polow cracks the code and learns that potatoes allude to machine guns and artichokes to high explosives. As the code was deciphered, the real culprit immediately surfaced. Finally, in "Murder on the Nile", the detective Poirot explained the case with the help of the temporary partner of Captain Reis, and gave the readers advice, which followed the "detective + assistant" routine used in detective novels.

2. Plot design

Detective fiction wins with its plot, and no matter how it is refurbished, its formula can be reduced to the basic plot construction of the detective novel pioneered by Poe: "A murder occurs and many people are suspected. All but the murderer are excluded. . The end is the killer is brought to justice or dead."

While Christie's plotting talent is unparalleled, it can be found that his work follows the basic formulas of traditional detective fiction in terms of plot. Van Dyen stated in "Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Fiction" (1928) that "there must be a corpse in a detective story". Murder on the Nile uses murdered corpses to create suspense. Millionaire heiress Lynette was shot in the head and died on her honeymoon yacht, with her £50,000 pearl necklace missing, suggesting it was a money grab murder case. While Poirot was looking for clues to solve the case, Linnett's maid, Louise Bourget, was killed in the room, holding a corner of a thousand francs in her hand. Apparently, she found the murderer and extorted her. kill. Thankfully, Mrs Otterburn was the only witness to the murder. But just as she was about to tell the murderer, she was killed by a bullet outside the window. The three corpses appearing in the article arouse readers' anticipation for the detection of murders (Bu Mystery). When the reader just dimly realizes that someone is the murderer, Christie turns his writing and a new reversal plot emerges, making the reader doubt his own judgment time and time again, and the real murderer is always invisible to the reader (the solution enigma development and climax). Finally, Detective Poirot uncovers the bizarre and twisted truth, detailing clues that are often overlooked, such as: the night of the murder drank "fat" wine; the shawl with the bullet hole found in the Nile River ; Linnett’s dresser with red ink nail polish bottles and a capital J written in blood on the wall…. Poirot carefully sorted out these seemingly unrelated and intricate clues, and finally deduced that it was Jacqueline and Simon who had conspired to kill Lynette. This leaves the reader with a sense of surprise (the end of the puzzle). The final ending is the same as other detective novels, the real murderers Jacqueline and Simon commit suicide.

3. Writing skills

British writer Dorothy Sayers took the "smoked herring" technique to the extreme in her riddle-like work "Five Smoked Herrings" (1931). Christie also uses this formula for her writing skills. The most murderous motives in the novel are Jacqueline and Simon; Linnett's property trustee, Pennington, may also commit the crime, because his financial opportunism cannot hide the shrewd Linnett; archaeologist Rigotty was mad at Lynette for reading his letter by accident; Tim, who was critical of Lynette's bossy temper! Ferguson certainly couldn't be ruled out; Littlewood, who holds a grudge for Lynette for finding out that he was previously married and for letting her maid break up with him; Rosalie dislikes Lynette and even jealous of her wealth, possibly killing her for robbing her necklace . This suspicious and strange writing style makes readers confused and curious.

Christie added love to the novel to win over readers, another characteristic of her writing skills. The murderer's motive in "Murder on the Nile" is love. Simon and Jacqueline truly love each other but are in material trouble. Therefore, Jacqueline had to temporarily cede her sweetheart Simon to Lynette for her "happiness" in the future. Simon married someone she didn't love to get her property. So they conspired to direct a murder case. Obviously, Jacqueline's love for Simon has gone beyond reason and is a little too much. Therefore, mixed with desire and jealousy, immoral love can only end in tragedy. As the author said at the end of the novel: "Love is really a very scary thing, which is why great love stories are always tragic". Christie's description of the love dispute between the victim Lynette, the murderer Simon and Jacqueline seems to violate the third rule of Van Dyne's Twenty Codes of Mystery Fiction : "No love shall be added to the story. , so as not to interfere with purely rational deductions by irrational emotions”, but this is also her innovation in detective novels. In the end, Christie fulfilled the lovers Rosalie Otterburn and Tim Ferguson with the romantic feelings unique to women, endowed the work with unique charm and won the favor of readers.

4. Conclusion

In "Murder on the Nile", Agatha Christie uses confusing layouts and suspicious characters to create many illusions and finally propose a surprising ending. Although Christie insists on the creative principle of seeking novelty and seeking difference, through the analysis of this article, we can find that her works still have obvious routines. As Julian Simmons, a British detective novelist and an authority on the study of detective novels, believes that "the later detective novels have basically not broken out of Poe's nest, and are still the intertextuality of Poe's original writing". It can be seen that detective novels, as a highly stylized style, have been used for reference in the past 160 years, and will continue to be followed in the future development.

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