Universidade de Lisboa Faculdade de Letras

Universidade de Lisboa Faculdade de Letras

A Man's Job Agatha Christie's Miss Marple with Special Reference to Murder at the Vicarage

Maria Jo?o Faria Pessoa Terenas

Mestrado em Estudos Ingleses e Americanos Especializa??o em Estudos de Cultura

2014

Universidade de Lisboa Faculdade de Letras

A Man's Job Agatha Christie's Miss Marple with Special Reference to Murder at the Vicarage

Maria Jo?o Faria Pessoa Terenas Tese orientada pela Professora Dra. Adelaide Meira Serras

Mestrado em Estudos Ingleses e Americanos Especializa??o em Estudos de Cultura

2014

Acknowledgment

This dissertation has taken me longer than I ever expected to be complete due to all the problems I had to face and try to solve in recent years. It turned itself into a sort of `crutch' that helped me to limp all along and at the same time helping me to stay focused. Agatha Christie's stories are my favorite readings while on holidays, although my perspectives have obviously changed. This paper was done in my spare time, when everything else came first even taking the dog to the vet. At first, all the information I had gathered looked like an enormous puzzle, but little by little it began to make sense; the bits started to piece themselves together and suddenly sentences became chapters. I want to thank all the love and support I have received from my daughter, teachers especially from Professora Adelaide Meira Serras, who has been my mentor, it was she who challenged me to do this dissertation, and friends who gave me ideas, critics, advice and a helping hand when everything seemed to go wrong, not knowing a better word I simply say to You all: Thank You.

Abstract

This dissertation is focused on only two of Agatha Christie's earlier works on detective fiction featuring her second most famous sleuth Miss Marple namely: Thirteen Problems (1930) which was published in the United States of America under the name of Tuesday's Night Club and Murder at the Vicarage (1932).

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From 1900 to 1930 goes a time span of just thirty years, but they were crucial to Humanity. They were days of development and devastation, of suffering and enjoyment as the world had to deal with one World War and its aftermath.

In order to better understand the character Miss Jane Marple several events of Agatha Christie's own private life were taken into consideration. Agatha Christie places her character in the tiny village of Saint Mary's Mead to make her look credible and between these two elements there is an interchange that helps in the characterization of both. In the end Miss Marple reveals herself, she is far more than the frail, old spinster who enjoys snooping and has a knack for murder, is the embodiment of Englishness.

Key Words: Agatha Christie, Miss Marple, Detective-fiction, Victorian times, Englishness.

Resumo

Esta disserta??o baseia-se nas duas primeiras obras de Agatha Christie em que o personagem principal ? a famosa detective Miss Jane Marple, nomeadamente Thirteen Problems (1930) que foi publicado nos Estados Unidos da Am?rica sob o t?tulo de Tuesday's Night Murder Club, e Murder at the Vicarage (1932).

De 1900 a 1930 v?o apenas trinta anos que, no entanto, se revelaram cruciais para a Humanidade. Dias em que o mundo assistiu a progressos e devasta??o, a sofrimento e alegrias, e se viu confrontado com a Guerra Mundial I e as suas consequ?ncias.

Com o intuito de conseguir compreender melhor o personagem Miss Jane Marple v?rios acontecimentos da vida pessoal de Agatha Christie foram tomados em linha de conta. A autora coloca o personagem na min?scula aldeia de Saint Mary Mead, a fim de a tornar cred?vel e entre estes dois elementos h? um entrecruzamento que ajuda ? caracteriza??o de ambos.

Miss Marple acaba por revelar-se muito para al?m da fr?gil e idosa solteirona, que gosta de bisbilhotar e tem uma queda para resolver crimes. Na verdade, ela encarna o esp?rito ingl?s da sua ?poca.

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Palavras-chave: Agatha Christie, Miss Marple, Fic??o Policial, Era Vitoriana, Englishness

Contents

Chapter I ? Introduction .........................................................4

Chapter II ? Detective Fiction .................................................12 1. Origins and Roots of Detective Fiction .........................17 2. Form ...................................................................34

Chapter III ? Agatha Christie's Britain - 1900 to 1930 ..................36 1. New Woman and Decadent Man ....................................50 2. Feminism and Socialism ...............................................55 3. Imperialism and Feminism ............................................55 4. The New Woman, the Decadent and the Dandy ...................61 5. New Woman in the Modern City .....................................62 6. New Woman Modernism and Male Culture .......................62 7. About the Philosophy of Gender .....................................66

Chapter IV ? Female Detectives ...............................................71 1. Form: from Short Story to Novel ....................................73

Chapter V ? Agatha Christie 1. A Biographical Note ....................................................78 2. Christie the Writer ......................................................78 3. Christie ? the Theater ...................................................82 4. Conservative and Modernists Traits in Christie...................84 3

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