"The Tragedy at Marsden Manor" by Agatha Christie



Essay On "The Tragedy at Marsden Manor"
                   Essay By William S. Schmidt

We have all seen or read a crime story at one point though-out our life, and dreamt of being as smart, wise and alert as the typical all-seeing hero in these sort of stories. Maybe even wanted ourself to become a detective or P. I. so we could help fight the evil in the world and become showered in praise for being so sagacious. Or at least I have sometimes daydreamt myself away in this pipe-dream. The genre "crime fiction" is one of the most popular genres of all time. Everybody have herd of writers such as Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie. The latter, Mrs. Christie, is also the author of "The Tragedy at Marsden Manor" which is the crime-story this essay will concentrate on. The protagonist Hercule Poirot and his right hand Hastings are prime examples when it comes to describing the genre of crime fiction. Though the eyes of Hasting we see a quintessential classic crime story with all its charm and suspense.

The Short story "The Tragedy at Marsden Manor" by Agatha Christie centers around a first thought to be death of natural causes turned murder which is investigated by one of Christies´ most famous characters Hercule Poirot and his assistant Arthur Hastings. The Murder takes places at the large estate "Marsden Manor" where the owner Mr. Maltravers is found dead of an apparent internal hemorrhage. This is the accepted cause of death until Poirot get a whiff of the case and delves into the incident. As usual Poirot sees things that other people brush off as unimportant and spots details written off as insignificant. Though his brilliance and eye for detail he sees that the death of Mr. Maltravers that the causality is not natural causes but a cold blooded murder. Poirot puts two and two together and figures out that it was Mr. Maltravers´ wife Mrs. Maltravers that had him sign a life-insurance with the intention of putting him down afterwards.This is a archetypal plot for the genre crime fiction which this story falls under.

A common plot-twist in these sorts of stories is the trait called "the unlikely Solution". In this case "the unlikely solution" is that Mrs. Maltravers is the murderer which turns out to be the truth. In the story it is stated that "Her eyes were red with weeping" logically ruling her out as a suspect since why would she cause herself as seemingly much sorrow and grief as the death of her husband did. Poirot then reveal infront of a flabbergasted audience that it was Mrs. Maltravers that murdered her husband. Here Poirot again seem unlikely smart since that the audience often have been presented for all the evidence beforehand to determine that "the unlikely Solution" is in fact the logical explanation. Hercule Poirot the main character is himself also a generic personality. This person is  usually know at "The Omniscient Detektive". This is due to his seemingly supernatural ability to observe and put every little peculiarly into contest. 
Another classic character often seen in these sort of stories is the "companion" and here it is the person Hastings who helps Poirot in his investigations. You could say that he in some ways are Poirot's apprentice. This character is usually added to make the main protagonist brilliance shine though even more by asking questions that are usually followed by an elaborate explanation of how the mastermind deducted the mystery. They also often acts on the behaft of the reader by asking questions and saying things the reader might be thinking at that moment in the story. For example in this story right after the meeting with Dr. Bernard, Hastings says "Rather an old ass" about Bernard which is what audiences would be thinking about Dr. Bernard at that given time due to his behaviour towards our pair at the meeting.Another important roll this assistant commonly plays is the audiences eyes and ears. As well in this story we the see the mystery unfold from Hastings viewpoint. This is again used to make him more relatable and to make the main character (Poirot in our case) seem way smarter that us. Had we instead seen the ordeal unravel from Poirot's viewpoint i all would had come at as much of a shock to us that it does though the used perspective. The suspense would not be as supreme since we would slowly get an insight in what Poirot discovers and thinks.

The Short story "The Tragedy at Marsden Manor" by Agatha Christie is a traditional crime fiction of highest degree. It follows the genre in every particular with all its charm and suspense. The use of the chosen viewpoint helps creates this suspense and make the antagonist seem more quick-witted and well considered. The story is all in all a well executed suspense-drama with all its unexpected twists and turns. 



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