The Reticence of the Narrator in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd Arushi Saran College

The revelation of the climax in the book, ‘The Murder of Roger Ackroyd’ is jaw dropping- it is so subtle yet so clever. The manner in which Dr. Sheppard is shown as the Hastings-like figure and is so close to the detective makes it almost impossible for us to imagine that he could be the murderer. The whole first-narrative story at that point, all things considered, ends up having been an intricate exercise in quibble, a painstakingly shrouded admission of the crime. The clue puzzle plot that Christie follows feeds on the element of sensation and the inherent desire of the readers to know more. It includes the playful inclusion of the readers, thus making the work metafictional. It becomes a story of the reader versus the detective.

In this case, the detective, Hercule Poirot, is highly rational, logical, guided by intuition and thus, involved in ‘mental gymnastics’. Christie ‘feminizes’ Poirot by having a more domestic method of investigation and considering gossip to be of some value. Christie portrays her narrator, Dr. Sheppard as modest and reticent. These lines are spoken by Poirot when Dr. Sheppard hands him his manuscript that he had written so far. Sheppard has kept himself in the background while writing the...