62 pages • 2 hours read
Agatha ChristieA Murder Is Announced
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1950A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Pearl Choker
Miss Blacklock’s pearl choker symbolizes deception and concealment. The large “false-looking” pearls appear “incongruous” as they do not fit with Miss Blacklock’s understated appearance and manner—a clue to her lack of authenticity. At several points in the case, Inspector Craddock wonders if the pearls may be genuine and, therefore, highly valuable. However, the choker’s significance lies not in what it is worth but in what it conceals. The necklace is a disguise, covering the surgical scar that identifies Miss Blacklock as Charlotte.
While the choker represents Miss Blacklock’s duplicity, that duplicity relates to her identity and, consequently, her innermost world; the choker thus also acts as a barometer of her state of mind. When her character is first introduced, the choker represents her impressive veneer of composure. As that veneer begins to crack, she touches the choker when agitated as if to check that her disguise is still in place. The moment when the choker breaks signals that the character herself is “breaking” as she feels forced into increasingly extreme measures to protect her identity.
The Unreliability of Sight
The motif of sight is introduced with the blackout at Little Paddocks. Miss Blacklock engineers the lights’ shorting to ensure no one witnesses the murder, and the outage highlights the unreliability of sight. As a police inspector, Craddock knows that sight is not a straightforward process, and he predicts that the witnesses will “all have seen something different” (43). His theory proves correct as his interviewees cannot distinguish between what they saw (which was very little) from what they assume they saw with the benefit of hindsight. Having seen a gun lying next to Scherz’s body, their brains fill in the missing details, and most claim they saw him holding the revolver.
The investigation reveals that only two people saw anything significant. Notably, these witnesses are two of the least rational characters in the novel: Miss Murgatroyd and Dora. Miss Murgatroyd has a unique perspective on the crime scene as she was the only one not to be dazzled by the flashlight. The solution to the mystery lies in who Miss Murgatroyd did not see. Meanwhile, only Dora notices that Miss Blacklock is holding the vase of violets when the lights go out. The other characters accept Miss Blacklock’s claim that she had the cigarette box, as it seems a more logical scenario. Through her portrayal of Dora and Miss Murgatroyd as the most clear-sighted characters, Christie suggests that attempting to rationalize what we see often leads to observational error.
The Imposter
The imposter is a standard device in Golden Age detective fiction, allowing authors to create intriguing plot twists. In A Murder Is Announced, the device repeatedly proves Miss Marple’s observation that “sometimes—the most amazing impersonations did happen” (205). Charlotte Blacklock’s impersonation of her sister stands at the center of the mystery. There are also several minor imposters: Emma posing as Julia; Pip hiding in plain sight as Phillipa; Mrs. Easterbrook (whose real identity the novel never reveals); and Scherz posing as an armed robber. Even Miss Marple indulges in impersonation, mimicking Dora’s voice to prove Charlotte Blacklock’s guilt.
The imposter is more than just a plot device in the novel. It is also a motif, underlining several of Christie’s themes. For example, in the aftermath of World War II, it became easier for people to “borrow” identities from the dead. As Craddock remarks, “There were organizations who bought up identities, who faked identity and ration cards” (133). The notion that identity can no longer be easily verified is also thematically explored through the changing nature of small-town communities. The prevalence of imposters in the novel creates a sense of anxiety, destabilizing certainties about identity.
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