The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

“But you can figure to yourself, monsieur, that a man may work towards a certain object, may labour and toil to attain a certain kind of leisure and occupation, and then find that, after all, he yearns for the old busy days, and the old occupations that he thought himself so glad to leave?”

Hercule Poirot, a retired detective, has achieved the goal of cultivating marrows and moving at a leisurely pace. However, in his leisure, he is finding that he misses the work he used to do, and the marrows symbolize this longing.

“No, not that alone—though he is unusually good-looking for an Englishman—what your lady novelists would call a Greek God. No, there was something about that young man that I did not understand.”

When Poirot first notices Paton, it is not because of his good looks but rather because he did not understand something about him. This establishes Poirot as a curious man who seeks to understand everyone and everything.

“Had I heard about Flora’s engagement? So suitable in every way. The dear young things had fallen in love at first sight. Such a perfect pair, he so dark and she so fair.”

Agatha Christie portrays Dr. Sheppard’s first interaction with Mrs. Ackroyd, during which they discuss the engagement and the suitability of the match between Flora and Paton. Though she mentions physical features, Mrs. Ackroyd is also thinking about class status in determining the suitability of the match, which is why she currently deems it good.

“The letter had been brought in at twenty minutes to nine. It was just on ten minutes to nine when I left him, the letter still unread. I hesitated with my hand on the door handle, looking back and wondering if there was anything I had left undone.”

This is a significant moment for Dr. Sheppard, as it is his first lie of omission while telling the story. Though the reader is not aware of it at this moment, it establishes Sheppard as an unreliable narrator for the novel.

“No, if I go into this, you must understand one thing clearly. I shall go through with it to the end. The good dog, he does not leave the scent, remember! You may wish that, after all, you had left it to the local police.”

When Flora asks Poirot to take on the case of the murder, Poirot provides this warning. This establishes a strong sense of his character and positions him as a key player in the theme of Ethics and the Law.

“There are times when it is necessary to have discretion. Do you tell your patients everything—but everything, doctor? I think not. Nor do you tell your excellent sister everything either, is it not so? Before showing my empty hand, I dropped what it contained into my other hand. You shall see what it was.”

Poirot admits to deceiving Flora and Major Blunt when he claims he failed to attain the item from the pond, which is the wedding ring. Poirot talks about discretion, and as a symbol of Ursula and Paton’s relationship, the ring must remain concealed because it is not yet time for that information to be public.

“Oh! money! All the troubles in the world can be put down to money—or lack thereof.”

Major Blunt draws attention to the theme of Shifting Class Relations. As a man who has enough money to be comfortable, Blunt identifies the importance that money plays in society, and how money plays into class and status. By saying that all troubles can be explained by money or lack thereof, he also says that the world’s problems can be attributed to the shifting class relations of the time.

“One advantage of being a medical practitioner is that you can usually tell when people are lying to you. I should have known from Mrs. Folliott’s manner, if from nothing else, that she did mind answering my questions—minded intensely. She was thoroughly uncomfortable and upset, and there was plainly some mystery in the background. I judged her to be a woman quite unused to deception of any kind, and consequently rendered acutely uneasy when forced to practise it. A child could have seen through her.”

Dr. Sheppard’s statement here about Mrs. Folliott’s deception is ironic because he is actively deceiving Poirot and the reader. The only difference between the two of them, as Poirot points out, is that Sheppard is used to deception whereas Mrs. Folliott is not. The two liars in this scene show two different perspectives on the theme of The Human Capacity for Evil.

“I stayed there staring into the fire and thinking over Caroline’s words. Had Poirot really come to gain information about Miss Russell, or was it only Caroline’s tortuous mind that interpreted everything according to her own ideas?”

The Sheppard siblings do not agree about whether Poirot intended to gather information from Caroline. Sheppard finds it ridiculous that a man like Poirot would want to get Caroline’s type of information, playing into the story’s gossip motif.

“Mademoiselle, you are engaged to Captain Ralph Paton. If anyone is in his confidence, you are. I beg you, most earnestly, if you know of his whereabouts, to persuade him to come forward.”

Poirot’s request to Flora Ackroyd is dual-purposed. The first is to ask if she knows where Paton is. However, knowing that Paton is symbolic of the truth, Poirot is also asking if she knows the truth about the situation. Since Poirot is endeavoring to discover the truth, he needs to find Paton.

“Flora has been saved a terrible amount of notoriety and unpleasantness. Not for a moment that I think dear Paton had anything to do with poor Roger’s death. I don’t think so.”

Mrs. Ackroyd again reveals her focus on Shifting Class Relations and the appearance of status. She claims that she does not believe Paton killed Ackroyd, but that is not what matters. Word has gotten around that Paton is missing, and that Ackroyd is dead. Paton’s image is currently one of a criminal, and for Flora to be associated with a criminal would taint her reputation and status.

“Les femmes […] They are marvellous! They invent haphazard—and by miracle they are right. Not that it is that, really. Women observe subconsciously a thousand little details, without knowing that they are doing so. Their subconscious mind adds these little things together—and they call the result intuition. Me, I am very skilled in psychology. I know these things.”

Poirot brings some light to why he gives credibility to gossip. Though the observations discussed are not based on obvious fact, Poirot trusts a woman’s intuition because of the “thousands” of pieces she puts together without realizing what she is doing it. Gossip, by this reframing, fits perfectly within Poirot’s need for method and truth, because gossip is attained through method and observation.

“That is where we disagree, you and I. Three motives—it is almost too much. I am inclined to believe that, after all, Ralph Paton is innocent.”

Ethics and The Law enter the scene at this moment. Poirot goes against the law—the law would believe that a person with multiple motives is more inclined to commit a crime than a person with fewer motives. However, Poirot uses the number of motives as proof that Paton is innocent because the motives stack up too nicely and point too cleanly to Paton.

“Yes, dear, I know what you mean, […] But it rather depends on what kind of a hand you have to start with, doesn’t it?”

The game of Mahjong is full of symbolism about the case, and this moment alludes to an idea bigger than a hand in a game. Sheppard and Poirot are playing a game to determine who can outwit the other—Poirot aims to discover the murderer, Sheppard, while Sheppard wants to convince Poirot that Paton is guilty. At this time, we do not know the “hand” that Sheppard started with, but we know that Poirot is following the advice of others and holding onto his cards hoping for a bigger win.

“It was then that I went on, goaded by Caroline’s gibes, and rendered reckless by my triumph.”

Sheppard foreshadows his downfall by saying this in the moments after he has achieved the “Perfect Win” at a hand in Mahjong. In his game with Poirot, he feels that he has already won, so he will become reckless, and information will come to light that he did not intend for anyone to know.

“But not all, my good friend, not at all. I laid no commands upon you. You were at liberty to speak of it if you so wished. She was interested, your sister?”

The wedding ring symbol returns in the conversation between Poirot and Sheppard. Poirot admits that nothing was binding Sheppard to remain quiet about it, but Sheppard made a bond of his own. Sheppard’s choice to remain quiet about the broken bond of a marriage creates a layering of secrets and, in its way, also plays into the gossip motif.

“Exposure faced the man of whom we are speaking. And he is not the same man he was—say, a year ago. His moral fibre is blunted. He is desperate. He is fighting a losing battle, and he is prepared to take any means that come to his hand, for exposure means ruin to him. And so—the dagger strikes.”

Poirot uses the allegory of the weak man at the end of Chapter 17 to foreshadow the fall of Sheppard. Sheppard is at risk of being exposed as Mrs. Ferrars’s blackmailer, so he has taken the only way out he could find out—he has killed, and now the potential is within him to kill again. Poirot’s allegory is one of the strongest displays of the theme of The Human Capacity for Evil.

“But at the time I had no suspicion of the fact. I overestimated his general self-confidence, and I took for granted that the things which puzzled me must be equally puzzling to him.”

The game between Poirot and Sheppard, symbolized by the game of Mahjong, returns to Sheppard after he and Poirot meet Charles Kent. Sheppard believes that he has the winning hand, pulling the Perfect Win, in the murder. He cannot piece together the information Poirot has gathered and, assuming himself the smarter of the two, believes that Poirot is in the dark as well. His arrogance leads to his downfall.

“M. Poirot is right. I took that money. I stole. I am a thief—yes, a common, vulgar thief. Now you know! I am glad it has come out. It’s been a nightmare, these last few days!”

Flora uses terms to describe herself that clash with the appearance of status that her mother wishes for her to maintain. She describes herself as common and vulgar because she has committed a petty crime. She wholeheartedly believes that she succumbed to The Human Capacity for Evil in such a way because she is a victim of the Shifting Class Relations.

“You think that she loves the Capitaine Ralph Paton—but I, Hercule Poirot, tell you that that is not so. Mademoiselle Flora accepted Captain Paton to please her uncle, and because she saw in the marriage a way to escape from her life here which was becoming frankly insupportable to her.”

Poirot lays bare for Major Blunt the effects of the Shifting Class Relations that have pressed Flora into uncomfortable circumstances. Her agreement to marry Paton was done to escape the chains of status that bind her. She saw the chance to escape and took it, but those around her misunderstood her intentions.

“Geoffrey Raymond was in a terrible way. Rang up Liverpool. But they wouldn’t tell him anything at the police station there. In fact, they said they hadn’t arrested Ralph at all. Mr. Raymond insists that it’s all a mistake—a—what do they call it?—canard of the newspaper’s. I’ve forbidden it to be mentioned before the servants. Such a terrible disgrace. Fancy if Flora had actually been married to him.”

Everyone is now desperate for the truth. When there is even a whisper that Paton—the truth—has been captured, most parties want to know the discoveries. However, Mrs. Ackroyd is more concerned with gossip and its impact on Shifting Class Relations. Paton’s arrest will harm his family’s reputation by extension, and Mrs. Ackroyd is aware that the servants talk to each other. Therefore, she ensures that her family’s status cannot be lowered easily by ensuring the damaging information never reaches the rumor mill.

“And then came the meeting with Ralph Paton, and the love affair which culminated in a secret marriage. Ralph had persuaded her into that, somewhat against her will. He had declared that his stepfather would not hear of his marrying a penniless girl. Better to be married secretly, and break the news to him at some later and more favourable minute.”

The truth is no fool, and neither is Paton. He may love Ursula Bourne, but he knows that his relationship with her will never survive the Shifting Class Relations that force his family to appear a certain way. He hopes that he can reveal the truth when he is financially secure enough to break free of his family’s social status and make his own way in the world.

“Yes, at one of them a patient was brought there by the doctor himself early on Saturday morning. The patient, though known by another name, I had no difficulty identifying as Captain Paton. After certain necessary formalities, I was allowed to bring him away. He arrived at my house in the early hours of yesterday morning.”

The game between Poirot and Sheppard has come to an end. Sheppard was symbolically concealing the truth by concealing Paton. However, Poirot was able to discover the location of Paton and stole him away from Sheppard. With that action, he also stole Sheppard’s chance of escaping, because the truth had been discovered.