 Hello and welcome to our video summarizing all you need to know about the murder of Roger Akroyd, a novel by Agatha Christie. My name is Sarah and in this video we'll look at the novel specifically beginning with a plot summary. We'll then examine the necessary information you'll need to know before looking at each character's in-depth, key themes as well as important symbols. This video is very useful, especially if you are studying this novel as part of your English coursework or exams, as I'll get into the details you need to know to get top marks. So let's get started. First an overview. The murder of Roger Akroyd is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie, first published in June 1926 in the United Kingdom by William Collins Sons and in the United States by Dodd, Med and Company. It is the third novel to feature Hercule Poirot as the lead detective. Poirot retires to a village near the home of a friend, Roger Akroyd, to pursue a project to perfect vegetable marrows. Soon after, Akroyd is murdered and Poirot must come out of retirement to solve the case. The novel was initially well received. In 2013, the British Crime Writers Association voted it the best crime novel ever. It is one of Christie's best known and most controversial novels. Its innovative twist ending having a significant impact on the genre. Howard Haycraft included it in his list of the most influential crime novels ever written. The short biography of Christie, which is included in the 21st century UK printings of her books called it Her Masterpiece, although writer and critic Robert Barnard has written that he considers it a conventional Christie novel. On to the plot summary. The novel is narrated by Dr. Jane Shepard, a physician in the town of King's Abbott. The story begins with the death of Mrs. Ferrars, who overdosed on Verano, a sleeping medication. Much of the town believes Mrs. Ferrars poisoned her husband a year before. Caroline now speculates that Mrs. Ferrars has committed suicide with Verano over the guilt. Meanwhile, Roger Ackroyd, the town's wealthiest citizen who was expected to marry Mrs. Ferrars, invites Dr. Shepard to dinner, claiming he has something important to tell him. Also present at dinner are Mrs. Cecil Ackroyd, Roger's sister-in-law, Flora Ackroyd, his niece, Joffrey Raymond, Ackroyd's young secretary, and Major Blunt, Ackroyd's friend. This throat throughout the meal, Ackroyd finally has a private discussion with Dr. Shepard after dinner. In his study, he reveals to Dr. Shepard that not only did Mrs. Ferrars actually kill her husband, she was being blackmailed for it. She revealed all of this to Ackroyd before taking her life because of the emotional and financial strain she was under. Although she didn't tell him who the blackmail was, he had a feeling she left a message for him before her death. At that moment, Ackroyd's secretary, Parker, arrives with the evening mail, which contains a letter from the late Mrs. Ferrars. Ackroyd begins to read it out loud. Annette Mrs. Ferrars announces she will name her blackmailer and asks Ackroyd to seek revenge on her blackmailer. Ackroyd refuses to read the name of the blackmailer with Shepard present. Dr. Shepard lives Fernley Park, but on his walk back, bumps into a stranger who asks for directions to the estate. At home, Dr. Shepard and Caroline are about to go to bed when the phone rings. He explains to Caroline that Parker has called from Fernley Park to tell him that Ackroyd has been murdered. Dr. Shepard rushes over, but when he gets there, Parker denies making the phone call. Nonetheless, they break into Ackroyd's locked study and find him murdered in his chair. The next day, Dr. Shepard is approached by Flora Ackroyd to help recruit Dr. Shepard's new neighbor, the retired Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, to help investigate the murder. Flora is worried that the police are going to blame Elf Paton for killing her uncle, especially since Ralph, who had been spotted approaching Fernley Park that night, is now nowhere to be found. The police have found footprints matching a pair of shoes that Ralph owned outside the window to Ackroyd's study, and at 9.30, Major Blunt and Joffrey Raymond both overheard Ackroyd speaking to someone in his office. Because Flora claims to have wished her uncle goodnight at 9.45 and Dr. Shepard is convinced that Ackroyd had been dead at least a half hour when he found the body at 10.30, the police are convinced that the murder was committed between 9.45 and 10, although all members of Ackroyd's household stood to gain financially from his death. Ralph especially inherited the bulk of his uncle's fortune. After they have determined that Ralph recently was in a great deal of debt, they suspect him all the more. Although the police are convinced it is Ralph, Poirot's thorough investigation leaves him unconvinced. He is fixated on the phone call to Dr. Shepard and the position of a grandfather chair in Ackroyd's office, which had been moved into the centre of the room when Dr. Shepard and Parker found the body. In the course of his investigation, Poirot discovers a goose, quill and a piece of cambrick in their summer house on the friendly park grounds as well as a wedding ring inscribed from R in a goldfish pond on the grounds. Poirot gathers Mrs. Cecil Ackroyd, Flora, Joffrey Raymond, Major Blunt and Dr. Shepard together and accuses all of them of hiding something from him which is relevant to the case. In the meantime, Poirot notes that the polo made Ursula Born is the only person in the household who doesn't have a clear alibi for the theoretical time of the murder and so identifies her as another suspect. Mrs. Cecil Ackroyd and Joffrey Raymond quickly come forward to Dr. Shepard and Poirot to admit their secrets, both separately acknowledge that they were in debt and Ackroyd's death resolves most of their money issues. Poirot also determines that Parker, who he suspected as Mrs. Farrar's blackmailer, is guilty of nothing more than snooping on Roger Ackroyd the night of the murder when he heard the word blackmail. Parker successfully blackmailed his previous employer and was hoping to blackmail Ackroyd as well. The police meanwhile have tracked down the stranger who approached friendly park the night of the murder. The arrest a man named Charles Kent who Dr. Shepard confirms was the stranger. Meanwhile, Poirot determines that Flora lied about wishing her uncle goodnight at 9.45 on the night of the murder. Instead, she had snuck up to his bedroom to still money to settle some depth of her own and had to pretend she was merely wishing Ackroyd goodnight to avoid suspicion. In the course of her confession, Major Blunt's secret love for Flora is revealed when he tries to take the blame for her crime. Poirot convinces Major Blunt to be honest with Flora about his love for her. He assures him that Flora and Ralph Pattone are not really in love but merely engaged for convenience's sake. Poe asks for a meeting with Ms. Russell, Ackroyd's housekeeper. He gets her to admit that Charles Kent is the son she bore out of Wadlock many years before and that he owns the goose quill that they found in the summer house. Ms. Russell met him there before dinner on the night of the murder after he contacted her. She insists he cannot be the murderer. Soon Flora and Major Blunt are engaged and Poirot traces the owner of the gold ring to Ursula Bourne. After placing a fake notice in the newspaper that the police captured Ralph Pattone, Bourne seeks out Poirot and convinces to having married Ralph in secret months before. They met around 9.30 in the summer house and thought about his announced engagement to Flora Ackroyd. Poirot summons all the suspects to his home once again and reveals all these discoveries. He further reveals that he has determined Ackroyd purchased a Dictaphone the week before and that is what Raymond and Blunt heard when they assumed Ackroyd was talking to someone at 9.30. He further reveals that he has determined Ackroyd purchased a Dictaphone the week before and that is what Raymond and Blunt heard when they assumed Ackroyd was talking to someone at 9.30. He then reveals Ralph Pattone who Dr. Shepard had been hiding by pretending he was a patient in a local asylum. Once Poirot determined what Shepard had done, he got Ralph out. Ralph admits that he fought with Ursula in the summer house then walked around frustrated. He does not have an alibi for the time of the murder. Poirot announces that it's simple, for Ralph to be exonerated the real murderer must come forward. He claims to know the identity of the real murderer and explains he will bring the truth to the police the next morning. He discharges the group but asks Dr. Shepard to stay behind. In a stunning plot twist Poirot reveals that it is Dr. Shepard who is the murderer. Shepard stabbed Ackroyd before leaving him that night, programmed the Dictaphone to go off at 9.30 and provide him with an alibi then snuck around the side of the house, crawled into Ackroyd's study, locked it from the inside and planted the footprints with Ralph's shoes in the mud. He hid Ralph so that the police would find him more suspicious. He murdered Ackroyd because it was he Dr. Shepard who was Mrs. Ferris Blackmailer and he knew if Ackroyd found out he would be ruined. Faced with the knowledge that Poirot will go to the police in the morning and hoping that Poirot can keep the truth from his sister Caroline, Dr. Shepard goes home and prepares to kill himself with an overdose of Veroano. On to character analysis, Dr. James Shepard. The novel's narrator is a physician in the town of King's Abbot. He serves as a companion chronicler to Hercule Poirot, the brilliant detective who will eventually crack the very complicated case. Although Shepard appears to be a genuine straightforward character, his complicity in the mystery will prove one of the great plot twists of all time. Ultimately, Dr. Shepard is revealed to be a shrewd, duplicitous, detached villain. Caroline Shepard, Dr. Shepard's older spinster sister is a voracious gossip who uses innate work of servants as informants to gather all sorts of information on anyone who picks her interest. She is unsatisfied unless she knows about all the goings on in the town and usually interjects her opinions on things, especially when unprovoked. Agatha Christie later admitted that Caroline served as a model for her famous Miss Marple character, the spinster detective who pokes her nose on everyone else's business. Hercule Poirot. Perhaps Agatha Christie's most famous character, Poirot appears in 33 novels and other 60 short stories, a retired Belgian detective. Poirot is a small, Poirot is small in stature, but full of self-importance. He is a brilliant detective, relying on his own logic and critical thinking skills, in order to determine the truth of the crime. He treats everyone as a suspect and takes no statement or allegation for granted. Instead, he painstakingly verifies all testimonies while privately forming his own hypothesis, only revealing the truth when he is sure of his suspicions. Mrs. Ferrars. Although she never appears as a living character in the novel, Mrs. Ferrars nonetheless plays an important role in the plot. A nervous woman who, according to Caroline, couldn't stand her alcoholic husband, she poisoned him in order to escape from his abusiveness. However, the financial strain of being blackmailed for this crime, as well as the guilt over the crime itself, led her to kill herself. But not before asking her close companion, Roger Accroyd, to avenge her against the blackmailer. Roger Accroyd. A genuine widower, Accroyd is the central figure of King's Abort. A wealthy businessman, Accroyd's influence as well as the intrigue surrounding his stepson, family and himself, make him a constant subject of gossip and speculation. Shepard describes Accroyd as being a proper man who believed heavily in society's rules for rightness as well as its class divisions. He is murdered at the beginning of the novel, providing the mystery that well will so brilliantly solve. Ralph Paton. Accroyd's stepson, Accroyd's stepson, Paton is handsome and charming, but constantly getting into trouble with debts and financial obligations. His disappearance as well as several major clues make him the major suspect in the crime. He is described as having a weak character, which leads him to fall constantly to debt and look for easy ways to discharge it. Mrs. Cecil Accroyd. Accroyd's sister-in-law, she and her daughter Flora, came to live at Fernley Park after her husband died. Shadow and Gary Loos, Mrs. Accroyd is prone to episodes of self-involved drama and admits to falling into debt in an effort to sustain her upper-class lifestyle. She explains of the difficulty of relying financially on her miserly brother-in-law, Flora Accroyd. Mrs. Accroyd's daughter Flora is young, fair and beautiful. Like her mother, she is burdened by the strain of being financially dependent on her uncle and longs for freedom from this frustrating reliance. Although she agrees to be engaged to her step-cousin, Ralph Paton, she does so because she sees the opportunity for more independence and a new life, not out of love. She claims to have a weak character, just like Ralph, and she claims that an understanding of this mutual weakness brought them together. Joffrey Raymond is buoyant and debauneer, maintaining a relaxed attitude throughout the investigation. Although Accroyd's death upset him, he is nonetheless laid back and confident throughout the novel. He admits to being in a bit of debt, which the money he got from Accroyd's will takes care of, but insists that he has an early buy for the time of the murder and thus should not be considered a suspect. Major Blunt A big game hunter and old friend of Accroyd. Blunt is taciturn and, when he does speak, direct. Blunt's secret love for Flora, Accroyd, seems out of character with his moderate reserved personality, but his ultimate decision to express this love allows him to win her over in the end. Miss Russell Accroyd's housekeeper. Miss Russell is efficient and no nonsense, with a proficiency that renders her intimidating to many of the characters she encounters, even those in her higher social class than she. Although she is reserved to the point of inaccessibility, she ultimately demonstrates emotion when confronted after her son, Charles Kent, faces suspicion for Accroyd's murder. Miss Russell distanced herself from her son because she gave birth to him out of wedlock. Although she provided for him financially, she refused to acknowledge him publicly for fear of what he would do to her reputation. Her respectability is of the utmost importance to her. John Parker Accroyd's butler. Parker is a professional and competent servant. Poirot suspects there is something corrupt about him, and eventually discovers that Parker blackmailed his former employer and was snooping around for the means to blackmail Accroyd as well. Although Parker is greedy, Poirot nevertheless dreams him too cowardly to be Accroyd's murderer. Ursula born, born a lady but forced to make her own living when her parents could not provide for her, Ursula decided to become a polar maid. Although it represented a step down in class, it allowed her to support herself and she knew she was a competent maid. After falling in love with Ralph Paton and secretly marrying him, Ursula was furious when he announced his engagement to Flora and is distraught when he disappears after his uncle's murder. Charles Kent, Miss Accroyd's disowned son, Kent shows signs of having been a strong capable smart man, but an addiction to alcohol and heroin has caused him to become a city paranoid criminal. Although Miss Russell wants to believe he can recover from his addiction, he does not show any signs of being motivated to cure himself. He does not however reveal his mother's identity when questioned by the police helping to preserve her reputation in town. Inspector Raglan, the main inspector into Accroyd's murder, Raglan immediately identifies Ralph as a potential suspect. Raglan's reticence to welcome Poirot onto the investigating team is softened only by Poirot's adept flattery. He is proud of his investigative method, although he lacks the critical thinking skills and brilliance that allow Poirot to analyze the many clues the crime provides. Act Davis, the local police officer. Davis is the first on the scene when Accroyd is found murdered. He is self-importance and blundering and obsessed with physical clues that will ultimately not prove to be useful to solving the murder. His initial incompetence only serves to demonstrate the bullions of well. Colonel Melrose, a local colonel Melrose is initially reluctant to believe in Ralph's guilt. He is fond of Ralph and unwilling to consider the possibility that Ralph could be the murderer. However, as the evidence against Ralph mounts, he hesitatingly begins to be convinced that Ralph is the killer. And to theme analysis, the triumph of good and the restoration of order. Most detective fiction involves the satisfying restoration of order by a brilliant detective or team of detectives after a cunning and malicious evil doer has committed some crime. In a Sherlock Holmes novel, for example, the reader has no doubt that Holmes will solve the case even before finishing the first chapter. It is simply the pattern of the genre. Christie leans even more into this pattern in the murder of Roger Accroyd. The reader has no doubt that Puello will solve the case because Dr. Shepard, writing after the fact, repeatedly reminds the reader that Puello has already done so. The question is not if order will be restored and good will triumph, simply how? The predictability of this theme within the novel is something the reader can count on with certainty. Murder of Manners Unlike other, more gruesome detective stories, Christie's novel is firmly set in the polite, civilized upper and middle class world of Britain in the first half of the 20th century. She often issues violent crimes and macabre descriptions of violence. Instead, her characters retain their manners and civility throughout. There are no scenes of violence or gore. Instead, the novel primarily features characters having civilized discussions and attending social gatherings. The rules of middle and upper class England are rigidly applied to all characters who behave with restraint and courtesy throughout. Even when he has been formally accused by Puello of being the murderer, Dr. Shepard doesn't respond with anger or violence, but instead politely disagrees and returns home. Despite the civility, murder is still the central intrigue of the novel, and blackmail lies and secrets abound. Nature vs. Nurture in creating a criminal A major human question is one of nature vs. nurture. Does a person's environment determine their behavior, or is their behavior determined by their innate character? At the end of Chapter 17, Poirot's allegorical story about a weak man who, when desperate enough or provoked in just the right way, is moved to commit a crime, articulates the novel's stance on this debate. It is the precise combination of a weak character and the right circumstances that creates a criminal. In the case of Dr. Shepard, it was his streak of weakness combined with the opportunity to make easy money, and then the desperate need to hide his behavior that provoked him to commit murder. Shepard is not a sociopath, or a hardened criminal, merely a weak man who was put in a tempting and then challenging situation. There are other characters in the novel who embody this theme. Flora declares herself a weak character, and it is this weakness combined with a desperation for money that caused her to still form her uncle. Ralph, also described as weak, was moved to break his marriage vows and become engaged to his step-causing when he recognized the opportunity to get out of the crippling depth he found himself in. The danger of secrets Nearly every character in the murder of Roger Ackroyd has a secret, and the danger of keeping these secrets to themselves is demonstrated again and again. For example, Flora keeps the secret that she never actually said goodnight to her uncle before he was murdered, which prevents the investigators from determining an accurate time of death for Ackroyd, and thus throws suspicion onto innocent characters. Even secrets unrelated to the murder can be dangerous. Major Blunt is desperately in love with Flora, but he keeps the secret to himself, which prevents him from finding the happiness that he could find if he shared his love with her. When Poirot convinces him that the secret is not one he should keep to himself, he finally opens up to her, and they quickly become engaged. The power of method and logic Although many characters in the novel act unimpulsed and are motivated entirely by emotion, Poirot's brilliance lies in his ability to distance himself from his emotions and consider every fact objectively. He constantly references the importance of his method, the way he systematically considers the facts taking nothing from granted and no one at his word until he can painstakingly build the truth from the facts he has collected. Unlike Flora and Colonell Melrose, for example, both of whom are convinced but unable to prove that Ralph is innocent because of their emotional connection for him, Poirot maintains objectivity with regards to Ralph. Poirot is able to prove Ralph's innocence through thorough investigation of the facts. He is only with this method that Poirot ultimately triumphs over the seemingly impossible case that manages to baffle every other character in the novel. The danger of assumption As much as the novel promotes the power of method and logic, it similarly points out the danger of assumption. Characters in the novel are constantly making assumptions about each other and about the murder. Nearly every time a character makes an assumption without having used method and logic to back it up, they are proven wrong. The most powerful example of this theme however is demonstrated with the reader himself. Most people on their first read of the murder of Roger Agroid assume a certain level of trust in the narrator, simply by virtue of his position as the novel's chronicler. Dr. Shepherd is unconsciously dimmed, trustworthy by the reader and consequently the reader may miss the many clues Christie includes as to his guilt throughout the novel. Dr. Shepherd is ultimately revealed to be the murderer, it is a stunning revelation and a powerful lesson for the reader in the danger of assumptions. So that's all for this video, if you find it useful give it a thumbs up and do subscribe to our channel where we offer free material that you can use as part of your studies to really get a better grasp of specific areas you might find challenging. Make sure to visit our website where you will find useful revision guides, model answers and tools to get top marks. Thank you for listening!