![]() ![]() In Christie’s day, well-to-do married women behaved like today’s WAGs. Her stories depict married couples as equals Many of her books have female killers who are just as calculating and strong as the male villains and, just like the latter they are perfectly willing to be corrupted for money, love or other gain. Instead, writers made sure to turn their female protagonists into ministering angels.Ĭhristie broke the mold by allowing women to add murder to their CV. Women did not kill for gain and even less did they kill for the fun of it, because the ingredients that make up a ruthless murderer were just not considered to be part of their genetic make-up. When Ellen Wood introduced the idea of a female killer in her 1860 novel Danesbury House, the plot came complete with a strong moral message about the dangers of women indulging in alcohol. Writers created females who were devoted wives, caring mothers and all-round snoozefests. The patriarchal society of the time accepted nothing but the most ideal of female character traits, even in fictional women. Christie’s leading ladies manage to defy the gender constraints of the time, “ repeatedly subverting patriarchy” to steal the spotlight away from their male counterparts. ![]() ![]() 50 from Paddington, Lucy Eyelsbarrow – a professional housekeeper – pulls all the strings and manipulates the events that lead to the discovery of the killer, while Detective Dermot Craddock is busy buttering his scones. In N or M, Tuppence beats her husband Tommy to the scene of a spy investigation, causing the British Intelligence’s head to bestow that ultimate praise, calling her “ a smart woman.” In The Man in the Brown Suit, it is Anne Beddingfield who gets all the action and the final victory, not the distinguished Colonel Race. In Murder is Easy, it is the amateur Bridget Conway who cracks the mystery and not retired police officer Luke Fitzwilliam. Her heroines beat the men to itĬhristie’s women win, even when it’s not their job to do so. From the detectives in Wilkie Collins’s The Moonstone to Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, they invariably featured the “ duo archetype of two white middle-class males.” Women were merely ornamental to the story.Įnter Christie’s unlikely Miss Marple, who solves some 37 murders through the simple expedient of using logic and drinking tea Victoria Jones, the antithesis of the Bond Girl in They Came to Baghdad Bridget Conway in Murder is Easy and a whole list of other women who acted much like your average man upon being faced with murder i.e., rashly and with a disregard for possible consequences. Women in detective stories didn’t fare much better. This had more to do with snagging eligible bachelors than polishing mental prowess, as seen in books like Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice. Up till the 19th century, there was a very clear formula for female characters in novels. She was one of the first to introduce the idea of the strong female detective in fiction Although the writer’s heirs have always refused to disclose the exact worth of her estate, there is the widespread belief that “ by some standards Dame Agatha was a millionaire.” Not bad going, considering most of her female contemporaries could only hope for £500 a year and a spot of sexual harassment as housemaid to the lord of the manor. Those who escaped the indignity of domestic service to work in factories could expect the same working conditions as those in the worst sweat shops today.Ĭhristie, instead, became a published writer and amassed an undisclosed fortune. The best employment most women could aspire to involved serving tea to the remaining aristocracy. Christie was born in late Victorian England, an era marked by Queen Victoria’s belief that women had to be “ what God intended, a helpmate for man, but with totally different duties and vocations“. ![]()
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