Panel of Experts: The Blue Geranium Background Author of widespread fame, in 1920, Agatha Christie released her first book, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, and quickly rose to fame as one of the world's most celebrated mystery authors. She was a best-selling author with a burgeoning career as a dramatist and romance novelist as well. Background and Early Years In Torquay, Devon in the southwest of England, Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller became Christie Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller on September 15, 1890. In her early years, as the smallest of three children, her mother taught her at home and encouraged her to pursue writing as a hobby. At the age of 16, Christie went to Paris to train in singing and piano. Growing up, she loved role-playing fantasy games and making up characters. She married a Royal Flying Corps pilot, Colonel Archibald Christie, in 1914 and began working as a nurse during World War I. With The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Christie's debut novel, she introduced readers to one of her most well-known characters: Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. The plot revolved on the murder of a wealthy heiress. Agatha knew a lot about poisoning, alchemy and flowers. The absence of books A year earlier, Christie published The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, a bestseller that would go on to become a classic in the mystery genre and a personal favourite of Christie's. That same year, she had to cope with her mother's death and the revelation knowing her spouse was having an extramarital affair. Christie was so shaken by the news that she vanished for many days before being found by the police at a hotel in Harrogate, booked in the name of her partner's lover. Clues Nurse Carstairs advises against seeing Zarida. The provided address is incorrect but was well-known to Mrs. Pritchard. There are blue flowers where there used to be red blooms. The test results would be known to the nurses. Mrs. Pritchard uses smelling salts with cyanide added so that she may execute herself. The salts' fumes dye the blooms a bright blue. Nurse Copling turned on the gas range so the almonds would not smell like cyanide when they burned. The following is a remark from Jean Instow: Had a chat about Mr. Pritchard's attractiveness and how he'd be well off minus a disabled wife. Was a suspect. Nurse Carstairs: Mrs. Pritchard, envious and paranoid, dismissed her. Attractive, young woman who shared many interests with Mr. Pritchard. Zarida was allegedly suggested by her. Mr. Pritchard said his wife was a real pain because of her high standards. He wouldn't let his wife leave the home until the third full moon had passed. On the afternoon of his wife's death, he was observed preparing pesticides in the garden shed. Before she died, he was seen offering his wife a warm drink of milk. Was the most likely perpetrator and was in police custody. Detective Elements Agatha Christie's Cozy Detective "The Blue Geranium" The Cozy detective is the finest type of detective work since it is done only by the cognitive capacity of the investigator to pay attention to the clues and identify a connection, finding the solution. In the early tales, a distressed individual would bring their problem to the unlicensed detective, who would solve it, in this case, Jane Marple is an amateur consulting detective who resides in St. Mary Mead and works as a private investigator on the side. Despite the fact that this detective isn't formally trained as one, the community knows them for their knack for solving crimes. For this method to work, the investigator must have no previous knowledge of the crime, be an outsider, and not be a witness to it; they must also have never gone to the site of the crime. There's one more thing to keep in mind: the storyteller is always telling the truth. The speaker in real life is prone to forgetting facts, exaggerating, or outright lying when recounting a sequence of events; nevertheless, in this formula, the individual recounting the specifics of the crime provides all the essential information while being truthful. ‘ To solve the mystery, the investigator has to accept this as fact. Cosy detective fiction since Mrs. Pritchard’s death is not shown directly to the reader but narrated to us by the other characters ‘there was no violent ringing of a bell the next morning, Mrs. Pritchard usually woke about eight’ indicating that she had passed. The killer lives amongst them ‘"Oh no. Not Nurse Carstairs. Nurse Copling. You see, she had been there before, and very much thrown with Mr. Pritchard, who you say is an attractive man. I dare say she thought, poor thing--well, we needn't go into that. I don't suppose she knew about Miss Instow, and of course afterwards, when she found out, it turned her against him and she tried to do all the harm she could. Of course, the letter really gave her away, didn't it?" Miss Marple eventually discovers that the killer is Nurse Copling all along and she was also using her alias Zarida to manipulate and frighten Mrs. Pritchard telling her to beware of a days later, a letter arrives from the fortune teller that says “Beware of the Full Moon. The Blue Primrose means warning; the Blue Hollyhock means danger; the Blue Geranium means death.” Agatha Christie's "The Blue Geranium." Amongst the most popular authors of detective fiction is Agatha Christie. The chain of events happened in St. Mary Mead. Known for her mastery of plot, Agatha Christie has given us Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, two of the most well-known fictional investigators of all time. When you first meet Miss Marple, you may think she's an ordinary old woman, but that's exactly what draws you to her. Literary Elements Setting The story is set in Gossington Hall in St. Mary Mead in and Colonel Arthur Bantry and Dolly Bantry’s house, a party was hosted there. Characters Miss Marple, a detective novelist: Jane Marple, an old woman from the English hamlet of St. Mary Mead, is the protagonist of the Miss Marple mystery series. As an average elderly woman, she dresses in tweed and is often seen knitting or weeding her yard as she seems to do. She may come off as "fluffy" or bewildered, yet Miss Marple has an unparalleled grasp of human nature with all its flaws and virtues as well as idiosyncrasies and shortcomings when it comes to solving puzzles. A detective tale trope has her solving crimes that "professional" cops are unable to solve. Sir Henry Clithering. The former Commissioner of Scotland Yard. He's Dermot Craddock's godfather and a long-time friend of Elizabeth Temple's. Colonel Arthur Bantry, husband of Dolly Bantry was a close friend of Jane Marple's. The discovery of a corpse in his library, along with the ensuing suspicion in the community, had a profound effect on this sensitive but verbally impaired man. Arthur Bantry had a keen interest in his family farm, particularly the pigs, and was a well-known figure in the community, serving in a variety of leadership roles. Dolly Bantry, who is the wife of a Colonel in the British Army. Her residence was Gossington Hall in St. Mary Mead, where she shared her life with her husband. Dolly's priorities in life were her husband and her garden, but those priorities didn't always line up. Dr. Lloyd is a St. Mary Mead physician and a Tuesday Night Club member. In light of his efforts to the Tuesday Night Club, Lloyd had a remarkable amount of energy and adventure in his life before settling in St. Mary Mead. Having set up practise in St. Mary Mead, he no longer has to leave the town for thrills and chills since as the local general Practitioner, he is always involved in solving the many murders that keep village life interesting. Jane Helier: Members of the Tuesday Night Club, including actress Jane Helier, participate in social activities together. She seems to be dumb, yet she devises a complex scheme to woo the guy she loves. Mary Pritchard was George Pritchard's wife in the tale The Blue Geranium. She was a frail, ailing lady who could be a real pain. A Zarida paid Mary a visit and advised her to stay away from flowers with blue petals. It became out that she'd been given cyanide as a killer. Mr. George Pritchard George Pritchard was the name of Mary's husband in the short tale "The Blue Geranium." Golf is something he does often, occasionally with Jean Instow. Nurse Copling the nurse who looked after her Mary was named Nurse Copling. Nurse Copling killed Mrs Pritchard by adding cyanide to the smelling salts she was using on her. Nurse Carstairs: Mrs. George Pritchard's ill wife, Mary, was cared for by Nurse Carstairs. Nurse Carstairs was fired, and Nurse Copling was brought in to replace her at some point following the events that led to Mary's demise. George Pritchard's companion Jean Instow said that the Carstairs was lovely and sympathised with Mary's husband's situation. The nurse and Mary got into a fight about this, and she was fired as a result. Initially, it was presumed that she had recommended Zarida to Mrs. Pritchard; but, when interrogated by authorities investigating the death of Mrs. Pritchard, she lied about knowing anything about the fortune teller. Zarida's identity was subsequently revealed to be Nurse Copling, who presumably recommended her to others. For obvious reasons, she probably made up the Carstair suggestion part. Jean Instow is a close companion of George Pritchard's. Jean was drawn to George and appreciated his love to Mary Pritchard, his ailing wife. In her eyes, he was deserving of some kind of prize. Jean was unconcerned when Arthur Bantry informed her about Mary's fear that the blue flowers on her wallpaper were a sign of impending doom. She had informed Bantry that if Mary died of terror, it may be for the best. Arthur Bantry described Jean as a lovely young lady with "healthy skin, and beautiful steady blue eyes," according to him. She was a golf enthusiast, too, much like George Pritchard. According to Bantry and his spouse, if the stars had aligned differently, Jean and George would have been a perfect couple. Even though Jean and George had an undeniable chemistry, Miss Marple ruled out the idea that their relationship had any role in Mary's murder. They'd undoubtedly been suspicious of one another and avoided one other's company. Plot Introduction: It has been a year since Sir Henry Clithering visited Colonel Arthur Bantry and his wife Dolly at St. Mary Mead. When Dolly asks for his opinion on who should be the dinner's sixth guest, he suggests Miss Marple and informs an amazed Dolly about her accomplishment in solving mysteries the year before. Rising Action: George Pritchard's late wife was an unpleasant and cantankerous semi-invalid, according to Arthur Bantry, and she was cared for by a series of nurses, as is common with semi-invalids. Their patient's tantrums and complaints were handled better by one particular nurse, Nurse Copling, than by the others in her profession. One day, when George and Nurse Copling were out on different business, Mrs Pritchard invited a fortune teller named Zarida to her home, which she promptly turned down. When Mrs. Pritchard returned home, she informed George that Zarida had proclaimed the house to be "evil," and that he should eschew blue flowers. Two days later, the fortune-teller’s letter comes in the mail with the warning: "Beware of the Full Moon. The blue primrose symbolises caution, the blue hollyhock represents danger, and the blue geranium represents death. Four days later, under a full moon, one of the primroses in the wallpaper pattern in Mrs. Pritchard's room turned blue in the middle of the night. Mrs Pritchard had been counting down the days until the next full moon for almost a month at that point. Despite the fact that the door was closed, the same thing occurred to a Hollyhock on the wallpaper, altering its colour. Climax: With Nurse Copling and Pritchard becoming more anxious, Mrs. Pritchard now seems to be to be resigned as yet another month went by. Mrs Pritchard was discovered dead in her bed the day after the next full moon, with her smelling salts next to her, a slight gas smell in the room, and a geranium on the wallpaper that had gone blue. After the death, there was speculation and an exhumation, but the outcome remained unclear. In addition, Zarida had vanished without a trace, and no one knew how Mrs Pritchard had come to learn about her. Falling action: Fortunately for the reader, Miss Marple has the answer. The combination reminded her of smelling salts after she saw a gardener use cyanide of potassium and water to kill wasps. The cyanide in the bottle Mrs Pritchard usually kept would kill her if she drank it, but no traces would be left behind if she did. While the almond fragrance lingered, it was quickly obscured by the scent of gas. The flowers on the wall were made of red litmus paper, which became blue when exposed to the ammonia in the genuine smelling salts. Nurse Copling, posing as Zarida, executed out all of this in the vain intention of wanting to marry Mr Pritchard when his wife died. Resolution: In accordance with Sir Henry's knowledge, Nurse Copling was notably detained on suspicion of a similar crime. Mr. Pritchard and Miss Instow in suspicion of each other keep apart and Miss Marple ends the story on yet another solved mystery. Conflict The types of conflict in this story includes; Person vs. person, in this case Mrs. Pritchard vs. virtually all the characters in this story from the nurses "A succession of hospital nurses was always passing through the house, Mrs. Pritchard usually becoming dissatisfied with them after a few weeks. One young nurse had been very keen on this fortune-telling stunt, and for a time Mrs. Pritchard had been very fond of her. Then she suddenly fell out with her and insisted on her going. She had back another nurse who had been with her previously--an older woman, experienced and tactful in dealing with a neurotic patient.” To her husband “She complained from morning to night. George was expected to wait on her hand and foot, and everything he did was always wrong, and he got cursed for it. Most men, I'm fully convinced, would have hit her over the head with a hatchet long ago.” The second conflict is person vs. self/supernatural, Mary Pritchard had a knack for superstitious things "I don't quite know how this business started. George was rather vague about it. I gather Mrs. Pritchard had always had a weakness for fortune-tellers, palmists, clairvoyants anything of that” Dolly Bantry says talking about Mary’s obsession with supernatural/spiritual beliefs. She is so obsessed with these fortune tellers that she begins to fear for her life when a fortune teller tells her that her house is ‘evil’ and that she should avoid blue flowers saying, ‘blue flowers are fatal to you-remember that.’ This gives her such a fright that she starts waiting for her death and counting down the days. She eventually overcomes her fear and becomes resigned to her faith, accepting the fact that she’s going to die soon. Person vs. nature Mary fights against death and the inevitability of it, which is part of nature and although her life was forcefully and unknowingly taken from her, she was fighting and avoiding her death until the last day she gave in and accepted it. Point of View The point of view of this detective fiction is from the third person limited omniscient since the story is told by narration from the people who were at the event and from their perspective such as Colonel Bantry "Arthur," said Mrs. Bantry, "you're boring poor Jane to distraction. Leave horses alone and tell her your ghost story instead. You know… George Pritchard” and Dolly Bantry “she was a dreadful woman” she says referring to her memories of Mary during the time of her death. Themes and literary devices Superstition is a big theme in this story as it is seen to deeply affect not only Mary but everyone else in the house. Mrs Pritchard lives in fear of a psychic's message: blue primrose is a warning, blue hollyhock is danger, and the blue geranium is death. This message makes use of alliteration for the added effect of fear and suspense. Foreshadowing is also used "I have seen the future. Be warned before it is too late. Beware of the Full Moon. The Blue Primrose means Warning; the Blue Hollyhock means Danger; the Blue Geranium means Death.” This tells the characters in the story of the day that Mary dies and they should prepare, although Mary is worried her husband laughs at her and downplays it. The day comes and lo and behold her life is taken, though not by the ghost but by the Nurse Copling. If Mary hadn’t been so superstitious to begin with Zarida/Nurse Copling wouldn’t have taken such advantage of her, so therefore the first theme is superstition. The second theme I noticed was death. The plot of this story was based off of even though a psychic had warned this nasty, superstitious lady of her doom, she died of apparent terror, but a second death indicates that she was killed “the nurse [Nurse Copling] would change it for the real bottle [bottle of smelling salts switched out with bottle of cyanide], and she'd just turn on the gas a little bit to mask any smell of almonds[cyanides smell like almonds] and in case anyone felt queer”. Her death was met with relief "I remember Jean rather startled me with what she said next. She said, 'Well, that might be all for the best, mightn't it?' And she said it so coolly, in so matter-of-fact a tone” Mrs. Bantry describes the reaction others had to her passing. A hyperbole used by Mr. Bantry to describe Mary’s behaviour when she was alive ‘She complained from the morning to night’ and his distaste for her as well. Miss. Marple, the person who investigated Mary’s death was rather famous in this fiction because when Henry asked Mrs. Bantry if she knew of her, she responded with a rhetorical question ‘Know Miss Marple? who doesn’t?’ to emphasize their infamous local detective. The topic of conversation during the diner was Mary’s death, the whole plot was built around a limited omniscient narrated perspective of her passing. Therefore, the second theme is about death. Dishonesty and deceitfulness also play a big role. Copling disguises herself as Zarida to trick Mary and denies ever knowing that Zarida had existed even though she had been the one to give out the address. She betrays her oath as a nurse and ends up killing Mary by cyanide poisoning. Context This work was written in 1929 so the language used in this work is archaic as some words are used differently now, such as the word queer (meaning strange) used to describe Jean. Queer in modern day language refers to a sexual or gender identity other than heterosexual. In the gastrointestinal system, cyanide is quickly transformed to hydrogen cyanide, which is rapidly incorporated into the circulation. In haemoglobin molecules, cyanide displaces oxygen, which is used to carry oxygen from the lungs throughout the body. Cyanide may be given to cells throughout the body via this mode of transport. As soon as the cyanide enters the cell, it attaches to cytochrome-c oxidase, which then catalyses the last stage of oxidative phosphorylation (also known as aerobic metabolism) inside the mitochondria. By binding to the enzyme it stops all of the chemical processes that generate energy in the cells and causes them to die. Cyanide has a short half-life because of the extensive cell death it causes. Structure and Writing Style Agatha Christie's work begins with a lot of descriptive passages, but as the novel progresses, the emphasis shifts to conversation and human interaction. She keeps readers on the edge of their seats with succinct words and razor-sharp banter. Agatha Christie liked to start her tales with a murder and work her way up from there. The story starts off with Sir Henry Clithering conversing with his friend Mrs. Bantry ‘when I was down here last year’ then shifts to Mr. Bantry telling Jane about horses then prompted by his wife to talk about the murder of Mary Pritchard which they referred to as a ‘ghost story’. The story ends with a major plot twist revealing that the murderer was Nurse Copling all along and she had done it to someone else as well. Connections to Other Stories Christmas Bells by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen share similar themes of death with the blue geranium, though one is seen as patriotism (war) and the other as murder. The writing style in “The Purloined Letter” by Edgar Allan Poe shares similarities with the writing style of the blue geranium as the stories are both narrated from a limited omniscient third person perspective by the narrator of the main character, similarly to the blue geranium as the context of Mary’s demise is narrated to us. "The Purloined Letter" reads more like a play than a novel since it is nearly completely dialogue based. Dupin is the primary speaker in this scene. There is no dialogue in the book; instead, we are told what Dupin says via the narration. As with many of Poe's characters, Dupin is a fan of convoluted phrase constructions. A similar theme of dishonesty also arises in the purloined letter. A shovel is required to dig out "The Purloined Letter's" hidden truth. D—, G—, and Dupin (his little ruse with the muggers) are among the characters who engage in deceit throughout the tale (the green glasses). In fact, our narrator is a little evasive, which is understandable given his desire to be so vague about everything. Were we placed in the investigators' shoes by his withholding evidence—or did he simply want us to play detectives in a society that doesn't place much importance on finding out the truth? There are also similarities in A Scandal in Bohemia by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle similarly to Nurse Copling (Zarida), the frequent use of disguises in "A Scandal in Bohemia" conveys the idea that not everything is what it appears to be and that perceptions are not to be considered reliable. Everyone in the tale attempts to pass themselves off as someone else to obtain what they want with varying degrees of success; the accuracy of their disguises and their capacity to deceive others around them is a reflection of each character's mental prowess. “That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I prepare for the new role I have to play.” Within that scenario, Sherlock Holmes enlists Watson's help in carrying out his complex scheme. Despite his apprehensions, Watson is ready and eager to perform his "role to play." The investigator will wear yet another disguise to infiltrate Irene Adler's house. Foreshadowing is a literary device these stories share. Characters in the storey "The Five Orange Pips" get a mail containing five orange pips. These pips foreshadow those certain characters' demise. When Sherlock's employer John Openshaw, for example, receives this letter, he perishes in the process. Death by poisoning in both the blue geranium and “The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb” both by Agatha Christie. “A fortnight later Mr Bleibner died of acute blood poisoning, and a few days afterwards a nephew of his shot himself in New York.” The narrator explained the deaths by a ‘curse’. There are also similar themes of superstition as both stories surround supernatural forces “The ‘Curse of Men-her-Ra’ was the talk of the day, and the magic power of dead-and-gone Egypt was exalted to a fetish point.” And Mary’s paranoia when a psychic/fortune teller forewarned her of blue flowers. PART 2 The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle How would you compare and contrast the use of the literary element of foreshadowing in The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb by Agatha Christie and The adventure of the Blue Barnacle? Compare and contrast the setting of a scandal in bohemian and the adventure of the blue barnacle and how it affects the mood and tone? Are there any similarities between the crime solving methods of Miss Marple in the blue geranium and sherlock Holmes in the Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle? How does the background of the author of Ojibway nations and the author of The adventure of the blue carbuncle affect their writing style? Can you tell me how the theme of The adventure of the blue carbuncle relates to what makes us human? How does the time the story was written affect how language was used by the author? The Classic Semerack Case Can you compare the literary devices in both the classic semerack case and the Dulce et Decorum est and how they relate to coney their similar themes of death and war? Through your own interpretation, what concepts do you think the author is trying to convey? Using your current knowledge, can you compare and contrast the similarities between the antagonist in The Classic Semerack Case versus the adventures of the blue carbuncle? Can you compare and contrast the theme of oppression in Hillary Clinton’s women’s rights speech? Based of the context of this short story how does it affect the language used by the author? How does the backgrounds of the author of both the classic semerack case and the Dulce et Decorum est and explain the affect it had on the stories? Works Cited Christie, Agatha. “The Blue Geranium.” Brontecollege Sharepoint, 1923, brontecollege.sharepoint.com/sites/P4ENG4U/Class%20Materials/Unit%202/Assignment%20%20Panel%20of%20Experts/The%20Blue%20Geranium.pdf?CT=1634966902945&OR=ItemsView. Accessed 23 Oct. 2021. “The Armchair Detective the Blue Geranium, by Agatha Christie.” Slideplayer.com, 2013, slideplayer.com/slide/6646156/. Accessed 21 Oct. 2021.
