Murder on the
Orient Express
Analysis Project
By: Alexis Smith and Judy Sia
Vocabulary words
1. Hymeneal - of or relating to marriage.
2. Pother - commotion/ disturbance.
3. Expenditure - expending something.
4. Rationalistic - reliance on reason.
5. Metaphysics - a branch on of philosophy.
Vocabulary continued..
6. Irremediably - impossible.
7. Pseudoscience - theory without scientific
foundation.
8. Cavorting - to prance about.
9. Delineation - draw or trace of an outline.
10.Verisimilitude - appearing to be true or
Van Dine's Classic Detective Rules
1. While solving the mystery, all the clues have to be clearly
described and all readers should have an equal
opportunity in solving the case.
2. Tricks and/or deceptions are only allowed to be set on
the reader if done so by the criminal on the detective.
3. The primary goal is to bring a criminal to justice without
any love interest.
4. The detective and official investigators should never end
up being the villain, this is just a display of deception.
5. The criminal of a case should always be decided by
logical facts and evidence, never by false accusations or
confessions.
6. An official detective must be present in a detective novel,
therefore fulfilling his duties to gather clue that lead to
the verdict of the case.
7. The crime must be nothing less than a murder.
8.The legitimate conflict in the story must always be
concluded by realistic method.
9. There must be only one official detective that concludes
the case so the reader can identify who the initial
protagonist is.
10. In the end, the criminal has to turn out to be someone
who played a salient role in the overall story.
16. The novel can not be too descriptive or have other
issues that have nothing to do with the crime committed.
17.He or she who has committed the crime in the novel
should never have a sense of guilt. Amateur criminals are
the police's problem, not a detective's.
18.The crime can't end up being an accident. That would
throw the reader off and would leave them dissatisfied.
19.The reason for a crime committed should have a
personal reason on why it was done. The reader should be
able to relate in a way.
20. The novel should have originality. It should not have
the typical things you read in many other novels such as
having evidence like catching a lie in a lie detector test or
figuring out a code or puzzle leading to the suspect.
Rule #3
3)."There must be no love interest. The business in hand is to bring a criminal to the bar of justice, not
to bring a lovelorn couple to the hymeneal altar."
Explanation:
Throughout Murder on the Orient Express, the official detective investigating the case, Poiriot, has no
love interest, which, according to Van Dine's rules, rule #3 describes the exact same thing. In any
detective story it is important for the main person in charge of the verdict of the case to stay
focused on what he/she is doing. If a detective is distracted by someone then obviously their full
attention is not on what it should be on, therefore they are not putting all efforts into finding the
accurate conclusion of the case. Although, he has a bit of a liking for willing-British women, he
doesn't let it distract him and it is never really serious enough to be called "love". In the beginning
of the story Mary Debenham catches his eye for a split moment and then in the rest of the novel
his love life is never really brought up.
From the book:
"She was, he judged, the kind of young woman who could take care of herself with
perfect ease wherever she went. She had poise and efficiency. he rather liked the
severe regularity of her features and the delicate pallor of her skin" (Christie 7).
Rule #7
7). “There simply must be a corpse in a detective novel, and the deader the corpse the better. No lesser
crime than murder will suffice. Three hundred pages is far too much pother for a crime other than
murder. After all, the reader's trouble and expenditure of energy must be rewarded.”
Explanation:
In Murder on the Orient Express, M. Ratchett is murdered by 12 different people. According to Van
Dine’s article, #7 states that the crime must be nothing less than a murder, which goes right along
with Agatha Christie’s novel. In the book, there is an entire chapter on foreshadowing leading up
to the murder inchapter 2. Poirot keeps hearing odd sounds and see’s suspicious people crossing
the halls the night of the crime. Below are specific examples of the odd behaviors.
From the book:
“Then came voices-the conductor’s deferential, apologetic; a woman’s insistent and
voluble” (Christie 34)
“He sprang up, opened it and looked out. Nothing. But to his right, some distance down
the corridor, a woman wrapped in a scarlet kimono was treating from him. At the
other end, sitting on his little seat, the conductor was entering up figures on large
sheets of paper. Everything was deathly quiet” (Christie 35).
Rule #8
8)."The problem of the crime must he solved by strictly naturalistic means. Such methods for learning
the truth as slate-writing, ouija-boards, mind-reading, spiritualistic se'ances, crystal-gazing, and
the like, are taboo. A reader has a chance when matching his wits with a rationalistic detective, but
if he must compete with the world of spirits and go chasing about the fourth dimension of
metaphysics, he is defeated ab initio."
Explanation:
Murder on The Orient Express relates very precisely to Van Dine's procedures in many ways, but
specifically to rule number eight. Rule #8 explains how the case must be solved in realistic means
and in a natural manner. Throughout Murder on The Orient Express, Hercule Poirot discovers
clues and evidence that is present to him on the train and uses those sources to conclude who is
and who isn't guilty of committing the murder. He interviews each and every passenger by
collecting their passports and tickets, and presents them with the evidence against them along
with asking them a series of questions, like their alibi that night and what their actions were
before going to sleep. Some of the passengers were acting odd during their interviews, but acted
like they knew absolutely nothing.
From the book:
"On the table in front of Poirot was a plan of the Istanbul-Calais coach with the names of
the passengers marked in red ink. The passports and tickets were in a pile at one
side. There was writing paper, ink, pen, and pencils" (Christie 69).
Rule #18
18)."A crime in a detective story must never turn out to be an accident or a suicide. To end an odyssey
of sleuthing with such an anticlimax is to hoodwink the trusting and kind-hearted reader."
Explanation:
Van Dine's rule number 18 goes right along with and agrees with Murder on The Orient Express.
Number 18 basically implies that in any crime in a detective case can never turn out to be an
accident or by someone committing suicide. When someone is murdered by someone else it
usually relates to revenge and justice because the killer usually had some type of connection with
the victim previously. In the book, twelve different people kill Ratchett because each and evey one
of them had a personal connection with the people that he had killed in the past, therefore
revenge. In the same since they fulfilled justice because they believed he deserved to die because of
the terrible things he had done to harmless people.
From the book:
"Well," said said, "you know everything now, M Poirot. What are you going to do about
i? If it must all come out, can't yoyu lat the blame upon me and me only?I would
have stabbed that man twelve times willingly. It wasn't only that he was responsible
for my daughter's death and her child's and that of the other child who might have
been alive and happy now. It was more than that: there had been other children
kidnapped before Daisy, and there might be others in the future Society had
condemned him- we were only carrying out the sentence But it's unnecessary to
bring all these others into it. All these good faithful souls-and poor Michel. And
Mary and Colonel Arbuthnot-they love each other..." (Christie 245).
Rule #13
13). “Secret societies, camorras, mafias, et al., have no place in a detective story. A fascinating and
truly beautiful murder is irremediably spoiled by any such wholesale culpability. To be sure, the
murderer in a detective novel should be given a sporting chance; but it is going too far to grant
him a secret society to fall back on. No high-class, self-respecting murderer would want such
odds.”
Explanation:
Van Dine’s rule #13 expresses how there should never be secret societies in a detective novel, which
goes against Christie’s murder story. IN Murder on the Orient Express, all of the killers had a
secret connection with the family that Ratchett destroyed. They were upset and hurt because of
what he had done to their loved ones. All of the 12 people who murder him knew and created a
plan to kill him. They all
From the book:
“....That led me to my scheme of ‘guessing’-that is, casting each person for a certain
part in the Armstrong drama much as a producer casts a play. Well, that gave me
Rule #13 continued..
From the book:
“When I had heard all the evidence, I leaned back and shut my eyes, and began to
think. Certain points presented themselves to me as worthy attention. I
enumerated these points to my two colleagues. Some I have already elucidatedSuch as a grease spot on a passport, and so on. I will run over the points that
remain. The first and most important is a remark made to me by M Bouc in the
restaurant car at lunch on the first day after leaving Stamboul-to the effect that
the company assembled was interesting because it was so varied- representing as
it did all classes and nationalities” (Christie 235).
Summary
The Murder On The Orient Express, a detective novel
written by Agatha Christie mostly does fit in with Van
Dine's rules. This novel wasn't like most detective stories
and had a lot of originality. Poirot, the detective in many
of Christie's novels, solves his cases using different
methods of psychology and observing with great detail.
He's not the typical detective who solves his cases with
ease. Poirot had to sit down and think a lot since the
crime was so well planned out and that there were 12
people who committed murder. Van Dine says that there
can only be one suspect, but Christie's novel is an
exception. The execution was well thought out and the
ending gave the reader two sides to pick from, whether it
was actual justice or vengeance. Christie's novel not only
had a great plot, but it also kept the reader guessing until
Works Cited
Christie, Agatha. Murder on the Orient Express. Toronto: Bantam, 1983. Print.
Van Dine, S.S. "Twenty Rules For Writing Detective Stories." American Magazine Sept.
1928: n. pag. Web.