Analyzing Christie’s creative engagement with the short story genre in the Mr. Quin stories, this essay considers the specific constraints and possibilities afforded by this format.13 I argue that the short story genre allows Christie to explore differing constructions of femininity without being tied to specific a developmental or linear progression, a dimension which potentially contributes to challenging prescribed narrative plots for women. The Mr. Quin stories present a special part of Christie’s oeuvre, as reflected in her own assessment of these texts. Commenting that the Mr. Quin stories were her own personal favorites among her works,14 these short texts appear to have within them the concentrated intensity of Christie’s aesthetic vision and the questions of her contemporary time which preoccupied her. As Cook states: “The pleasure Christie gleaned from writing the Quin tales is vitally important to their appreciation…. Christie takes a step back from her conventional texts to analyse the nature of a detective.”15 These texts illustrate Christie’s use of the short story genre as an experimental format through which to explore contemporary questions and ideas related to gender. In this respect, her work bears many similarities to more canonical women short story writers traditionally regarded as modernists, such as Katherine Mansfield, who enjoyed literary status generally denied to Christie. For Christie, the short story provided a fertile imaginative space for the exploration and interrogation of crime and of femininity and its construction. As we shall see, these stories expose the patriarchal domination inherent in the heterosexual marriage plot, and strive to depict female characters seeking alternatives outside the confines of this plot which allow them to articulate their creative identities free of domestic responsibilities and constraints.
Woman as Object: “The Face of Helen”
Christie’s fascination with the complexities of femininity and its construction is at the heart of her Mr. Quin stories. In “The Face of Helen,” she examines the impact of cultural mythologies of femininity and power on women’s existence, problematizing cultural fear of female authority and seduction frequently associated with beauty and projected onto female characters in crime fiction and in society more generally. As Mary Evans states, commenting on the portrayal of female beauty in crime fiction: “young and attractive women … are often the victims of murderers. In this context, crime fiction identifies one of the schisms of western culture: its veneration for female beauty but the ancient fear of its disruptive possibilities.”16 “The Face of Helen” also examines the question of female beauty and objectification in its portrayal of the vulnerable Gillian. In this story, the protagonist and amateur detective Mr. Satterthwaite becomes fascinated by a young woman called Gillian West who he notices in the audience one night while at the opera in London. We learn of Satterthwaite’s admiration for Gillian’s extraordinary allure, which he likens to the mythical figure of Helen of Troy.17 Upon meeting Gillian, however, he learns that beneath her stunning looks she is an ordinary woman, troubled by two men who are competing for her affections, Philip Eastney and Charlie Burns. That same evening, after the performance has ended, their rivalry turns violent when the two suitors start brawling in the street. Satterthwaite chivalrously comes to Gillian’s assistance, and breaks up the fight between Philip and Charlie. Satterthwaite’s age and marginalized position sets him apart from the romance plot and enables him to gain the trust of all the characters in the story, including the would-be murderer. Furthermore, his role as confidante and companion to female friends and acquaintances, rather than a romantic lead or interest, is suggestive of his ambiguous masculine position within the texts. The role of outsider is a facet Satterthwaite shares with Christie’s other eccentric male detective figure, Hercule Poirot who, according to Sarah E. H. Moore, is “the clearest example of the detective-as-outsider.”18 Towards the end of the story, Satterthwaite saves Gillian from an attempt on her life by her jilted lover Philip, a brilliant but erratic scientist who has devised an ingenious way to murder her. Failing to accomplish his murderous mission, Philip drowns himself in the Thames at the end of the story.
Gillian’s beauty foregrounds the way femininity is performed and constructed within the scopic economy, and reflects the consequences of symbolic allusions to myth and powerful females. In its examination of constructions of feminine identity, power and the politics of appearance, “The Face of Helen” foregrounds the idea of performance and ritual through its use of setting. The opera represents a highly stylized and formal space centered on public spectacle. Satterthwaite’s perception of performance reinforces the story’s thematic focus on the dramatic, as he perceives his own role to be similar to playing a part in a theatrical performance. Self-consciously cultured in his tastes, he congratulates himself on the enjoyment he takes in mixing with great artists and the cultural elite, and is described as “an appreciator and a connoisseur of all the arts.”19 As well as being a cultural snob, Satterthwaite is a people-watcher and benign voyeur, and this activity is crucial to the story. Satterthwaite’s position reflects his ambiguous role within the text as desiring participant, detective and rescuer, with Gillian as a passive object. Christie’s portrayal of this process illustrates the way women are objectified, and their appearance a spectacle for male consumption. The story depicts the routine strategies Satterthwaite has devised in order to ensure maximum people-watching opportunities at the opera.20 These observations are key to reading Satterthwaite’s activity at the opera, and Gillian’s role within it. Cook comments on Satterthwaite’s capacity for heightened perception, stating that he “engages with that part of the psyche which is fundamental to his comprehension of events.”21 Christie describes him as “the gossip, the looker-on at life, the little man who … recognizes drama when he sees it, and is conscious that he has a part to play.”22 Christie’s reflections thus point to the highly strategic function and role for Satterthwaite within the Mr. Quin stories.
Christie’s critique of the scopic economy is central to “The Face of Helen” and its depiction of Satterthwaite’s gaze and of Gillian as a spectacle for consumption. This representation reflects John Berger’s discussions of female objectification and the male gaze. Berger’s ideas regarding these issues can be summarized as follows, “in the history of painting, the bodies of women are displayed for the proprietary claims of male viewers, and feminist studies of film confirm a similar representation of the female body for the male gaze.”23 In crime fiction the gaze often turns out to be dangerous or even deadly. While waiting for the performance to commence, Satterthwaite’s glance falls on Gillian’s head in the stalls circle, and he reflects: “There were, he knew, such faces in the world—faces that made history.”24 Helen of Troy is the mythical figure alluded to in Satterthwaite’s thoughts, as he reflects: “The face that launched a thousand ships.”25 These intertextual references reflect Satterthwaite’s knowledge of the arts. But these mythical allusions are also used to grant Gillian’s character greater symbolic power. When commended by Mr. Quin on his keen appreciation of beauty, Mr. Satterthwaite replies that he immediately recognized the exceptional charm of the young woman’s head. However, Satterthwaite perceives a deeper, more profound perfection in Gillian, suggesting an abstract, non-predatory appreciation of the human form as an object of perfection, rather than a sexualized commodity for consumption. He reflects: “Beauty! … Not charm, not attraction, nor magnetism … just sheer beauty.”26 Satterthwaite’s thoughts are a reflection of patriarchal culture and its association of charismatic and beautiful women with historic or mythical women possessing extraordinary power to command men, such as Cleopatra and Mary Stuart.27 Linking these associations to Gillian, Christie exposes the gap between mythic constructs and reality. The story suggests that Helen of Troy and other female figures of exceptional exquisiteness have been perceived as a threat to the status quo and the patriarchal order of male dominance, and were punished as a result. In this way, Christie’s story examines the parameters and definitions employed in patriarchal society to portray but most signi
ficantly diminish feminine influence.
Gillian’s vulnerability as a potential victim of crime is evident from the portrayal of her relationships with males. She is pursued by two young men of contrasting dispositions and fortunes. Charlie Burns, her fiancé, is a steady and reliable shipping clerk. The other, Philip Eastney, is a handsome, brilliant but unstable scientist who tried to use his connections to help Gillian in the music world. Charlie is presented as a safe option for Gillian, unlike Philip who she cares for “like a friend” but is not in love with.28 Philip’s appearance is suggestive of his volatility and passion—a capacity for violence which Gillian herself intuits. His irregular, dynamic face furthermore presents a contrast to Gillian’s classic beauty. It is the lack of regularity in Philip’s facial features and the refusal of his talents to be marshaled that suggest his malevolence and obsessive nature.29 Depicting the love triangle, Gillian and Charlie’s engagement and the traumatic experiences Gillian has endured at the hands of men due to her physical allure,30 the story incorporates features from both romance and crime fiction, highlighting how female characters are reduced to pawns in male rivalry. The threatening prospect of violent male rivalry is demonstrated in the image of Gillian’s two admirers fighting over her like dogs.31 Gillian’s victimization at the hands of men due to her physical perfection reflects Cathy Cole’s assertion that “beauty in crime novels is often a contributing factor to the female victim’s death.”32 Charlie explains: “Gillian’s had a lot of unpleasantness…. She’s a good-looker, as you can see, and—well, that often leads to trouble for a girl.”33 This threat later becomes manifest when Philip, on learning of Gillian’s engagement, attempts to murder her, offering her two gifts under the pretext of congratulating her on her engagement: a radio and a glass ornament. He instructs her to listen to the radio at a specific time when a famous opera singer is performing in the studio. It transpires that said opera singer is capable of hitting a unique glass-shattering note, and this will release the poison gas Philip has put into the glass ornament. The murder plot itself is constructed around the ritualistic dimension of performance. The striking appearance of the glass ornament given to Gillian by Philip echoes the story’s message of the dangers for women who are objectified and exploited because of their physical appearance.
In “The Face of Helen,” Christie employs the character of Gillian as a focal point for her investigation of the contradictions of femininity and power, and the challenges these pose to a conservative and male-orientated society which offers women few means for self-determination and agency. The story demonstrates that class and gender issues are both intertwined and central to the crime it portrays. “The Face of Helen” makes a number of references to social class and gender. Gillian’s class status is immediately discernible to Satterthwaite, who sees her as belonging to a new “arty” class, signaled by her clothing which is bohemian but affordable.34 Such social and artistic constructions of feminine beauty and sexuality are highlighted as contributing factors in the victimization of women. This can be seen in the story’s main themes of the construction of femininity and the visual. That this is a crux question in crime fiction is emphasized in Mary Evans’s assessment that
women’s beauty is written as embodying the potential for agency; a consistent theme suggesting throughout crime fiction that female beauty can both provide women with social and personal confidence and inspire men to exceptional actions.35
Throughout the story Gillian is subjected to the male gaze and is defined through that evaluation. These assumptions and values are shown to be enforced via enduring cultural myths and stereotypes which inform social and cultural judgment, such as the ancient Greek myth of Helen of Troy, in which a woman becomes the object of male desire and rivalry. Christie’s preoccupation with these questions in “The Face of Helen” demonstrates the thematic overlap between her work and modernist literary fiction by women writers such as such as Virginia Woolf. Gillian is portrayed as a modern woman from a modest social sphere, attempting to have friendships with men, who has artistic aspirations but lacks female friendships or any meaningful female relations. Alone and symbolically motherless, wholly reliant on male acceptance and protection, Gillian is vulnerable and anxious to please her male companions in return for their protection. “The Face of Helen” portrays the precarious process young women must negotiate, of establishing social and emotional boundaries through characters’ social status, modern clothing and artistic aspirations.
Female Victimhood: “The Bird with the Broken Wing”
Whereas in Christie’s “The Face of Helen,” the main female character escapes her murderer, though does not escape objectification, in “The Bird with the Broken Wing” female trauma and victimization are inexorable, as suggested by the story’s title. My discussion here focuses on Christie’s representation of femininity and trauma, the role of Satterthwaite in negotiating crime and imagery in the story. In “The Bird with the Broken Wing,” Satterthwaite spends the week-end at a country house party, but finds that he is not enjoying himself and is missing his London home comforts. Sat in his armchair by the fire, he feels an outsider at the party, marginalized from the youthful company because of his age and bored by the “monotonous” séance game played by the young partygoers at the country house.36 When he receives an invitation from his young female friend Madge Keeley to attend her party at another nearby country house, Laidell, Satterthwaite leaves to join her party. Here, he learns of Madge’s engagement to Roger Graham and meets an enchanting woman called Mabelle Annesley. When Mabelle is found hanged the next morning, Satterthwaite’s assistance is required to in order to reveal that her death was not suicide, and to help identify her killer. The murderer turns out to be Madge’s father, an intellectually gifted man who is a bystander, overlooked in his own household.
The traditional country house setting so frequently associated with Golden Age crime fiction is employed in “The Bird with the Broken Wing” in order to focus on the positioning of female trauma inscribed within that locus. In this story, Christie imbues the country house setting with a sense of claustrophobia to illustrate young women’s entrapment and relative powerlessness within the patriarchal class structures symbolized by such estates. The country house is an oft-maligned location in crime fiction. Alison Light has argued that is suggests “ancestry, settled traditions and kinship.”37 “The Bird with the Broken Wing” exploits the claustrophobic nature of the country house by foregrounding the idea of caged entrapment associated with the bird motif in the story’s title. The country house location enables Christie to pose questions related to class, status, rank and authority, and to specifically foreground the position of those individuals marginalized by or rendered invisible within that setting. Reaffirming the status quo, the country house becomes a locus for compromise and unhappy marriages, isolation, abjection and rage.
This is demonstrated in the extended description of the owner of Laidell, the murderer David Keeley. Keeley is depicted as “invisible” despite his great intellect. An exceptionally gifted and intelligent mathematician, he is nevertheless perceived by his surroundings as inconsequential, unattractive and lacking in charisma.38 Keeley is the master and owner of the stately home, yet paradoxically this status does not grant him social visibility or acknowledged authority and respect. With this character, Christie examines the figure of the invisible and marginalized male who acts out in rage. Similarly to Eastney in “The Face of Helen,” Keeley in “The Bird with the Broken Wing” represents the character of the male genius who sets himself apart through his intellectual prowess, a quality which becomes excessive to the culture that surrounds him, and thereby renders him a threat to the status quo. In both stories, it is his murderous intervention which is at the center of the crime plot. Similarly, in both stories, these male figures act as alter egos to Satterthwaite, embodying the darkness and rage his benevolence negates.
“The Bird with the Broken Wing” uses dichotomous description to highlight the contra
dictions of femininity as a construct, and to illustrate the way in which women are pitted against one another in patriarchy, rivaling one another for male approval and attention. The female characters Madge and Mabelle represent the emotional and sexual implications of conformity. Keeley’s daughter Madge constitutes a contrast to her “invisible” father, and is described as “a fine upstanding young woman, bursting with energy and life. Thorough, healthy and normal, and extremely pretty.”39 Madge’s conformity is founded on a pragmatic approach to heterosexual relations and marriage. Adhering to convention and accepting marriage as her fate, Madge’s engagement to Roger Graham is an act of pragmatism based on practicality. However, it turns out that, in the longer term, Madge may risk a fate similar to that endured by Mabelle, trapped in a stale marriage and seeking passion with Roger, Madge’s fiancé. Describing the two women to Satterthwaite, Roger’s contrasting perceptions are evident in the clichéd language he uses to describe his feelings for them. He declares himself to be “fond” of Madge, referring to her as “a good sort,” well-suited to him. In contrast, he has trouble depicting his feelings for Mabelle and finally resorts to using words such as “enchantment.”40 Madge depicts her relationship with her fiancé in unromantic terms as a “safe” choice. Their relationship is evidently based on a notion of shared interests and pursuits, rather than passionate abandon.41 Satterthwaite’s own assessment of the young couple confirms them as “good healthy sociable young folk.”42 In having opted for a relationship based on social and class compatibility, Madge and Roger reflect Makinen’s point that Christie “depict[s] a whole range and diversity of femininities and masculinities that form workable relationships.”43 In “The Bird with the Broken Wing,” Christie shows Madge seeking to evade dependency and victimhood, by choosing a common-sense marriage which presents a “workable” arrangement of compatibility. Like Gillian in “The Face of Helen,” Madge’s choice of relationship reflects her determination to remain free of all-consuming emotional and sexual involvement. Madge’s rejection of a relationship of destructive passion and prioritizing a “workable” marriage, make her a survivor and enable her to retain a measure of agency and control, in a setting which would otherwise seek to diminish her influence.
The Ageless Agatha Christie Page 10