A critical appreciation of Agatha Christie's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd | The Murder of Roger Ackroyd | English Literature

              A critical appreciation of  Agatha Christie's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd 

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie is a "detective fiction". This means that a serious crime committed. The crime is generally a murder or several murders. A detective is a person who is employed to find out the criminal. Agatha Christie has written more than seventy novels! she is called - 

" the queen of crime".

 Her famous novels are: 1. Murder on the link, 2. Murder on the orient express and many more. The important characters in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd are: 1. Dr. Sheppard, 2. Hercule Poirot, 3. Miss Marple, 4. Roger Ackyord, 5. Mrs. Ferrar and 6. Ralph. 

A "dictaphone" is used by the criminal Dr. Sheppard. The voice of Roger Ackyord is recorded before he is murdered. Roger Ackyord recorded voice is played after Roger Ackyord is murdered. The criminal Dr. Sheppard does this to hide his crime.

Let us understand the story of  The Murder of Roger Ackroyd in more detail. Roger Ackroyd has been murdered by Dr. Sheppard! He commits the murder because Roger Ackyord has come to know that Dr. Sheppard is responsible for the death of the widow, Mrs. Ferrar.

Dr. Sheppard was blackmailing the widow Mrs. Ferrar: 

               " Give me money or I'll tell the world you have killed your husband." 

The widow got tired of giving money to Dr. Sheppard. Out of frustration she committed suicide. In her suicide note she puts the cause of her death on Dr. Sheppard. Before her death she send her suicide note to her close friend Roger Ackroyd.

 Dr. Sheppard is Afraid. Roger Ackroyd can entangle Dr. Sheppard in a murder case. To be free,, from the criminal change of murder, Dr. Sheppard kill Roger Ackroyd. "Dr. Sheppard stabs Roger Ackroyd in the neck." Dr. Sheppard wants to put the blame of the murder on Ralph by putting Ralph's Shoe marks on the widow. 

The detective Hercule Poirot is intelligent. He is sure of the criminal. He asks Dr. Sheppard: 

                                      "Do you confess? or shall I call the police? " 

Dr. Sheppard confesses in writing. After that he commits suicide. His suicide note becomes the story of the novel. So he is the narrator of the story. Dr. Sheppard wants to give a moral to the world: "Don't be greedy." 

The credit for this note belongs to Prof. B.K. Mishra sir. There is a video of this note on Youtube. 

Comment if it helps you.