Psychology， Crime and Detection： An Analysis of Tape—Measure Murder

【Abstract】Agatha Christies Tape-Measure Murder is a crime story. It related a story about how Miss Marple， a woman detective， successfully solved a case through psychological and womens cognitive advantages. This paper mainly analyzes the process of solving the case and concludes that any criminal is human being and limited by the psychological element.

【Key words】psychology； crime story； detection

Ⅰ. Introduction

Agatha Christie was a British crime writer of novels， short stories and plays. Her works， particularly featuring such detectives as Hercule Poirot or Miss Jane Marple， have given her the title of the “Queen of Crime”. Christie has been called the best-selling writer of books of all time and the best-selling writer of any kind， along with William Shakespeare. Only the Bible is known to have outsold her collected sales roughly four billion copies of novels.

The case happened in the countryside when Miss Politt， a dressmaker， knocked the door of her customer， Mrs. Spenlow according to their appointment at the three-thirty in the afternoon. However， there was nobody to answer the door， when Miss Politt prepared to knock the door again， she saw Miss Hartnell and consulted her whether she happed to know Mrs. Spenlow was at home. Then they went together to check Mrs. Spenlows house and found she was dead through the window. The police were suspicious it was done by the deceaseds husband， Mr.Spenlow. After a series of analysis and survey， Miss Marple， a neighbor and woman detective， proved that Mrs. Spenlow was murdered by Miss Politt because they were mixed in one jewel robbery years ago.

Ⅱ. A Crime Fiction

Crime fiction is the genre of fiction that deals with crimes， their detection， evildoers involved and their motives. Some critics regard detective fiction a subgenre of crime fiction， while others hold that detective fiction is a logical and reasonable development of crime fiction， focusing upon the solution of crimes. Detective story， a kind of procedural writing， normally answers such questions as whodunit， howdunit and whydunit. The motives， the murderer and how she/he did it.

Tape –Measure Murder was a crime story written by Agatha Christie and the criminal was a dressmaker， who used her tape measure to kill her customer and once-partner in a jewel robbery.

Ⅲ. Case Analyses

From the title of the story， Tape-Measure Murder， readers may not know what really happened and how the tape-measure could kill people. They may imagine that the suspect may make use of a kind of tape-measure to kill someone. When readers begin to read they will find that， Miss Politt， a dressmaker， may have something with the murder； however， it was she who found there was nobody answered the door in Mrs.Spenlows house. Therefore， no one would suspect that the murderer may be Miss Politt. People normally would suspect the most possible and closest one after a murder. So Mr.Spenlow was the the most suspicious one after a series of detection. Mr.Spenlow， the husband of the deceased， had no motive for the murder and he had alibi， too.

From the discovery of the pin in the body of the deceased， Miss Marple suspected that it was done by Miss Pollit， who had some connections with Mrs.Spenlow， since they robbed their hostess when they were her maids and they got their shares of emeralds and became rich. However， Mrs.Spenlow was lucky to keep her rich and Miss Politt lost it， they met each other by accident in the village where Mrs. Spenlow lived after a few years， Miss Politt worried that she would be put into prison and decided to kill her even though Mrs.Spenlow didnt recognize her.

According to Freuds theories， three structures of personality： Id， Ego， and Superego are important in human beings actions. The id is the source of all our aggressions and desires. The ego is the rational governing agent of the psyche. The ego lacks the strong vitality of the id. The superego， largely unconscious， is moral censoring agency. The id is dominated by the pleasure principle， the ego by the reality principle and the superego is dominated by the morality principle. We might say that the id would make us devils， and that the superego would have us behave as angels. Therefore， Miss Politt committed the crime under the control of id. Miss Marple solved the case step by step because she was familiar with Miss Politts psychology in a womans cognition.

3.1 The first step

After the discovery of the crime， Miss Marple was interviewed by Police Costable Palk， Miss Marple told the police that she knew Mrs.Spenlow was found lying on the floor in the sitting room strangled-possible by a narrow belt. During the interview， she found a pin in Constable Palks tunic. This pin was a hint about who murdered Mrs.Spenlow. Miss Marple concluded that the pin was not an ordinary one in womans eye.

3.2 The second step

The police questioned Miss Marple if she called Mr.Spenlow to come over at a quarter past three， since she was anxious to consult him about something. But Miss Marple denied it and she told the Constable that she didnt call him at any time that day. So the police suspected Mr.Spenlow might lie and be the criminal. On the other hand， Mr.Spenlow never showed a sign of grief or emotion after his wife died was suspicious too. So the police were sure it was Mr.Spenlow who killed his wife. This might be a red herring and the real murderer could hide her/his crime.

The first motive was that the husband might murder the wife for money， when the police discovered that Mrs.Spenlow had been her husbands moneyed partner， and that her money went to her husband under a will made soon after their marriage.The second motive was his jealousy. The police learned that Mrs. Spenlow was infatuated with a young man， Ted Gerard and she even lent him quite a lot of money. So the husband might murder his wife for mans jealousy.

Therefore， they thought the husband pretended to get a phone call and made it as an alibi for the absence. Miss Marple confirmed that the phone call was made at the post office after her survey.

3.3 The third step

The police learned that the late Mrs. Spenlow had begun life as a between maid in a large house， then married the second gardener and with him had started a flower shop in London. After the death of the gardener， she enlarged the shop and sold the business at a handsome price and married with Mr.Spenlow， a middle-aged jeweler. The Inspector Slack reminded that the deceased started her career in the place where the jewel robbery took place.

It was the first time that Miss Marple suspected Mrs.Spenlow had had some relevance with the jewel robbery. Miss Marple went to post office at two-thirty and found there were a few minutes that Miss Politt was alone there. So she deduced that the phone call was made by Miss Politt in the post office. According to the jewel robbery， Miss Marple concluded like this： the pin picked up from Mrs.Spenlows body was a special one， normally used by dressmakers according to her woman cognition. Therefore， she deduced it was Miss Politt who killed Mrs.Spenlow.

Her motive for the murder was they were mixed in the jewel robbery， very valuable emeralds. Then they met again by accident in this small village and Miss Politt was afraid to go to prison for the robbery she committed years ago and made up her mind to stop it all.

Ⅳ. Conclusion

As we know， different detectives solved the cases in different ways. For example， Sherlock Holmes solved the case by appearing a kind of intellectual Nietzschean superman in his ability to make amazing deductions； Father Brown solved the cases in a moral and religious way； Miss Politt solved the cases by her womans intuition and psychological analysis.

References：

[1]Yuan Honggeng，Wei Xiaoxu，Feng Lili，The Detective Story： Works and Criticism.Beijing：Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press，2016.

[2]W.L.Guerin，A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature，Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press，2012.

[3]Zhu Gang，Twentieth Century Western Critical Theories， Shanghai，Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press，2001.

[4]剡科斗.心理，犯罪和偵探-對《高爾頓和喊叫的男孩們》的分析解讀[J].青春歲月，2014（13）：14-15.

作者簡介：張麗平（1982.4-），女，漢族，吉林榆樹人，蘭州大學外國語學院在讀碩士，蘭州外語職業學院講師，主要研究方向：英語語言文學。