Agatha Christies novel “Murder is Easy” awakened me to the different perspectives of justice, in which I find most intriguing in the book. Honoria Waynflete was so insane in the head she led herself to believe she was being just. In comparing this to Luke, who is a detective, he is literally down there to solve the crime and figure out the murder as his sense of justice. What I find interesting about this is why he chose to do that. He had no connection to anyone in this small town other than meeting a little old lady from the town, yet he decided to go there to solve a crime that could be all tales. This makes me wonder why he would do that. Does gaining justice give him a sense of good doing or was he just bored and found a task like this entertaining? Because then if you look at it, Luke began his trip using the misfortune of a small town to fuel his fun so why is he the good guy? Lord Whitfield, on the other hand, believes God is the conductor of justice and that he is eternally good so whenever anyone does wrong by him they are bad. “ God kills people that do him harm, dispensing diving justice upon wrongdoers”
As the death’s start occurring in the town they follow this theme of having offended Lord Whitfield so he believes that their deaths are justice and it is their fault for offending him, so they have brought their deaths upon themselves. “The righteous men’s enemies are struck down! Look yesterday. That fellow abuses me … And what happens? Where is he today? … Dead!” Lord Whitfield explains how justice is a force of life and if you are good and almighty God will make sure your enemies fall. All their three different beliefs come under justice, and they each hold their own opinion on what it is.
Luke initially thinks Mr Ellsworthy is the killer because of his mental instability. In life people often make assumptions about people based on their look, colour, background, upbringing, odd behaviour. Surely he must be crazy to do something like that is the thinking. Assumptions which are not always correct. If a person is badly dressed we often assume they are poor. If they are black, more likely to commit a crime? As males are statistically more likely to commit murder than a woman it is also natural to suspect a male before a woman So it is not surprising that Luke thinks this of Mr Elsworthy, However after listening to Lord Whitfield talking about God’s divine retribution, he changes his mind and suspects him instead.
Eventually, he discovers that in fact Honoria Waynflete is the real murderer and it was retribution for Lord Whitfield abandoning her and jilting her. In fact, she has encouraged the beliefs that Whitfield has about people dying by gods hand and at the same time trying to frame him for murder. A clever ploy and something that we see in real life, where one person prey’s on others weaknesses, messing with their mind.
I found this novel intriguing as you never hear anyone admit to murder is an easy thing to do. This concept shocks me as murder is hardly portrayed in this way, as such a simple deed, because it shouldn’t ever be and the fact that Ms Waynflete found it so easy is frightening to me. It shows she’s mentally corrupt and that people can be deranged to the point where they can kill lots of people without feeling anything and to me this is a whole new level of inhumanity that scares me knowing anyone could hold these traits.
The novel did not give any of this away till the very last chapters and much of the story was a suspenseful investigation that kept me intrigued trying to guess the murder along with Luke the detective. But what I learnt is that even though Ms Waynflete was old, batty and downright crazy, she was doing this as a revenge to send him to jail or get him sentenced to death. She felt she was doing the right thing and was serving justice by making Lord Whitfield suffer because he made her suffer. This is understood when Ms Waynflete explains her plans to Bridget, “He should suffer for committing a lot of crimes of which he was quite innocent. He should be a murderer! He should be hanged for my crimes.” Ms Waynflete revenge for Lord Whitfield jilting her, in her mind was her getting justice because she believed he was evil and patronised her so must get back at him. This is interesting to see as I learn that justice is a belief and if you were to look into her perspective it would seem like she is doing the right thing.
What I learnt from the characters is that the answer to what defines justice comes from only what you think. Someone who is mentally messed up is going to have a very messed up version of justice just like Ms Waynflete. What you chose to believe is just or fair is up to you even though justice is this supposed to be overruling concept of right or wrong, what murder is easy teaches us is that depending on the person their definition of justice is different.
I find this adaptability of justice frightening because the characters in this novel are so set on what they are doing is right and that stubbornness is what always causes problems in the real world. In the real world, we hear of mass shootings and the characteristics that most frequently occur in the person doing them are males who are often hopeless and harbouring grievances that are frequently related to work, school, finances or interpersonal relationships, feeling victimized and sympathising with others who they perceive to be similarly mistreated. They have an indifference to life and they believe that what they are doing is right or needs to be done. Revenge, justice, they don’t see that what they are doing is wrong.
If you actually think about it makes you question what is a right or a wrong or is there only an opinion and what you believe. It makes me doubt my own idea of justice, the things that I find acceptable, are they actually just? Or is it just the way that I have been brought up creating my opinion because that is all I have known? At the same time I am really glad that I do have beliefs about what is justice and right and wrong that I do have. I wouldn’t want to be the sort of person who was consumed with plotting revenge. The values that have been instilled in my family are what I believe to be good ones.
This story does suggest to the reader how easily the concept of justice could be reshaped and formed to suit an individual and without the presence of the law which creates the overall perception of what is just, then this term justice could mean anything and murder can even become justifiable – easy in fact.