Content deleted Content added
|
|
|
==Literary function==
Ariadne Oliver does not function as a detective, even in the novel in which she appears without Poirot (''The Pale Horse''). In ''Cards on the Table'', she does interview some of the suspects, which in turn allows her to discover a hidden motive that even the police were unable to find; in ''Elephants Can Remember'', she again interviews witnesses, but none of the essential ones. On the surface, sheChristie appears to beuse usedOliver mainly for [[comic relief]] or to provide a [[deus ex machina]] through her intuitive or sudden insights, a function that is especially apparentas in ''[[Third Girl]]'', in which she furnishes Poirot with virtually every important clue, or in ''The Pale Horse'', where she inadvertently helpstips the investigators tooff determineabout the type of poison used to kill the murder victims, saving the life of another character.
However, beneath the surface of the stories, Ariadne Oliver is ain hiddenfact sourceChristie's oftool for getting hints and clues forto the reader. For example, in ''Dead Man's Folly'', Oliver creates a murder hunt and specifically tells Poirot that she has hidden "6 clues" to the solution in the game. In fact, Christie inserts 6 clues for savvy readers throughout the novel. In ''The Pale Horse'', Oliver states that she only writes about very "plain" murders, not anything supernatural -- "'just about people who want other people out of the way and try to be clever about it'." Of course, the solution to the murders is exactly that and not supernatural at all.
Further functions of Ariadne Oliver are to enable Christie to discuss overtly the techniques of detective fiction, to contrast the more fanciful apparatus employed by mystery authors with the apparent [[Literary realism|realism]] of her own plots, and to [[satirize]] Christie's own experiences and instincts as a writer.
|
