Agatha Christie, one of the three precursors of the detective literature, is famous for the breathtaking plot, unexpected ending and vivid characterization in her works. During her fifty-five years’ writing career, Agatha created 87 detective novels in total and was honored as“the queen of crime”. Meanwhile, Agatha lived in twentieth century, a period featuring booming feminism. In such a background, Agatha Christie, as a female writer, would be influenced inevitably by the burgeoning ideology. All of the influences can be traced in her writing, especially in the aspect of female image-building. To be specific, Agatha broke the traditional style of detective novels in which males rather than females are in the spotlight and are able to commit various crimes. In Agatha’s writing, nearly half of detective novels emphasized on female crime. And females were no longer subsidiary roles because they begun to possess the criminal ability as much as males. Those females were as intelligent, brave and ambitious as males. With various motivation , they will take the role of offender without any hesitation, which can be seen as a protest to that patriarchal society. However, in that conservative British society, it was impossible for Agatha to get rid of patriarchal influence. Therefore, the feminist consciousness shown in Agatha’s writing is limited and contradictory. Through the analysis on the motivation of female crime, this paper will reveal the limited awakening of feminist consciousness in Agatha’s works under the influence of deep-rooted male discourse.

Review of related essays:

1. The Analysis of Agatha Christine’s Contradictory Feministic View

   Review: Agatha Christine broke the traditional writing pattern for detective stories which focuses on the detectives, presenting to us her feminine consciousness. However, under the pressure from the male-dominating society, she was inevitably influenced by outer world. Taking the example of Endless Night, the essay analyzed the contradictory feministic view of Agatha Christine. On the one hand, Agatha softened conventional unyielding detective image and created various female criminals who are as intelligent and ambitious as the male. This aspect shows the awakening of feminine consciousness. On the other hand, those female criminals are often seen as aggressive and evil women. In Endless Night, the female criminal Gretta ended up with being killed, which reflects that the powerful females are regarded as a kind of threat in the male-dominated society. From this aspect, we can see that Agatha’s works unconsciously play the role of spokesman for the male speaking right.

2. Comparison of female criminal between Endless Night of Agatha Christine and Into The White Night of Tolo KuiWu

   Review: Endless Night and Into The White Night are the most representative works in detective novels. Among all of the female criminal images, Gretta and Tang Zexue hui are the representative personages of evil women. This paper made a comparison between the two characters and searched the similarity of female criminals in different ages then probed human nature.

3. Discussion on the Female Characteristic of Agatha’s Novels under the Male-dominated Culture

   Review：As a female writer instead of a feminist, Agatha Christine has not awakened to

the fact that women should subvert the male-dominated society, but her female characteristics do give her unparallel advantages over the contemporary male writers. Agatha’s female subtlety provides a new view for the plot construction in detective stories; the maternal experiences in her novels displays the predestined tendency of human spirit; the minor love story line brings readers hope for the positive human nature. Through the analysis of Agatha’

s distinctive female characteristics in the novels, this essay revealed her enduring artistic appeal.