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Elephants Can Remember Essay

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The aim of this assignment is to provide a study of Agatha Christie’s signature work Elephants Can Remember, which features detective Hercule Poirot and crime novelist Ariadne Oliver, as a brilliant piece of detective fiction involving the significance of oral testimony, the concentration on memory and the portrayal of characteristics of identical twins. The plot revolves around the mystery murders of the Ravenscroft couple whose bodies were found shot dead on a cliff without any evidence except the gun which had their fingerprint on it to act upon, which leaves both the internal characters as well as the readers immersed in pure suspense until the very end of the novel. The story begins with a literary luncheon of which Mrs. Oliver is a part, …show more content…

Ravenscroft, who despite being attacked and injured by her twin sister, is the personification of forgiveness. When she died, Mr. Ravenscroft and Mrs. Zelie placed her body at the bottom of the cliff so as to make it appear as if it was Dolly who fell off the cliff and died. It was his, as well as Mrs. Zelie’s promise to Molly that they wouldn’t let anyone else know the truth behind these incidents. This made them suffer in silent pain for three weeks, at the end of which Mr. Ravenscroft came up with a plan, to dress up Dolly exactly like Molly, take her out for a walk towards the cliff and unveil the dual murder scheme without anyone else’s knowledge. Mr. Ravenscroft died and hence Mrs. Zelie was the only essential door through which this murder case could be solved since she was the only one remaining who knew what exactly had happened on those fateful days for the Ravenscrofts. Even though Mrs. Zelie is not emphasised upon much in the early parts of the novel, one comes to know that she is the vital key towards solving the case, as she is the sole individual who is in possession of the hidden facts of what actually happened on those two

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