Strong Poison Dorothy Sayers Analysis

In the novel Strong Poison by Dorothy Sayers, Lord Peter Wimsey is introduced as a man who fits the mold of the generic and accustomed detective: he employs intuition and knowledge to solve a mystery. The history of detective novels has established a narrow definition of how a proper detective thinks and acts. This representation is based from the early beginnings of Edgar Allen Poe’s C. Auguste Dupin and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes and is still used even in current day. The role of a detective is frequently portrayed as an outsider who is abnormally intelligent, making him the sole individual capable of solving the crime, but also isolating him from the rest of society. With success comes self-assurance, and so the more accomplished

This benefit is frequently the main reason the detective is so successful in discovering what everyone else cannot. However, being an outsider can also be detrimental for the detective himself. For Wimsey, he believes that “An enforced inactivity will produce irritable symptoms in the best of men” (Sayers 179). Without work to accomplish, Wimsey feels restless and unfulfilled. This behavior ties into his need to be useful. Because detectives are commonly portrayed as outsiders who do not directly contribute to societal norms and functions, their self-worth and happiness are based on solving cases and thus contributing socially in a more discreet manner. Wimsey is no exception to this thought process, mentioning ‘That passion for being useful which attacks the best of us when we’re getting past our prime’ (Sayers 143). By choosing to solve Harriet’s case, he is putting himself in a position to be considered as useful again by societal terms. Typically, basing happiness off of success is not a problem for early 1900 detectives, as they were all shown to be easily victorious in solving their cases. However, Wimsey subverts the established detective trope of the time, which results in a portion of the book being dedicated to his inability to deduce the means of death and motive of the