ПК 1 Англ яз 3,4 семестры / RECIPE FOR MURDER

The text under analysis headlined “Recipe for murder.” The author is C.D. Donnel, JR. There are two main characters in the story: Madame Callahan, in her forties, a rich widow, who lost her husbands, and Inspector Minor, about 44, from the Paris police. The text presents a blend Of a detective Story, as it deals with murdering, and a story of characters, as it depicts meaningful characters. "Recipe for murder" embraces the principal theme of the criminal investigation and the theme of men-women relationship. The text is presented in chronological order, since all events occur in a logical order.

Inspector Minor pays a visit to Madame Callahan, who is suspected of murdering her two husbands, to reveal her. During the conversation Madame Callahan confesses to having committed the crime. Charmed by her wisdom and finesse beauty, Inspector invites her to the casino. The climax lies in the episode, where the emotional strain reaches the peak, at the moment where the woman forced the men to eat until they died.

With the help of the allusion the author helps us to form the opinion of this woman. Then he uses the antinomian and the allusion "A Minerva of a woman" to hint us about her wisdom. Indeed, she is wise, she is cool-blooded, she is prudent She attacks first to become the master of the situation. It is obvious in her phrases with the epithets: 'With a tiny smile now: You have called about my poisoning of my husbands," she stated flatly.

Her manner to speak (flatly, placidly, her tone, just short of caressing) reflects her good breeding and noble background. All this confused the inspector, so she subdued his mind and charmed him.

She thinks she has the right to kill someone disgusting for the common good. Her first line is full of emotionally colored words and epithets to emphasize her hatred and irritation towards exhusbands.

For the same purpose, the author used a metaphor and a hidden comparison in the statement "M. Weiser was a pig." The antithesis reflects her confidence in her rightness. Thus, the description of her husbands, replete with metaphors, epithets, culmination reflects her erudition and sophistication. These stylistic techniques also reflect her desire to justify herself, because despite the fact that she is confident and reserved, she is unconcerned about the judgments and decisions of the inspectors. Her reaction, described in emotionally colored words, betrays her true feelings.

At that time, the detective resists the temptation of Madame. A real detective should be smart, restrained, calculating. However, in this story it became easy to unsettle him.

All this leads to the idea that these two characters are quite consistent with each other, so the inspector would not mind staying with her.

It is necessary to mention that both of killed husbands the woman didn’t choose herself. Her parents made her to get a marriage.

I think that the end of the story is open, because it seems to me that she did not literally fatten her ex-husbands, but put poison in them, which gradually killed them. Perhaps that's why she can't be called a person who killed people on her own.