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Why does Ratchett kill Daisy?
Ratchett, also known as Cassetti, kidnaps young Daisy from the wealthy Armstrong family and demands an extremely high sum in exchange for her return. When the family pays the ransom, they discover that Cassetti had already killed her. No direct explanation appears as to why exactly he commits this heinous crime, but Christie’s emphasis on his inhumanity throughout the novel implies that his inherent evilness, as well as a deep sense of greed, drove him to kill.
How does Poirot determine the passengers’ relationships to the Armstrong family?
After interviewing all of the passengers and searching their belongings, Poirot ponders the seemingly impossible crime and eventually comes to the conclusion that the passengers on the train all had ties to the Armstrong family. M. Bouc’s observation of the diversity among the group seems like a distinctly American phenomenon to Poirot, and this connection, along with his understanding of each person’s personality, enables him to “[cast] each person for a certain part in the Armstrong drama.” Poirot confirms his suspicions through another round of interviews in which his confident accusations lead numerous passengers to confess their true identity.
Who designed the plot to kill Ratchett?
In the final pages of the novel, Mrs. Hubbard, who is really the famous actress Linda Arden, explains that the group of twelve collectively decided that they must take action in order to avenge Daisy’s death. The two primary designers of the murder, however, were Mary Debenham and Hector MacQueen. They took Antonio’s initial suggestion of killing Ratchett together and, with their cool, level-headed attitudes, meticulously crafted every aspect of their plan, including how to get close to him and how to cover their tracks.
Why does M. Bouc decide to offer the false theory to the police at the end of the novel?
After Poirot describes both the real solution to the mystery as well as a false, less-incriminating one, M. Bouc decides that they should offer the false one to the police when they arrive. He and Poirot both seem to agree that the twelve passengers on the train were all justified in their collective killing of Ratchett, their vigilantism making up for the fact that he evaded formal punishment in the United States. By lying to the police, they protect the passengers from facing legal consequences for a crime which, by moral standards, was warranted.
How does Murder on the Orient Express defy the conventions of detective fiction?
Many of Christie’s works fall into the category of classic detective fiction, a subgenre which features an outside detective entering a clearly defined space to solve a crime and restore harmony to the community. While Hercule Poirot is a prime example of a classical detective character, Christie plays with the conventions of the genre by depicting a crime in which an individual, rather than a community, suffers. Instead, the collective murder of Ratchett restores the sense of order that vanished when Daisy Armstrong died. Switching the standard characteristics of the killer and the victim allows Christie to examine what justice really looks like.
