Analysis Of Recipe For Murder

Recipe for murder by C. P. Donnel

The title “Recipe for murder” gives much food for our thought and fancy, appeals to our imagination and emotions. It excites our interest and makes us think about what a recipe is? Generally recipe is a set of instructions you follow to cook something. It tells you your ingredients and the steps you have to follow to make something. When you read the title, you might think you will read a story that will detail the steps it takes the murder someone. So, the title says that the story may be connected with murder of someone step by step.
The text presents a blend of detective story with elements of a story of characters. The text embraces two themes: 1) investigation of murder; 2) relationship between men and women. The text touches upon eternal concepts of collisions between characters, men-women relations.
Compositionally the text falls into three logical parts.
The scene is laid in the middle of the 20th century (“deceased January 1939” and “ deceased May 1946”). The writer sets the action in France, because:
1) name of the characters ( Madame Chalon, Luchaire and so on);
2) name of the dishes (French cuisine);
3) the name of the town ( Villefranche);
4) the phrase of main character: “Murderess I may be, Inspector, but also a French woman”; “As I said I am from Paris”. The general atmosphere is breathtaking. After a chain of actions everything clarifies and the general atmosphere changes to promising and gripping.
There are two main characters: Inspector Miron and Madam Chalon
And two main characters: husbands of Madam Chalon M. Wesser and M.Chalon.
Inspector Miron pays a visit to Madame Chalon, a beautiful and alluring forty-year-old woman, who is suspected of murdering her two husbands. The inspector interviews Madame Chalon in the hopes of understanding how a woman who does not seem like a murderess could have killed her husbands without leaving a trace on their bodies.
The climax lies in the silence between main characters when Madame Chalon finished to confess to murder of her husbands by cooking. We don’t know how Inspector Miron will react to her confession. He will bring her to police station or he understands why she did it. It’s followed by the denouement when inspector invites Madam Chalon to the casino. “To the casino, Madame Chalon. For champagne and music. We shall talk some more”.
The ending is half-opened and needless to say, the writer gained by ending the story where he does.
The story is narrated from the third person. The story is filtered and reflected through the prism of his mind and eye, we can easily trace where his sympathy lies with the help of his interpretation , suggest and judges.
The text brims with the idea that women’s charm and sophisticated mind can easily win over men’s conceit and arrogance. This story presents the idea that women plays on men’s vice and greediness so well that most man even couldn’t notice that. Madame Chalon
As the story goes it is broken by some description. I found the most convincing and detailed description of Madam Chalon’s appearance. Her appearance is a clue to her character. Inspector Miron compares her with the Roman goddess of wisdom( A Minerva of a woman, he told himself instantly). The author uses antonomasia to show common things between these two women: sharp and shrewd mind in combination with astonishing beauty. Moreover, the author resorts to bright epithets (liquid eyes, full lips, soft profile, the grand line of her bosom.. ) and similes ( …eyes were but a shade lighter than the cobalt blue of the Med-iterranean..,.air brought him the scent of her. Or was it the scent of the garden,…)to create an image of soft and ageless women. On the contrary, she speaks frank and defiant . The author uses parallel structures and repetition in her speech to attach more strength and persuasiveness to her words (You are puzzled. You found nothing. ;M. Wesser, I learned within a fortnight, was a pig– a pig of insatiable appetites).
Inspector Minor
(I am a bachelor. Of forty-four. Not too bad to look at, I have been told. I have a sum put away. I am not a great catch, but still, not one to be despised."-litote. He looked into her eyes. "I wish to die!”-hyperbole).
Also the author uses a lot of epithets to characterize husbands of Madame Chalon.
M. Wesser, I learned within a fortnight, was a pig – a pig of insatiable appetites. A crude man, inspector; a belcher, 14 a braggart, cheater of the poor, deceiver of the innocent. A gobbler of food, an untidy man of unappetizing habits.
And in conclusion I want to say that every man should fear and respect strong woman. Women are full of guile and men suppose to beware of women.