Mary Whittaker's Unnatural Death

In Dorothy L. Sayers novel, Unnatural Death, she delves in to the murder mystery of a terminal cancer patient, Agatha Dawson. Using her female murderess, Mary Whittaker, she analyzes the social perceptions of women and murder. Mary Whittaker described to be a “very nice, well-educated, capable girl…self-reliant,” (Sayers, 7) in the end turns out to be a killer of 3 three people. Her environment, descriptions, and story portrays her as a woman who is able to take on a man’s role and commit a murder crime. Using the story of a women who kills, Sayer successfully creates a character that displays the progressive movement of women that attempts to break the stigma that women are defenseless and vulnerable. Mary Whittaker, from the beginning of
In 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment gave women the right to vote, which overlapped women and men’s roles that were once thought to be completely separate. At the time, societal expectations of women placed women as housekeepers that “…should concern themselves with home, children, and religion, while men took care of the business and politics.” The belief at the time expressed that women were not equal to men mentally, and should have little power. However, in the 1920s change began to come, including the Nineteenth Amendment, as more emphasis was put on women’s rights and their social/political equality. Unnatural Death represented these societal attitudes that women should just stay home and tend to their children and husband with supporting characters that disapproved of Mary’s lifestyle but Mary’s lifestyle to express a changing woman. “It’s not a natural life for a young woman, all alone...” (Sayers, 43) Women were capable and had the ability to take on men’s roles, and were able to branch out: starting a business or tending to the house. This is expressed through Mary Whittaker, who is unmarried, not engaged, and makes it very clear that she does not have need for a man. She is able to provide for herself, and is self-sustaining. “Miss Climpson was started to recognize in eye and voice the curious quick defensiveness of the neglected spinster who cries out that she has no use for men.” (Sayers, 49) And in addition to being married, Mary commits murder, and does so multiple times. Expected social perception does not expect a woman to be main character of a detective novel, let alone be a killer, but Sayers’ portrays Mary as a dominant figure that is capable of murder and does so with malicious intent. as a masculine, and dominant figure that is capable of murder. Using Mary, Sayers demonstrates that women, and any women are able to kill. In doing