Roger Ackroyd Deception

Agatha Christie’s novel The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is a detective story where lies and secrets interfere with the investigation. There is a theme embedded in the book that falsehoods and secrecy are derived from the human desire to fit in with society. This idea is seen in multiple ways throughout the story, especially in the cases of Flora Ackroyd and Elizabeth Russell.
It’s human nature to feel the need to cover up our mistakes in the form of lies. Most of the time these mistakes would be frowned upon and as humans, we desire to belong. If it is known that if we deviated from the norm or committed an act that would be considered wrong or immoral, we don’t want anyone to know for fear of being rejected by society. In the novel we see a
Secrecy, like lying, too stems from the fact that we wish to be a part of society so we hide the parts of ourselves that we don’t believe everyone else would accept. Keeping secrets makes us feel guilty so we tell ourselves that no one has to know. We try to believe that we aren’t hurting anyone because we convince ourselves that withholding the truth isn’t the same as telling something false. In reality, lying and secrecy are very similar faults in human nature. Both involve a lack of the truth, and both can have similar consequences. The effects of secrecy are seen when Miss Russell fails to reveal the fact that Charles Kent is her son. When forced to admit her secret to M. Poirot, she claims that “I dared not let him come to the house. I have always been considered so-so very respectable. If anyone got an inkling-it would have been all up with my post as housekeeper.” (pg. 231) This is a very selfish response considering if she told this to the investigators of the case, then there wouldn’t have been time wasted on believing Charles to be a murder suspect. The proceedings of the investigation could have gone more smoothly if it was known that Charles was at Fernly Park to meet his mother, the housekeeper. Both Flora’s and Miss Russell’s examples involved a lack of truth and even though one was a secret and the other a lie, they both had tremendous effects on the