The mystery novel “The Dead of Jericho” written by Colin Dexter talks about Inspector Morse, a phenomenal detective, who meets an attractive woman, Anne Scott, whom he likes. After a few days, on October 3rd, he goes to the book club, and finds her dead, in the kitchen of Canal Reach 9. That day, Jackson was doing yard work for Anne Scott, and she found her in the kitchen. A few days later, Charles received a blackmail call from an unknown person, paired with a blackmail letter sent to the wrong address. Some people have also noticed that Jackson was depositing and taking from his post office account. On Jackson’s death, Morse was at the book club, where Charles Richards was talking about how it was to own a small publishing company. After some interviews, Morse finally got to the truth. This involved the story of oedipus, where a person killed his father and married his mother. This happened all by coincidence, but Michael Murdoch had the same age and birthday as Anne Scott’s lost baby, and she had sex with him. Later she found out she was pregnant, so she hanged herself.
Oedipus mood is when a child finds his or her parents attractive in a romantic way, and this plot often happens in stories. In a story, there are certain references of Oedipus, and how some people have committed suicide. This happens when there is a lost child, and by coincidence the child will have an affair with his own mother or father. The Oedipus mood happens when Michael has sex with Anne. This was not discovered at first because she didn't know his personal information such as his age and birthday. It was only after the bridge club talk that she knew that Michael's birthday was the same as her lost son. Also, recently she had been reading Sophocle’s play, Oedipus Rex. Under the influence of that work, she was depressed and chose suicide. Oedipus mood happens very often in works. In this example, it happened to Michael Murdoch and Anne Scott. This was discovered when Anne Scott had miraculously discovered that Michael had the same birthday, same age, and was adopted. John Westerby, her previous lover, was killed by Michael Murdoch in a car crash. So, Anne believed that fate was against her, and fate didn’t want her to live. Thus, she chose Jocasta’s death, by hanging herself. Plot twists like this are common in many works, including "The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling," the Chinese play "Thunderstorm" by Cao Yu, Shakespeare's "Hamlet," and "Sons and Lovers" by D.H. Lawrence. The Oedipal mood is frequently used in literature to enrich the storyline.
The expert use of false leads creates a layered and complicated story, making it very appealing. False leads are things that may seem very suspicious, but actually provide no clue to the case, and can lead people into the wrong way of thought. This can produce very surprising results. When characters do something really weird, it is implied that they might be the culprit. This is shown when Edward and Michael Murdoch wrote a letter to Charles Richard's brother. We can also see that Charles Richard was not really there at the speech in the Oxford book club and he was somewhere else. In fact, it was really Conrad. When people do weird things, they are suspected to be the murderers of Anne. It seems like everyone has something to do with Anne, such as the Richards Brothers, the Murdoch Brothers, George Jackson, and Celia Richards. Each of them have their own problems. George is a perverted man that looks at Anne through a window that doesn’t have curtains, and Richard's brothers either lie or are not moral. The Mrudoch brothers constantly ask for money on drugs. Sometimes it boils down to a few suspects, like Celia, Jackson, or Charles, each with their own motivations. Another mystery was the mystery of who killed Jackson, in which Charles looked very suspicious, as he needed to cover the scandal. But, in the end, nobody killed anybody. When somebody blackmailed Charles, it was unclear who it was, and it was likely Jackson, but it wasn’t. It seems like everyone has their problems and flaws, which makes them equally likely on who did a number of things. When people use false leads, it adds more to the story, making it suspenseful and makes the reader keep reading.
The tragedy of women, being dominated by men, happens often in society, but are often overlooked. Many women are dominated by men in society, and from ancient times people have considered men to be better than women. Thus, the tragedy of women in a domestic setting was never considered. In the story, Anne Scott was first married to a person, who had divorced her after she had a child on a summer vacation. Then she had an affair with a married man, Charles Richards. After the affair, she took notice of Michael Murdoch, and had German lessons with him, being his teacher. It was later disclosed that Michael had sex with her. She discovered that Michael had the same age, birthday, and he was adopted, so she mistook him for his son, and chose suicide. Women are sometimes very influenced by men in society, and their role is downplayed. They often are pushed around by men, such as getting pregnant accidentally and going to the doctor. Some married men also hit up relationships with women that are not married, and this is immoral. Some people, even though they are not adults, still will have an affair with a woman, like in Michael Murdoch’s case. The tragedy that women have is prevalent in society, but people are not paying attention to this matter.
Through the themes of the tragedy of women, false leads, and references to Oedipus, we can see that society is patriarchal and women are often pushed around by men. Many men also have no morals, and can result in the woman’s loss, such as being pregnant and other disasters that are handed off to women, while the men move on. False leads can make a character have suspicion, even though those people have not committed crimes at all, like in the Richards and Murdoch brothers. The multiple references to Sophocles’s play Oedipus Rex, where he marries his mother, can be referenced to the example of Michel Murdoch and Anne Scott. This, although wasn’t true, still played a significant part in the story, providing the reasons for Anne Scott’s suicidal thoughts.
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