Chapter Study - Agatha Christie, The Murder at the Vicarage

Chapter 1

Chapter Study

Published: 04/20/2025 10:56AM

Introduction

Hello, and welcome to my Chapter Study. Today’s novel is by the famous Agatha Christie – The Murder at the Vicarage. (I am a big Agatha Christie fan!) Chapter Study is a something I thought about as a way to improve my skills in story-telling and to learn some techniques from other authors that hopefully help me on journey to becoming a better writer. I’ll try and focus only on the first chapter, and see it with open eyes, as if I’m reading it for the first time. And even if I know the story, I’ll try to approach it with the knowledge of only what I read in that chapter.

Let’s start at the beginning. Murder at the Vicarage, Chapter 1.

Summary of the Scene (Chapter)

The scene is narrated by the Vicar (Len), and is a conversation around a lunch between, the Vicar, Dennis, and Griselda (the vicars wife), with Mary (the housekeeper) commenting about her food. The topic seems to be on Colonel Protheroe and why the vicar finds him so annoying, enough to say “that anyone who murdered Colonel Protheroe would be doing the world at large a service.”

After and incident with Mrs Price Ridley not finding her pound note counted in the collections, she complained to the Vicar. Upon the Vicar not satisfying her query, the Vicar guessed she took the matter to Colonel Protheroes because he “makes a fuss” to the Vicar. The Vicar talks about know because of that incident, Colonel Protheroes wants to go through the church accounts.

The conversation around lunch changes to the Vicar asking Griselda what she is doing that afternoon. She talks about doing “My duty as the Vicaress” and is having “Tea and scandal at four-thirty”. She then goes on to talk about the people that are coming.

The conversation moves to the study where is only between the Vicar and Griselda. She is talking about the other people she would like to invite for tea. They have a joke about a murder mystery novel that they both like. Griselda asks the Vicar why did her think she married him. She continues to explain why and further describes their relationship.

Characters

The Character that are mentioned in the chapter are (in order of mentioned) Colonel Protheroe, Dennis (the nephew), Mary, Griselda (the wife), Mr Hawes (the curate), Mrs Price Ridley, Miss Marple, Mrs Lestrange, Dr Haydock. Other characters mentioned, but only by name – Miss Wetherby, Dr Stone, Miss Cram. The main character and Point of view is from Len, the Vicar.

Character Introductions

Dennis the young nephew, Light hearted almost jokingly warning to Len, about being a suspect in a murder. And it’s seems to be outspoken about people. “No wonder his first wife ran away from him.”

Mary is said to be “in service to the Vicarage” and appears to be the housekeeper/cook, and it sounds like she can’t cook very well and doesn’t like people commenting about her food. "moist and unpleasant dumplings" and the "partially cooked rice pudding" that apparently gives you a marvelous brain.

Griselda the Vicar’s wife, is described by him in a peculiar manner. He starts with, “My wife’s name is Griselda – a highly suitable name for a parson’s wife. But there the suitability ends. She is not in the least meek.” Then after explaining that they got married only after 24 hours of knowing each other, and she is nearly 22 years younger than him. He continues with, she is “most distractedly pretty but incapable of taking anything seriously”. He goes on to say, she’s incompetent, trying to live with and thinks the parish life is a huge joke. And it comes across that his is disappointment in himself because he tried to form her mind, but failed. Griselda herself, says she is not a good housekeeper, and isn’t assumed by the fact that is isn’t. But when Griselda is talking, she has a little humour mixed with her boredom in her voice. “Nobody flutter’s round him and calls hims ‘the dear Vicar’, and embroiders awful slippers for him, and gives him bed-socks for Christmas.” And she made me laugh when she talking about suspicion of embezzlement and Len. “Nobody would suspect you of anything, darling.” “You’re so transparently above suspicion that really it would be a marvellous opportunity. I wish you’d embezzle...” It’s like she was half plotting a plan, in her head at the moment….

Mr Hawes the curate, has only been with the parish for over 3 weeks and has different views, causing him to head butt with Colonel Protheroe. Not in the scene, only described by the Vicar and Griselda.

Mrs Price Ridley, also not in the scene in person, only described by the Vicar as “a devout member of my congregation.” After finding that her pound note was not counted in the collection, complains to the Vicar, who brushes it off as a mistake. “We’re none of us so young as we were”.

Colonel Protheroe, seems to be described as a nuance and a “great opposer of ritual in any form” He is not in the scene in person, but talked about by all who are in the scene. He “is the kind of man who enjoys making a fuss on every conceivable occasion.” Because of the incident with Mrs Price Ridley, he wants to go over the church accounts.

Miss Marple, not in the scene but I love how she is described. Griselda calls her terrible. The Vicar replies that he likes her “She has, at least, a sense of humour”. And Griselda remarks “She’s the worst cat in the village” “And she always knows every single thing that happens – and draws the worst inferences from it”

The main character, the Vicar (Len) sets the whole scene up with his remark “anyone who murdered Colonel Protheroe would be doing the world at large a service” What a sentence! And from a Vicar as well! He states that vicars should be unmarried, and that marriage itself is a serious thing and deep thought needs to go into it, over along period of time. But marries Griselda after only knowing her for 24 hours. And is 22 years older than her. Gives the impression that he preaches one thing, but does another?

Mrs Lestrange. I’m mentioning her, because I found it odd, that when Griselda was rattling off who she was going to have for tea, she didn’t really describe in detail any other character, apart from Mrs Marple. She it make me question, is she an important character later on? Griselda calls her mysterious, and she reminds her of characters in detective stories. “Who is this mysterious woman with the pale, beautiful face? What was her past history? Nobody knew. There was something faintly sinister about her” - (when talking about the detective stories)

Starting paragraph

It is difficult to know quite where to begin this story, but I have fixed my choice on a certain Wednesday at luncheon at the Vicarage. The conversation, though in the main irrelevant to the matter in hand, yet contained one or two suggestive incidents which influenced later developments.

Ohh, there’s a hint of a clue, or clues in this chapter, being that the title of the book is ‘The Murder at the Vicarage”. We also get the place, and time, Wednesday, at luncheon, at the Vicarage, where the murder takes place. At setting the reader up to be very curious and hooked. It’s also kinda of narrative, as whoever is telling the story/event (the murder happened), and is maybe shocked that this has happened, and doesn’t know how to tell it, let alone, start telling the story.

Ending Paragraph

‘If you don’t mind, dear, I want to get on with the C.E.M.S’ Griselda gave a sigh of intense irritation, ruffled my hair up on end, smoothed it down again, said: ‘You don’t deserve me. You really don’t. I’ll have an affair with the artist. I will – really and truly. And then think of the scandal in the parish.’ ‘There’s a good deal already,’ I said mildly. Griselda laughed, blew me a kiss, and departed through the window.

Hmm… is Griselda already having an affair with the artist? It’s almost like Griselda is teasing the Vicar with the affair, laughing then blewing him a kiss. And what other scandal is going around the parish? Ohh, that’s a big hook. I want to read more!

Tension

There is so much happening in this chapter, apart from the character introductions, I’m really impressed with Agatha Christie’s talent. Here are the main ones that I see.

You have the back thoughts and why did the vicar and Griselda get married? It’s such a contradiction after hearing about the vicar explain how marriage should be approached. Is there more to there marriage, especially after Griselda jokes about having an affair with the artist?

What is the tension between Colonel Protheroe and the Vicar? Is it really that bad that he needs murdering, or was that a joke comment.

Is Mary’s cooking really that bad? Haha

Did Mrs Price Ridley really put a pound note in the collection? And if she did, where did it go? Who would take it? Would it be one of the characters introduced in the first chapter?

Who is the mysterious Mrs Lestrange? Or is she just a red herring?

Who is Griselda, really?

Lessons learnt

You can introduce multiple, if not, many characters in your first chapter. That was something I never gave a thought too. Agatha Christie has a brilliant talent for introducing numerous characters, all within her first chapter.

I don’t know what any of these characters look like, but somehow I still see them in my mind when reading. I only know that Len, the Vicar has hair, and is much older than Griselda who is “the most distractingly pretty”. And it doesn’t hurt the chapter plot or character introductions at all. This surprised me, as I always thought you had to do a detailed description of your characters, when introducing them. This is a very cool thing to learn. You don’t have to get bogged down in descriptions of characters. As part of Agatha Christie’s talent, she portrays the characters in only a few sentences, or only a few words.

We don’t know the main characters name until the second last page of the chapter. We only know him as the narrator, the Vicar for most of the chapter.

So many things can be said with so few words. Like the introduction of Miss Marple. “She’s the worst cat in the village.”

Chapters can be small. The chapter length is 9 pages of the small paperback version. And there are 32 chapters.

Conclusion

There is so much to unpack in just one chapter of the very talented, inspiring and wonderful Agatha Christie’s, The Murder at the Vicarage. I know I’ve missed a heap. But this has definitely lead me on a path to understanding some writing techniques. And I’ll definitely be coming back to study more.