54 pages • 1-hour read
The Moving Finger
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Chapters 13-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of graphic violence, death by suicide, and gender discrimination.
Chapter 13 Summary
Jerry receives a call from Superintendent Nash, telling him that they caught the letter-writing culprit. He is shocked that it is Aimee Griffith. Nash invites him to come to the Griffiths with him to comfort Dr. Griffith. When Nash makes the arrest Aimee denies it at first, but then breaks down in tears. Nash tells her that he saw her type the letter at night at the Women’s Institute. She insists that Mr. Symmington cannot be her lawyer, as she would be more embarrassed if it were him. Dr. Griffith feels that if she were innocent she would not be so upset.
Over the next day Joanna tells Dr. Griffith that she wants to marry him, but he turns her down. Later he comes over to their house and tells Jerry that he does want to marry her, but does not want to embarrass her with the scandal of his sister’s crimes. Jerry thinks Dr. Griffith should do as he likes and not sacrifice his happiness. Meanwhile, the villagers are in a rage against Aimee.
The police find the pages of Miss Barton’s book in Aimee’s cupboard, making their case even stronger. However, when Jerry runs into Miss Marple later, she feels strongly that the police have it wrong. He later sees her talking to Megan. When he tries to run after Megan, Miss Marple stops him, telling him that Megan needs to keep up her courage for what comes next. Jerry is chilled by her words and leaves Megan alone.
As he wanders he meets Colonel Appleton, who drones on about how older women are always responsible for anonymous letters, and complains about the lack of good-looking women in the village. He singles out Elsie Holland as the lone beautiful girl in the village, remembering how she was so grateful for a ride into town the other day. Jerry leaves and catches a glimpse of Miss Marple leaving the police station.
That afternoon, Jerry is haunted by worry about Megan and the letters case. He begins to fear that Megan could be involved too, thinking about the dark things she has said and her general unhappiness in the household. That evening he feels desperate to see Megan, and walks over to the Symmingtons’ house. Seeing a light in the window, he creeps under it and listens in to Elsie Holland’s conversation about the boys with Mr. Symmington. Jerry watches as Megan interrupts them, and Elsie leaves. Megan asks Mr. Symmington for money, telling him that if he refuses she will reveal what he did to her mother’s cachet. He denies any wrongdoing, but quickly cuts Megan a hefty check.
Jerry wants to enter the house, but suddenly Nash grabs him from behind, urging him to be quiet. Jerry agrees, and he creeps into the house with Nash and another officer. When Mr. Symmington comes downstairs holding Megan and begins to put her head in the gas oven, the men intervene and Mr. Symmington surrenders. Nash explains that Symmington put a sedative in Megan’s drink to make it easier to stage her death by suicide. She wakes up at the hospital feeling groggy, but alright. Jerry praises her for helping to catch Symmington, and she admits that she is in love with Jerry, too.
Chapter 14 Summary
Jerry visits the Calthrops at the vicarage again, where Mrs. Calthrop reveals that Miss Marple is an excellent amateur detective and the one who solved the case. Miss Marple explains that to solve a murder you must keep an open mind; in this case the answer was “simple” and “obvious” (224). She considered the letters a misdirection from the real crime: Mrs. Symmington’s death, which looked like a death by suicide.
Working from there, she considered who would benefit from her death, and landed upon Mr. Symmington, whom she believed was in love with Elsie Holland. Since he wanted to have “his home, his children, his respectability, and Elsie” (225), Mr. Symmington chose to murder his wife rather than divorce her. By writing anonymous letters and sending one to his own wife, Mr. Symmington threw the suspicion off of himself and onto a woman suspect, since the stereotype is that “poison pen” letter writers are typically women.
Mr. Symmington carefully planned every part of his wife’s murder, from replacing her medication with cyanide to using a scrap of her own telephone message pad to make her suicide note. Since he was smitten with Elsie Holland, he never sent her a nasty letter—an exception that alerted Miss Marple’s attention. Symmington murdered Agnes after he grew paranoid that she knew something about his actions, though Miss Marple is doubtful that she really did.
Finally, she explains the final piece to the puzzle: Aimee Griffith’s arrest. While Mr. Symmington had written nearly all the anonymous letters, Aimee Griffith, who was in love with him, wrote the final letter to Elsie Holland to scare her away from Mr. Symmington. He soon guessed who had authored it, and decided to frame Aimee Griffith for writing all the letters by stashing the book pages in her house.
Miss Marple praises Jerry’s good memory and his clear understanding of all the facts, which helped her piece together the mystery. Jerry is amazed by her intellect and grateful for her help, but tells her that she shouldn’t have involved Megan in her dangerous baiting plan. Miss Marple chastises him and reminds him that people must be courageous and help others when they can, and that Megan did just that. Jerry agrees.
Chapter 15 Summary
Jerry runs into Miss Barton in the village, who expresses excitement about her upcoming trip: A cruise with Aimee Griffith, who also wants some time away from the village. Miss Barton is happy and relieved that Jerry has bought her house Little Furze, which he will share with Megan. He returns home and finds Megan sorting through their wedding presents from Partridge, Miss Marple, Mr. Pye, and Elsie Holland. Megan is happiest with her present from Joanna: an Old English Sheepdog.
Chapters 13-15 Analysis
In the novel’s final chapters, Aimee Griffith’s downfall concludes the story’s exploration of The Consequences of Gossip and Biased Judgment. Aimee’s decision to write a copy-cat anonymous letter to Elsie Holland shows that she is eager to destroy the governess’s reputation in Lymstock, banking on the way the village is already eager to assume the worst of Elsie as a young unmarried woman. As a constant gossip herself, Aimee understands the power of rumor to change people’s perceptions, and how intolerable it could become for Elsie to stay in Lymstock if the villagers believe that she is trying to become the new Mrs. Symmington. Miss Marple explains, “She thought of the girl as a designing minx worming her way into Symmington’s affections and quite unworthy of him. And so, I think, she succumbed to temptation. Why not add one more anonymous letter, and frighten the girl out of the place?” (229).
In the end, it is Aimee’s reputation that is destroyed, as her arrest sets the village into an uproar against her. Just as she wished would happen to Elsie, Aimee is publicly humiliated, and wants to leave town to be free of the speculation about her. Miss Barton reveals that Aimee will sail away with her on a cruise to escape her “terrible ordeal” (232), which again emphasizes how harmful gossip and judgment can be, as Aimee has discovered to her own cost how fostering a hostile, gossipy atmosphere can easily redound onto the perpetrator.
By wrapping up the mystery, the novel also shows how so many of the rumors circulating the village—and even the police station—were based on false assumptions. Colonel Appleton’s complaint reflects the popular presumption that an older single woman must be to blame for the whole scandal, and villagers like him are ready to believe that Aimee Griffith is responsible for everything. He complains to Jerry, “What’s all this about Griffith’s sister being mad as a hatter? […] [T]hese desiccated old maids are always the ones who go in for it” (213, emphasis added). Colonel Appleton’s sexist language about “desiccated old maids” once more reinforces how casually some of the villagers slip into prejudiced language and biased judgments about women. This makes it all the more significant that the person who solves the case, Miss Marple, is an older unmarried woman herself. Without Marple’s intervention, Mr. Symmington would have escaped punishment. As Miss Marple observes, “You see, no one was suspecting a man” (228). Marple’s ability to evaluate the evidence without prejudice brings Mr. Symmington to justice and teaches the people of Lymstock about the dangers of gossip and bias, while also challenging the village’s sexist stereotypes about unmarried women.
By finally revealing Mr. Symmington’s shocking secrets, the novel also concludes its theme on The Role of Secrecy in Small-Town Life. Miss Marple’s explanation helps Jerry and the villagers understand how the lawyer successfully kept up his perfect image as a father, husband, and professional even while sending vicious letters and committing two murders. His job as the only lawyer in town gave him access to Aimee Griffith’s house as the police were making their arrest, allowing him to frame her for writing all the letters, instead of just the last one. Miss Marple’s explanation of how Symmington entered Aimee’s home under the pretense of being her lawyer, but then planted the book pages in her shelf, shows his cunning talent for secrecy. His exposure also upends the rumors surrounding him and Elsie: Elsie was never the one pursuing him, it was he who was hoping to woo her. The novel thus suggests that appearances can be deceiving, and that not everyone is what others assume them to be.
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