54 pages • 1-hour read
The Moving Finger
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Chapters 9-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death and gender discrimination.
Chapter 9 Summary
Jerry returns home and puzzles over the clues with Joanna. She assesses them herself, wondering if Partridge could be the writer and if she simply lied about what Agnes said on her phone call, and then left the house to murder her when Jerry and Joanna were out. Her top suspect, however, is Mr. Pye, whom she thinks is a lonely and unhappy person with little care for others. This shocks Jerry, since he and Nash have always assumed that the writer and killer is a woman.
Jerry walks into town where the high street is full of villagers discussing the latest tragedy. Dr. Griffith looks particularly tired and worn, while his sister Aimee, in contrast, is full of energy and gusto as usual. She admits to Jerry that she persuaded Megan to return home on the day that she stopped by their house, to stop the gossip that was swirling around Elsie Holland and Mr. Symmington. She reveals that some villagers believe that Elsie Holland is angling to marry Mr. Symmington now that he is a widower. Jerry is disgusted by this conjecture, but Aimee simply says that the townspeople always assume the worst.
Jerry runs into Mr. Pye and Emily Barton. Mr. Pye seems happy to see him. When Miss Barton expresses shock about the murder, Mr. Pye tells her to enjoy it, since it is a “thrill” that the village does not usually get (157). Mr. Pye shares that Aimee did tell him that Agnes phoned Partridge on the day of her murder, and complains that his servants also use his telephone. When Emily Barton guesses that the anonymous letters and the murder could be connected, she feels sickened and abruptly leaves the conversation. Meanwhile, Pye keeps happily chatting and tells Jerry he loves to study abnormal people, and that they always reveal themselves with their body language or mannerisms. The reverend emerges from the church and briefly talks to Jerry, sharing that he has heard some rumor about mean letters circulating in the village. When Jerry confirms it, the reverend quotes Horace in Latin, and calls the letters “cowardly” and “dastardly” (160).
When Jerry returns home, Joanna tells him that Dr. Griffith dropped by and left a photograph of a diseased spleen. Jerry tells her to stop encouraging Dr. Griffith’s crush her. He takes the photo and goes to press it into a book in the study. When he pulls out an old book, he notices that many pages have been cut out. He believes this is the source of the letters from the anonymous letters. While Miss Barton or Partridge would be obvious suspects, many visitors also wait in the study, broadening the possibilities.
Jerry visits the police station with the cut-up book. Nash repeats that there are so many suspects, and they are even considering Mr. Pye. Jerry turns over his top suspects in his mind: Emily Barton, Partridge, Aimee Griffith, and Mr. Pye. He hates that the mystery makes him suspicious of others.
Jerry falls asleep on the couch and has a dream that Elsie Holland is dressed as a bride, ready to marry Dr. Griffith. He awakes to Mrs. Calthrop’s voice from the window, saying that the letters and murders must stop. She tells Jerry that she is going to hire a real expert—someone outside the police force—and promptly leaves.
Chapter 10 Summary
The inquest into Agnes Woddell’s death is attended by everyone in the village, but no new details about her death emerge. She is buried in the churchyard, and life in Lymstock goes on. No new letters are received, and Jerry and Joanna continue to mull over the case, endlessly assessing and debating who it could be. They visit the Calthrops’ vicarage, where their guest, Miss Marple, visits with them. She takes a great interest in the case and Jerry tells her everything he knows, even his dreams about the case, including a mundane detail about a telephone message Joanna had written on their notepad at home.
Miss Marple praises Jerry for all his thinking and his illuminating dreams, and agrees with Mr. Nash’s assessment that the writer is someone who is sane, logical, and behaves in a highly respectable way. Miss Marple also focuses on how younger, prettier people tend to be targets, and Jerry tells her the interesting exception to this rule: Elsie Holland has not received a letter.
A couple nights later, Jerry is driving back into Lymstock at night when his car lights malfunction. He pulls over to look at them. He notices he is outside the Women’s Institute, where women can go and use the typewriters, and suddenly becomes curious. He walks down the path, noticing that the gate is ajar, and waits outside the house quietly. He thinks he hears something, and hoists himself up and through a window, making a noise.
Suddenly, Superintendent Nash turns on a light and reveals that he’s there on a sting, which Jerry has just ruined. Nash is convinced that the letter writer is addicted to writing letters and will continue at some point. As Jerry leaves, he is surprised to find Megan standing by his car. She claims she loves walking at night, and Jerry offers her a ride home.
Chapter 11 Summary
The following day, Jerry makes the spontaneous decision to take Megan with him to London. He is irritated by her sadness and her tendency to mope around in bad clothes, and decides to take her to Joanna’s tailor to be completely fitted in a nice, new outfit. Then he goes off to his doctor’s appointment.
When Jerry returns, he is astonished by Megan’s make-over; she looks beautiful and elegant in her new clothes. The two go for dinner and dance until Jerry realizes that it is late and they have missed the last train to Lymstock. Jerry calls a car and the two travel home. When Jerry arrives back, he admits his rash actions to Joanna, who is amused, but scolds him for creating more gossip and speculation in the small town. She jokes that everyone will think that he and Megan are a couple, and Jerry realizes that he has developed a crush on Megan. Joanna reveals that she’s suspected his romantic interest in Megan for a while.
Chapter 12 Summary
Now convinced that he and Megan should get together, Jerry goes to the Symmingtons’ house to propose to her. He is surprised when she rejects his proposal, telling him that she is not a good match for him since she is not in love with him. She finds hating easier than loving. In spite of this disappointment, Jerry feels attached to Megan and feels it is his job to protect her and make her happy. As he tries to leave the house, he is overwhelmed by Rose’s constant complaining about the stress of her job and Elsie Holland’s desire to marry Mr. Symmington.
Ignoring Rose, Jerry quickly finds Mr. Symmington and frankly admits that he wants to marry Megan, but she has refused him. Mr. Symmington says he thinks that Megan is too young and childish for marriage, but they agree that it is Megan’s decision.
In the village, Jerry runs into Miss Barton, who has already heard the gossip about him and Megan. Mrs. Calthrop praises his decision to buy Megan new clothes, even stating that men are more practical than smart women, who easily become “morons” (201). Miss Marple is there, too, listening to everything.
When he returns home, he is surprised to hear that Joanna assisted Dr. Griffith with the birth of a baby. As she was walking near a country house he called out to her for help, as the nurse could not get there. Dr. Griffith was rude and demanding to her, insisting that she do something useful instead of being a “useless ornamental nitwit” (203). Working together they managed to save the woman and her baby. Jerry is happy that Dr. Griffith made Joanna “slap up against reality” (203). As Joanna reflects on Dr. Griffith’s heroism, Jerry thinks that she has gotten over her heartbreak and formed a new crush on the doctor.
Chapters 9-12 Analysis
The mystery escalates as Jerry tries to understand the bizarre and tragic events in Lymstock, with The Corrosive Nature of Social Paranoia becoming ever more apparent. Some of the villagers’ bad behavior makes them more suspicious to Jerry. For instance, Aimee Griffith claims to disapprove of the gossip about Elsie Holland, but happily repeats it to Jerry and says she thinks it could be true: “[S]he’s all out to console the widower and make herself indispensable” (156). Meanwhile, Mr. Pye shows incredible disregard for Agnes Woddell’s murder, even telling Miss Barton, “But you enjoy it, dear lady, you enjoy it. Confess it now. You disapprove, you deplore, but there is the thrill. I insist, there is the thrill!” (157). Both of these villagers are on Jerry and Joanna’s list of possible suspects for the letters and the murders, but even apart from the murders, their callousness and love of casually mistreating one another further expose the town’s true social character as a tense, uncongenial place.
The Lymstock villagers’ penchant for gossip expands the novel’s theme on The Consequences of Gossip and Biased Judgment. Mr. Pye tells Jerry that the letter writer and killer must be abnormal, claiming they will reveal themselves through their “mad” behavior: “Notice instead what people do with their hands, and their little tricks of manner, and the way they eat their food, and if they laugh sometimes for no apparent reason” (159). Mr. Pye’s preference for sensationalism over hard facts reveals his prejudice toward people who seem different. Meanwhile, the gossip about Elsie Holland is totally unfounded, and risks ruining her reputation or even jeopardizing her employment since they accuse her of lacking professionalism.
Some of the characters’ discussions about Elsie also reinforce the sexist prejudices and biased judgments toward women that some of the villagers display. Rose, for example, is quick to assume that Elsie, as an attractive young woman, must automatically want to marry her employer: “[I]t wouldn’t be for want of trying if Miss Holland didn’t step into the dead mistress’s shoes!” (198). Simultaneously, Rose’s characterization of Mr. Symmington as a “poor man” and “helpless creature” once more casts the woman in the scenario as manipulative and scheming while painting the man as inherently innocent and respectable. Rose’s assumptions reflect the village’s and police’s biased conclusion that Mr. Symmington must be a victim, rather than the perpetrator, of the killings. Rose’s slander of Elsie as a manipulative “designing woman” turns out to be completely inaccurate, with her false beliefs bolstering the novel’s message on the dangers of believing —and repeating—everything one hears.
Word travels fast between households in Lymstock, demonstrating how the villagers’ reputations can come into question over a single event or conversation. Joanna worries for Jerry and Megan after the two spend a day in London together: “You can’t take a girl of twenty to London and buy her clothes without a most frightful scandal. Good gracious, Jerry, you’ll probably have to marry the girl” (194). Joanna’s reaction is not unfounded, as Jerry indeed finds that the “scandal” of his burgeoning romance with Megan has already circulated the town, with Miss Barton and Miss Calthrop both questioning him about it the next morning.
While Jerry and Megan aren’t overly worried about the townspeople’s opinions, other villagers are much more careful with their reputations, reflecting The Role of Secrecy in Small-Town Life. Mr. Symmington’s quiet demeanor and preoccupation with his work help him successfully maintain the facade of being a regular family man and grieving husband. Jerry feels that Mr. Symmington is oblivious, but has no sense that he is a bad person: “He was, I felt sure, a just and kindly man” (200). By hiding behind the veneer of respectability of his legal profession, and quietly blending into the background of village life, Mr. Symmington keeps his dark actions a well-kept secret.
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