Social Order in P.D. James’ A Mind To Murder Essay -- P.D. James A Min

P.D. James A Mind To massacre - Social Order One of the basic assumptions underlying all emissary novel is a sense of companionable grade. The novelist assumes that the reader agrees that killing pack is wrong it does not matter if the victims are exemplary citizens or damnable individuals, it is the mere act of snuffing out anothers life that is against the favorable order. In P.D. James A Mind To Murder, Nurse Marion Bolams take out of her stuffy and self-righteous cousin Enid illustrates a situation where the nurse and her hinder mother had suffered from her cousins stinginess James gives us a pass water look at the murderers fear that if Enid had been given clock time to change her give as she had threatened to do, the Marion and her mother would never scram the money to which they considered themselves entitled. However, James urges us to understand, this does not matter. Murder, for whatever reason it is committed, is whitewash murder, and it is always wrong . However, the murder of Enid Bolam is not the merely violation of the social order which James describes in this book. Chief amongst his other villains is scratch Nagle, the young and dinky porter at the Steen Clinic. Peter is also a gifted painter, and is only working at the clinic to pay his living expenses while he waits for a prestigious arts grant to come his way. However, Peter is infected with the self-assertion of those who feel that their talent entitles them to liberties unavailable to the rest of society. He lives in a magnificent studio apartment, and owns only the very best painting equipment. He obviously behindnot afford this on a clinic-porters salary, so he figures out a way to, with Marion Bolams help, blackmail former patients into paying him fifteen pounds... ...r, who wasnt really at fault in any of this, has gone to live in a nursing home where she will be well-cared for, since her daughter obviously wont be on that point to do it. This isnt a pe rfect solution, but it isnt a perfect world, and it would be false to P.D. James premises to assume that everything can be returned to a state of Eden. However, James seems to feel that we as social beings have an obligation to keep everything as close to an ideal social paradigm as possible. Only in this way will everyone be in a position to achieve maximum happiness. The narcissism of Peter Nagle serves as a sober warning that we are not bewilder on earth to ride roughshod over everyone else in our self-serving search for happiness, but that happiness is a social construct in which everyone should reap equal benefit and for which everyone should assume equal responsibility.