7. Conclusion

We have understood poison as a literary tool to represent several things: symbolically, comically, and fatally. Each post shows a varying use of poison, interlinked through its purpose of quite simply changing the body. As seen with Alice’s body disfigurement in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland when eating and drinking the objects left behind; or Ron’s horrific ordeal in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

Placing poison within food is a symbol itself: food is an object on which we survive, therefore it becomes an invasion of not just the trust we place in our food, but our safety. Each text presents the unaware victim, the risk and vulnerability of eating or drinking something that is meant to be harmless, and each case explores the consequences. The argument of this blog shows poison as not only a murder weapon, but a symbolism of constraint, a need for the murderer to be heard or seen; each text gives that to the murderer without realising. 

Works Cited 

Caroll, Lewis. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. London, Macmillan. 2015. Print.

Rowling, J K. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Arthur A Levine Books, New York. 2005. Web. <http://publish.uwo.ca/~hamendt/WD%20final%20Project/litertaure/Half%20Blood%20Prince.pdf> Accessed March 2017.

2. Context: Poison and Food, Why?

(1) Bottle of Poison

Before we get our teeth into the poison in novels, we must understand what its use accomplishes - why it is so frequent in mystery fiction. An excellent essay on food and poison is Toxic Encounters: Poisoning in Early Modern English Literature and Culture by Catherine E. Thomas, congruent to this blog's idea of poison and food as an invasion of security and endangerment of a living need.

Thomas explores poison in literature as something with multiple meanings: ‘So what made poisoning so fashionable as a subject during the period? Simply put: it made good theatre, whether onstage or off. But more significantly perhaps, poisoning offered a sufficiently rich network of meanings to express key cultural concerns of the time.’ (48). Therefore ‘Poisoning, an act defined by the physical bodies and intimate desires of individuals, illustrates how early modern authors conceptualized subjectivity with respect to gender, sexuality, class, race, and nationality.’ (49).

Poison in food can explore a variety of traits such as empowerment of women: We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson, presents a female protagonist who controls her home with the threat of plant-based poisons, killing off her family if she was slighted. I will be analyzing this book in a later post. Thomas continues, ‘She classifies poisoning as a method of murder that upsets traditional early modern domestic hierarchies and allows women to gain power over the men in their lives (either by killing them off or manipulating them).’ (50).

Thomas ends with an insightful description of the metaphorical implications of poison: ‘Poisoning as an act invokes questions of wilful versus unsuspecting ingestion. […] narratives about poisoning, fictional or not, cogently express how English writers thought about its power and pervasiveness in bodies both natural and political.’ (51). Therefore, poison in food is more than a murder weapon but symbolic as showing thematic values of power, gender and societal views in literature. With these in mind, can we understand the value of poison in each text that will be analysed in this blog. 

Works Cited

(1) Chantal, Julie. Bottle of Poison. 2013. Canada. Julie-Chantal. <http://julie-chantal.deviantart.com/art/Bottle-of-Poison-386595328> Accessed February 2017.

Jackson, Shirley. We Have Always Live in the Castle. London: Penguin, 2009. Print.

Thomas, C. E. (2012), Toxic Encounters: Poisoning in Early Modern English Literature and Culture. Literature Compass, 9: 48–55. 2012. Web. <http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1741-4113.2011.00861.x/pdf> Accessed February 2017.

1. Introduction - Hello Everybody! Welcome to my Lair...

Grab a seat, kick up your feet, enjoy the ambiance of the warm fireplace... fancy a cup of tea? Promise there's no arsenic in it. 

(1) Pink-Skull Tea Set

I always had a passion for mystery in novels - a puzzle to solve as I progress through a book. Agatha Christie, Edgar Allan Poe, Wilkie Collins, Arthur Conan Doyle and Stephen King, famous authors all, crafting incredible crime novels, inviting us to solve the mystery with the protagonist. What I have found the most interesting is the tool used to commit the murder, so often a crime of violence: axe-chopping, gun-firing, knife-stabbing. The most fascinating of all, however, is the most cleverly hidden: poison. 

Poison has ever made a presence in our everyday lives, whether it's bleach in our bathroom, hemlock in our gardens or just the common toxic chemicals found in hardware stores. However, revealed in the history of poisons is more than a simple method of destruction. Contextual understanding of poison lets us understand how authors have exploited poisons, and their inherent subterfuge, to heighten the mystery in their fiction.

(2) Groom Pink-Skull Tea Cup

With each post in this blog, I will be discussing a novel, from Victorian to modern literature, that explores the use of food (or drinks), and its relation to poison. There will be critical analysis of passages of the text, supported by academic research. So, brace yourselves for a blog full of murder, poison, and some very dangerous food. I'm sure you'll look twice at your meals after this! Enjoy. 

Works Cited:
(1) Angioletti, Yvonne. "Installments 1-4, Gold Rose Skull Tea Set." n/a. AngiolettiDesigns, Etsy.com. <htttps://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/499318490/reserved-for-christine-installments-1-4?ref=shop_home_active_21.> Accessed February 2017.

(2) Angioletti, Yvonne. "Pink & Gold Skull Rose Bride / Groom Skull Tea Cup and Saucer, Available as Tea Set, Goth Wedding Couple Cup, Steampunk Wedding, Wedding Tea". n/a. AngiolettiDesigns, Etsy.com. <https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/478328148/pink-gold-skull-rose-bride-groom-skull?ref=shop_home_active_89> Accessed February 2017.