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Murder On The Orient Express Character Analysis

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For the Greater Good: Whose Good? Who’s Good?
In the book Murder on the Orient Express, by Agatha Christie, the twelve murderers justify their act by saying, “There had been other children kidnapped before Daisy, and there might be others in the future. Society had condemned him—we were only carrying out the sentence” (Christie 249). On a related note, is it morally permissible to sacrifice one life for the sake of the greater good in number? To picture this, imagine a train is on its regular path when five innocent people step onto the tracks. They cannot escape and the train cannot stop. As you observe, you notice a lever that can change the direction of the tracks and send the train onto an alternate path. However, on the other track is one person unable to move and trapped. This scenario can have two outcomes. You either pull the lever and sacrifice one person for the greater good of the greatest amount of people, or you leave it alone and let the train kill the five people. These two conflicting ideas, based on utilitarianism and deontological ethics, cause a moral dilemma worthy of contemplation. (Robinson). The characters in Murder on the …show more content…

MacQueen, secretary to Mr. Ratchett and co-murderer, states in his interview, "If ever a man deserved what he got, Ratchett or Cassetti is the man. I 'm rejoiced at his end. Such a man wasn 't fit to live!" (Christie 79) In fact, all the passengers thought that Ratchett was deserving of his unfortunate fate because of his murderous action that ruined the lives of so many. In return, through act of vengeance, the people closest to the Armstrong family band together to execute justice. The passengers believe that in order to insure the safety of more innocent people in the future, they must punish and eliminate the

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