History Literature / FiveLittlePigs

* AssholeVictim: Possibly subverted. Several characters sided with Caroline Crale when she was convicted of murdering her husband Amyas, since he was having an affair with his model - one of many. [[spoiler:It turns out he never intended to leave Caroline, and he was murdered by said model. It depends on the reader whether you think that the fact that he never intended to leave Caroline is enough to get Amyas out of the "Asshole" category, or if you think he was still an asshole for having an affair and letting Elsa think he loved her enough to leave his wife.]]

* BettyAndVeronica: Amyas Crale stands in the middle between his long-suffering wife, Caroline, and his young but glamorous new model, Elsa.

Sixteen years ago, Caroline Crale was convicted of the murder of her husband, the painter Amyas Crale. Their daughter approaches Literature/HerculePoirot to investigate the case. Poirot visits the five people present at the time of the murder, and each of them gives [[RashomonStyle a slightly different story]].

* AmIJustAToyToYou: Thought to be part of Caroline's motive. [[spoiler: Actually Elsa's.]]

* DoomedMoralVictor: While no one really believes that Caroline was innocent except for her daughter and her sister, many of the onlookers note that the way she accepted her fate was really quite impressive. [[spoiler: And she turns out to actually be this for Elsa, the real murderer; while Caroline ended up taking the fall for Elsa's crime, and Elsa herself goes on to marry into wealth and fame, the brave and dignified way she meets her fate serves to rob Elsa of any satisfaction she might have gained from seeing Caroline go down, and all the wealth and fame in the world don't end up making Elsa happy in the slightest.]]

* EasilyForgiven: [[spoiler: Amyas has had several affairs, but since he truly loves (or ''claims'' he loves) only Caroline, she accepts them and feels more sorry for the 'other woman' in the equation.]]

* FaceDeathWithDignity: It is often remarked even by those who have reason to think the worst of Caroline that the way she met her death was incredibly brave and dignified. [[spoiler: And ironically, this serves to thwart the true killer's spiteful desire for vengeance, since the noble way Caroline meets her fate simply serves to remind Elsa of how truly pathetic and inadequate she ultimately is.]]

* HeroicSacrifice: Played with: [[spoiler: Caroline Crale ''thinks'' that she's doing this to spare Angela from prosecution for murder and to [[TheAtoner atone]] for blinding her as a child, but as it turns out Angela is completely innocent and Caroline's sacrifice is needless. However, the peace and courage Caroline derives from what she thinks is this trope ironically serves to thwart Elsa by depriving her of any satisfaction she might have received from seeing her romantic rival be punished for her crime.]]

* HiddenDepths: Meredith Blake discusses this trope in his personal recollection of the Crale Case by saying that people usually have hidden sides that no-one knows about. This is the reason why he believes that Amyas ''could'' have committed suicide, even though it would seem very out-of-character for him to do so. [[spoiler: Of course, it also foreshadows Meredith's own deep secret, which is that he grew to like Elsa much more than everyone else and proposed to her after the court hearing that convicted Caroline.]]
* IfICantHaveYou: Amyas is constantly having flings with numerous girls, and was apparently about to leave his wife and marry his latest model, Elsa Greer. This incident eventually leads to his being murdered. [[spoiler: In actual fact he wasn't going to leave Caroline at all but dump Elsa, since Caroline's the only one he really loves. Elsa overhears this, and ''she's'' the one who adopts this trope.]]

-->“This little piggy went to market. (Philip Blake)
-->This little piggy stayed at home. (Meredith Blake)
-->This little piggy had roast beef. (Elsa Greer)
-->This little piggy had none. (Cecilia Williams)
-->And this little piggy went "Wee! Wee! Wee!" all the way home. (Angela Warren)”

* MeaninglessVillainVictory: [[spoiler: Elsa succeeded in killing her lover Amyas and framing his wife Caroline for the murder. Even when Poirot deduces that she was the culprit instead of Caroline sixteen years after the murder, he admits that he doesn't have the concrete evidence to get her convicted. However, Elsa still feels like she ultimately lost because not only did Caroline's serene acceptance of her fate deprive her of any satisfaction she might have gained from watching her love rival get punished in her place, but her own life has been empty and devoid of joy after Amyas's death with her being unable to love any other man.]]

* SlapSlapKiss: Amyas and Caroline, constantly. Amyas had affairs and he had very nasty fights with Caroline, but despite this, they were very much in love. According to Angela, they actually enjoyed fighting, and would have found life boring without it. [[spoiler: Amyas never considered leaving Caroline, and she always forgave him.]]

** Both the Blake brothers were in love with Caroline, and neither ever marries, even after her death. [[spoiler: And Meredith has grown to harbour the same feelings for Elsa.]]
** Another possible example is [[spoiler: Elsa, who still seems to be in love with Amyas Crale even after he rejected her and she murdered him]].

** Gender-flipped with [[spoiler: Philip Blake, who wanted to make Caroline look as black as possible at least partially because she rejected him when they were young]].
** [[spoiler: Played straight with Elsa Greer, who not only murders Amyas when she learns he never planned to leave his wife for her and was only using her; she also frames the woman he really loves, Caroline.]]

* MeaninglessVillainVictory: [[Spoiler:Elsa succeeded in killing her lover Amyas and framing his wife Caroline for the murder. Even when Poirot deduces that she was the culprit instead of Caroline sixteen years after the murder, he admits that he doesn't have the concrete evidence to get her convicted. However, Elsa still feels like she ultimately lost because not only did Caroline's serene acceptance of her fate deprive her of any satisfaction she might have gained from watching her love rival get punished in her place, but her own life has been empty and devoid of joy after Amyas's death with her being unable to love any other man.]]

* MeaninglessVillainVictory: Elsa succeeded in killing her lover Amyas and framing his wife Caroline for the murder. Even when Poirot deduces that she was the culprit instead of Caroline sixteen years after the murder, he admits that he doesn't have the concrete evidence to get her convicted. However, Elsa still feels like she ultimately lost because not only did Caroline's serene acceptance of her fate deprive her of any satisfaction she might have gained from watching her love rival get punished in her place, but her own life has been empty and devoid of joy after Amyas's death with her being unable to love any other man.

* KarmaHoudini: As Poirot himself admits at the end, he has no evidence, so [[spoiler:Elsa]]will get away with murder. However...

* KarmaHoudini: As Poirot himself admits at the end, he has no evidence, so Elsa will get away with murder. However...

* GenderBlenderName: When this novel was written and originally published, "Meredith" was still an exclusively male name; it wasn't until very late in the twentieth century that it lost this status, and became mainly a girls' name.

* HeroicSacrifice: Played with: [[spoiler: Caroline Crayle ''thinks'' that she's doing this to spare Angela from prosecution for murder and to [[TheAtoner atone]] for blinding her as a child, but as it turns out Angela is completely innocent and Caroline's sacrifice is needless. However, the peace and courage Caroline derives from what she thinks is this trope ironically serves to thwart Elsa by depriving her of any satisfaction she might have received from seeing her romantic rival be punished for her crime.]]

* ParentalSubstitute: Shortly after Caroline maimed her half-sister their parents died and Caroline spent the rest of her life as her mother and trying to ammend her mistake.
* ParentsAsPeople: Lampshaded by Poirot when he finds strange that every witness seems to forget that the murder victim has a little daughter: Miss Williams as the governess discusses it when she explains that middle class children know that their parents love them but are too busy providing for them to pay attention; the love between the affluent murder victim and his wife was so intense that the baby could never have been their first concern.

** Another possible example is [[spoiler: Elsa, who still seems to be in love with Amyas Crayle even after he rejected her and she murdered him]].

* DeathByWomanScorned: Amyas' womanizing ways eventually got him murdered. [[spoiler:Elsa, one of his lovers, genuinely believed his claims when he told her that he would leave his wife for her. Then she overheard the truth, got her heartbroken, and killed Amyas in revenge.]]

* BettyAndVeronica: Amyas Crale stands in the middle between his long-suffering wife, Caroline, and his young, but glamorous, new model, Elsa.

* TogetherInDeath: [[spoiler:Amyas and Caroline, who remained devoted to each other right to the end, despite initial appearances. Part of Elsa's psychological punishment for her crime is that she feels as if the husband and wife have escaped together to a place beyond her reach, and that they have not died at all, but she has.]]

* TogetherInDeath: [[spoiler:Amyas and Caroline. Part of Elsa's psychological punishment for her crime is that she feels as if the husband and wife have escaped to a place beyond her reach, and that they have not died at all, but she has.]]

* TogetherInDeath: [[spoiler:Amyas and Caroline. Elsa feels as if the husband and wife have escaped to a place beyond her reach, and that it is not they, but Elsa, who has truly died.]]

* {{Foil}}: Caroline Crale and Elsa Greer. [[spoiler:Caroline has developed into a woman of great conscience and self-sacrificing love, putting up with her husband's dalliances and deliberately taking the fall for a crime she did not commit in order to protect Angela, while Elsa is an egotist whose love is only of the selfish kind with zero consideration for the feelings of others; it leads her to attempt to break up a marriage, and failing that, murder her lover and frame her rival for it. Despite going on to lead a rich and privileged life, Elsa has condemned herself to an utterly empty and joyless existence; by contrast, Caroline, despite her outwardly bleak fate of being wrongly condemned and dying in prison, manages to achieve a level of peace and fulfilment she'd never known before. As Elsa says, it is as if ''she'' is the one who has died, while Caroline and Amyas have escaped to a place where she can no longer reach them or harm them.]]

* {{Foil}}: Caroline Crale and Elsa Greer. [[spoiler:Caroline has developed into a woman of great conscience and self-sacrificing love, putting up with her husband's dalliances and deliberately taking the fall for a crime she did not commit in order to protect Angela, while Elsa is an egoist whose love is only of the selfish kind with zero consideration of the feelings of others; it leads her to attempt to break up a marriage, and failing that, murder her lover and frame her rival for it. Despite going on to lead a rich and privileged life, Elsa has condemned herself to an utterly empty and joyless existence; by contrast, Caroline, despite her outwardly bleak fate of being wrongly condemned and dying in prison, manages to achieve a level of peace and fulfilment she'd never known before. As Elsa says, it is as if ''she'' is the one who has died, while Caroline and Amyas have escaped to a place where she can no longer reach them or harm them.]]