logo

69 pages 2 hours read

Agatha Christie

The Mousetrap

Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1950

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Introduction

The Mousetrap

  • Genre: Play; mystery
  • Originally Published: 1950
  • Reading Level/Interest: College/Adult
  • Structure/Length: Two acts, two scenes; approx. 70 pages
  • Protagonist/Central Conflict: Seven strangers are snowed in at a remote guesthouse in the country. A police sergeant arrives and tells them there is a killer among them, and the strangers are forced to reveal their sordid pasts. But who is the killer?
  • Potential Sensitivity Issues: Murder; stereotypes; racial slurs

Agatha Christie, Author

  • Bio: 1890-1976; English writer known as the “Queen of Crime” for her detective novels and for writing the world’s longest-running play, The Mousetrap; studied voice and piano in Paris at 16; served as a nurse during WWI; wrote over 70 detective and mystery novels in her lifetime, many adapted to stage plays and film; earned the Mystery Writers of America's Grand Master Award in 1955; awarded the title of Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1971; holds the title of the most-translated individual author and a Guinness World Record for best-selling fiction writer of all time with more than two billion copies sold
  • Other Works: Murder on the Orient Express (1934); Death on the Nile (1937); And Then There Were None (1939); A Pocket Full of Rye (1953); Sleeping Murder (1976)

CENTRAL THEMES connected and noted throughout this Teaching Unit:

blurred text
blurred text
blurred text
blurred text
blurred text
blurred text
blurred text
blurred text
Unlock IconUnlock all 69 pages of this Study Guide
Plus, gain access to 8,550+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features:
+ Mobile App
+ Printable PDF
+ Literary AI Tools