Whose Body? 3

Study Guide Questions for Chapter Three

If you are looking for the beginning of the study of Dorothy Sayers’ Whose Body?then you can go HERE for a brief introduction. At the bottom of the introduction you will find the links to each section of the study guide as it becomes available. If you would like to see the growing list of available book studies available for free on this site you can go HERE. Enjoy!

Virtues/Vices/Great Ideas: (Find them in the Text)

Proverb, Hospitality, Indifference

Grammar Questions: (The Information of the Text)

1. What did we learn about Lord Peter’s “looks?”

2. What conclusion(s) did Parker reach about the crime of the dead body in the bathtub?

3. Of what did Lord Peter say you “can’t have a crime without” it?

4. Who called Lord Peter while he was talking to Parker and with what request?

5. What had Lord Peter found “for” Inspector Sugg on a previous occasion?

6. What did the police chief call to tell Inspector Sugg?

7. What did Lord Peter tell the Applegate’s that  “Christian Feelin’s” have a tendency to do?

8. Where did Lord Peter take Mrs. Thipps?

9. What had Mr. Thipps done which made him look more suspicious?

10. Who had Lady Levy once been intended to marry? 

Logic Questions: (Interpreting, Comparing/Contrasting, Reasoning)

1. Why might the “Labour papers” make caricatures of Lord Peter Wimsey?

2. Lord Peter said, “A man who can afford to be humorous at all in such circumstances is a terrible fellow.” What did he mean by that?

3. Why would motive be important to establish when trying to solve a crime? In other words, why is it more difficult to solve a crime if one cannot determine a motive?

4. Wimsey tells a story where he said, “I knew a man once…” Whom is he most likely speaking about?

5. Upon arriving at the crime scene, where Inspector Sugg was, Lord Peter “found himself confronted with a surly manner and…a masterly inactivity.” What is meant by “masterly inactivity?”

6. Given what we have learned so far, what might best account for why Sugg really does not like Wimsey?

7. Lord Peter describes the reasoning of Inspector Sugg, stating, “His line of reasoning is: We’ve lost a middle-aged gentleman without any clothes on in Park Lane; we’ve found a middle-aged gentleman without any clothes on in Battersea. Therefore they’re one and the same person, Q.E.D.” To what degree is Sugg’s reasoning reasonable? Where does it go wrong?

8. What might account for Mr. Thipps’ inconsistencies in his alibi?

9. Having read this chapter, do you have any new suspicions about who might be involved in either the missing man (Sir Levy) or the anonymous body in the bathtub? If so, what are your suspicions and why do you have them?

Rhetoric Questions: (The Analysis of Ideas in the Text)

1. Define the concept of “hospitality.” In what way do we see hospitality shown and also denied in this present chapter?  What are some of the basic expectations of hospitality? To what degree, if any, do you think we have an obligation to be hospitable to others? Should the level of hospitality shown depend upon the level of acquaintance one has with the person in need of it? Explain your reasoning for why you think as you do.

2. Lord Peter referred to Aristotle’s “Golden Mean” which asserts that every virtue is a kind of middle between two extremes (vices of deficiency and excess). In other words, Aristotle believed every virtue depends upon the practice of temperance. What does it mean to be “temperate?” Why is temperance important in our lives? Why might someone argue (and some have) that temperance is a bad thing? How would you respond to those who see temperance in a negative light?

Theological Analysis: (Sola Scriptura)

1. Read Luke 7:36-50; Romans 12:13, and Hebrews 13:2. What do these passages teach concerning the concept of hospitality?

2. Read Proverbs 25:28 and 1 Corinthians 9:24-27. How do these passages address the concept of Temperance?