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By The Pricking of My Thumb?

mohamad_r-avatar
mohamad_r 26 Sep 10 at 10:19 a.m. GMT
Why Agatha Christie choose this title from Macbeth: By The Pricking of My Thumb? What relation is between this story and this quote in Macbeth?

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knottyceltic-avatar
knottyceltic 02 Oct 10 at 4:06 a.m. GMT

I didn't think of it much at the time I read it but I think to me the most obvious reasons are that the phrase means that the thumb "prickles" (or maybe tingles) when something bad is about to happen.  The pricking or prickling of the thumb is akin I suppose to the hair bristling on the back of the neck...an indication that something is scary or something wicked is about to happen.  Also there is the reference of witches or in Agatha Christi's story, "a witch" and indeed in the story something wicked has been done in the past and something wicked is going to be done in the future of the story.

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