Studia Humanitatis (Apr 2023)
Hercule Poirot, foreigners and traveling in the works by Agatha Christie
Abstract
The author is looking for an answer of the question how there was born an idea in a number of works by Agatha Christie. The article provides examples that were not mentioned earlier, showing the connection of the novelist’s work with episodes from her biography. Literary influences are indicated, it is proved that the appearance and development of Hercule Poirot’s image, complex and contradictory, occurred under the influence of a range of factors. Portraying foreigners, Christie draws attention to their difference from the British and, in the case of exotic peoples, from Europeans in general. The traveling theme takes different forms from the novelist, the geographical element is manifested in the surnames of the heroes. People are compared by Christie to animals and inanimate objects, their names reflect the general ideological concept of the work. The writer’s creativity is quite metaphorical which gives much of Christie’s works an almost philosophical sound.
