Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Mysterious Affair at Styles, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Logic and Deduction
Love and Passion
Suspense, Intrigue, and Secrecy
Wealth, Inheritance, and Power
Summary
Analysis
When Hastings reaches Poirot’s apartment, he discovers that he has gone to London without notice. Perplexed, he makes his way back to Styles Court and tells John about Bauerstein’s arrest, and the two of them decide not to say anything until the news breaks in the following day’s paper. Except, the next day’s paper says nothing of the arrest. Thankfully, though, Poirot returns from London and clears things up—of course, he hadn’t heard that Bauerstein was arrested, but he still can confidently say why it happened. The doctor wasn’t taken in by police for murdering Mrs. Inglethorp, but because he’s a foreign spy.
Once again, Hastings’s skills as a detective are somewhat lacking. He immediately assumes that Dr. Bauerstein was arrested for killing Emily Inglethorp, simply because that would fit with the narrative Hastings himself has already convinced himself is true. By fixating on his own ideas and letting his mind run wild, then, Hastings misses the truth.
Themes
Poirot points out how odd it is that Dr. Bauerstein—a renowned specialist—has been living in a small country town instead of London. Bauerstein also goes around at strange hours of the night, a sure sign that he’s a spy. Poirot notes that he’s clearly a native German, though he has been in England so long that he has mostly gotten rid of his accent. Poirot thinks he established a private connection with Mary Cavendish so that people would gossip about them having an affair. As long as everyone thought they were sneaking around together, they would completely overlook Bauerstein’s spy work.
According to Poirot, Bauerstein used his supposed affair with Mary Cavendish as a way of hiding his spy work. Bauerstein thus proves that it’s possible to use love and passion to one’s own advantage, since it’s widely understood that people often do crazy things for love. Romance therefore becomes something people can use to mask their sinister behavior—an important point to remember as the novel progresses.
Themes
Poirot’s comment about Bauerstein and Mary’s relationship gives Hastings hope that Bauerstein never truly cared about Mary in a romantic way. In fact, Poirot even suggests that Mary never felt strongly for Bauerstein, either. When pressed, though, all he will say is that she has feelings for somebody else. Hastings lets his mind run wild with this suggestion, hoping that Mary has a special fondness for him.
This time, Hastings isn’t particularly annoyed by Poirot’s secrecy. Instead, he lets himself get carried away with the idea that Mary might have romantic feelings for him, thus demonstrating his tendency to favor theories that seem appealing to him instead of looking at things objectively.
Themes
As Poirot and Hastings discuss Dr. Bauerstein’s arrest, Evelyn Howard enters the room and gives Poirot a piece of paper, telling him that she found it on top of the wardrobe in Emily Inglethorp’s room. The paper is a letter from a famous theatrical costume company and is addressed to Lawrence Cavendish. Poirot doesn’t read out what the paper says. Instead, he simply says that he guessed that such a paper might exist and therefore asked Evelyn to look for it. Putting the matter aside, he calls for Dorcas and asks her if there were any problems on Monday the 16th with the bell system in Emily Inglethorp’s room. She confirms that there was, indeed, a problem, adding that she thinks a mouse chewed through the wire. Somebody came and fixed it on Tuesday morning.
The discovery of the letter from a costume company to Lawrence perhaps suggests that Lawrence was the one who bought the fake black beard that was used to impersonate Alfred at the dispensary. Indeed, the letter adds to the growing list of indicators that Lawrence was somehow involved in Emily Inglethorp’s murder, though Poirot doesn’t dwell on the matter—or, at the very least, he doesn’t let the others know what he makes of this new development.
Themes
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Overjoyed with the information he has just discovered, Poirot dances out of the house and runs across the yard. Mary Cavendish enters the room and looks at Poirot out the window, joking about how odd he is. She and Hastings then have a tense conversation in which Hastings tries to discern if Mary truly dislikes Cynthia (as Cynthia herself has suggested). Mary instantly senses what he’s doing and assures him that Cynthia doesn’t have to worry about her.
Hastings enjoys the idea of becoming everyone’s confidant at Styles Court, but he lacks the subtlety and grace to serve as a mediator between people like Mary and Cynthia. The fact that Mary instantly recognizes that he’s talking to her on Cynthia’s behalf illustrates just how bad Hastings is at hiding his true motives—a terrible quality for anyone interested in detective work to possess.
Themes
Literary Devices
Mary reveals that she and John aren’t happy, going on to tell Hastings the original circumstances of their marriage. When both her parents died, she explains, she lived a miserable life with her aunts. She then met John, who asked her to marry him. But she didn’t love him back. John accepted this and still wanted to marry her, and—hoping she’d come to love him—she accepted. But she now thinks they’ve drifted apart, believing that John has grown tired of her. For this reason, she’s considering leaving him and Styles Court altogether.
Even though Hastings doesn’t have the smooth interpersonal skills he’d like to think he has, it’s obvious that people seem to trust him. Mary, for instance, opens up to him about her strained marriage to John. In doing so, she possibly gives Hastings some hope that he might have a chance with her, though it’s worth noting that nothing about what she says necessarily implies this.
Themes
Hastings tells Mary not to do anything “rash,” and then—for reasons he can’t begin to understand himself—asks her what she thinks of Bauerstein’s arrest. Her demeanor changes, but she has no trouble talking about how Bauerstein must be a German spy. Still, the comment puts an end to their conversation, as Mary leaves the room as soon as possible.
Even though Hastings himself has romantic feelings for Mary, he becomes defensive of John when Mary suggests that she might leave him. He most likely thinks Mary means she will leave her husband to be with Bauerstein, which is why he impulsively brings up the fact that the doctor was recently arrested for espionage. Yet again, then, Hastings lets his emotions get the best of him.
Themes
Later that afternoon, Lawrence pulls Hastings aside. “I think I’ve found the extra coffee cup!” he whispers, but he’ll say no more. Curious about what this means, Hastings visits Poirot’s apartment to deliver the message. But he finds Poirot in a state of turmoil, and when he asks what’s wrong, Poirot cryptically says he’s trying to decide whether or not to speak up—he has, after all, determined the killer’s identity. The problem, though, is that a “woman’s happiness” is at stake. He doesn’t explain what he means by this enigmatic statement. Moving on, Hastings delivers Lawrence’s message, which pleases Poirot.
The message about the “extra coffee cup” remains unclear and mysterious, adding to the mounting feeling of confusion that Hastings himself clearly feels in relation to the investigation. Poirot, on the other hand, seems to have a perfect grasp of everything that has happened, considering that he has figured out the murderer’s identity. And yet, he still doesn’t reveal his theories, preferring instead to ponder them on his own while continuing to make enigmatic statements that only heighten Hastings’s—and, in turn, the reader’s—sense of intrigue and suspense.
Themes
Poirot tells Hastings that he visited the dispensary and that, though Cynthia wasn’t there because she has Wednesdays off, the person working showed him everything he needed to see. He then changes topics by asking Hastings to look at three fingerprint samples. The first sample is of a man’s finger, the second is of a woman’s, and the final one is jumbled and messy, but Hastings can see that it displays the same fingerprint as the one in the first sample. Poirot agrees with this assessment, which confirms his own thoughts. He explains that the first sample is of Lawrence’s finger. The second one is of Cynthia’s finger. And the final sample is taken from a bottle of strychnine that is kept in the dispensary.
The fact that Lawrence’s fingerprints were found on a bottle of poison in the dispensary seems quite condemning, especially considering all of the other evidence stacked against him—including, of course, the letter from the costume maker, which suggests that he bought a fake beard to impersonate Alfred Inglethorp. And yet, there’s a discrepancy between these two pieces of evidence: if Lawrence dressed as Alfred and bought strychnine from Mr. Mace’s pharmacy, then why would he also have needed to steal strychnine from the dispensary?
Themes
Hastings is flabbergasted. But Poirot isn’t so sure about his own discovery—there’s too much strychnine involved in the case, he says. There was the strychnine in Mrs. Inglethorp’s tonic, the strychnine sold by Mr. Mace, and now the strychnine with Lawrence’s fingerprints. The poison’s abundance throughout the case seems suspicious to the seasoned detective.
Whereas Hastings immediately jumps to conclusions, Poirot thinks critically about the evidence they’ve gathered. There’s so much strychnine involved in this case, he realizes, that it doesn’t necessarily help narrow things down to a single culprit. Indeed, it’s almost as if somebody has tried to plant as much evidence as possible.
Themes
Hastings and Poirot’s conversation is interrupted by the arrival of Mary Cavendish. She was in the village and knew Hastings was at Poirot’s, so she wanted to see if he would walk her back. Poirot is disappointed that she didn’t come to pay him a visit, but she promises to do so someday if he ever invites her. In turn, he tells her that if she ever needs to confide in him, she should feel free to do so. His comment catches her off guard, but then she recovers and invites him to walk back to Styles Court with her and Hastings. The whole way back, Hastings has the distinct feeling that Mary is anxious in Poirot’s presence.
This exchange between Poirot and Mary is hard to understand, but the fact that he says she can tell him anything suggests that he already knows she has something to divulge. The problem, though, is that she doesn’t seem willing to tell him her secret yet, despite the likelihood that he already knows exactly what she’s hiding.
Themes
Literary Devices
When Hastings, Poirot, and Mary arrive at Styles Court, Dorcas rushes out and tells them that the police have arrested Mr. Cavendish. Hastings immediately assumes she’s referring to Lawrence, but Dorcas corrects him—the police, she says, arrested John. Hearing this, Mary faints into Hastings’s arms. As he breaks her fall, Hastings briefly catches a knowing glimmer of “triumph” in Poirot’s eyes.
Once again, Hastings is caught completely off guard while Poirot remains unsurprised. Poirot seems to have already known that the police would arrest John Cavendish. Because he likes to keep his theories to himself, though, he never said anything, thus adding to the novel’s feeling of suspense and surprise.
Themes
