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
A few days later, Evelyn Howard sends Hastings a letter telling him that she’s working at a hospital roughly 15 miles away. She wants him to write to her if Mrs. Inglethorp has a change of heart and expresses a desire to contact her again. Even though the argument between Miss Howard and Mrs. Inglethorp unsettled the atmosphere at Styles, Hastings enjoys himself at the country home—except, that is, when he sees Mary Cavendish spending so much time with Dr. Bauerstein. He doesn’t understand what she sees in him, finding Bauerstein off-putting and suspicious.
Hastings’s suspicion of Dr. Bauerstein isn’t necessarily all that dependable, since his judgment is obviously clouded by his fondness for Mary Cavendish. He is, in other words, jealous of Dr. Bauerstein’s close relationship with her, and his jealousy impairs his ability to accurately assess whether or not Bauerstein is trustworthy.
Themes
On Monday the 16th, Emily Inglethorp hosts a charity event, at which she recites a war poem. The next day, she takes Hastings and Lawrence out to lunch, and on their way back, Lawrence suggests that they should pay Cynthia a visit at the hospital. Mrs. Inglethorp has a few matters to attend to at home, so she goes on ahead while Hastings accompanies Lawrence to the hospital, where Cynthia eagerly welcomes them for tea. She shows them the dispensary, where she and another medical professional prepare medicine for the hospital’s patients. Hastings jokingly asks how many people Cynthia has poisoned, and she makes fun of him for asking something so unoriginal—everyone, after all, always makes a joke about accidental poisonings when they visit the dispensary.
Cynthia and Hastings’s conversation about poison adds to the novel’s atmosphere of suspense, especially since there have already been several mentions of poison. Although it’s not yet clear what, exactly, is going to happen at Styles Court to create such a scandalous mystery, it seems overwhelmingly likely that it will have something to do with poison.
Themes
Cynthia gets tired of jokes about poison, especially since it’s so easy to actually poison someone by accident. As she speaks, Lawrence looks through the many bottles, prompting Cynthia to interrupt herself to tell him not to go poking around in a certain area, saying, “No, Lawrence—that’s the poison cupboard.” She then invites them to step out onto a small balcony. As Hastings, Cynthia, and Cynthia’s coworker leave the room, Lawrence stays behind for a moment, but Cynthia soon calls after him and he joins them. On their way home, Hastings reflects on Lawrence’s behavior, finding him difficult to read because he’s shy. He has noticed, however, that both Lawrence and Cynthia are especially reserved when they’re around each other, though they were perfectly cordial this afternoon.
The way Lawrence behaves around the poison is undeniably suspicious. And yet, Hastings doesn’t seem to make much of the fact that his acquaintance not only opens the poison cupboard but also stays behind when everyone else leaves the room. Other than simply narrating the events, Hastings doesn’t voice any suspicions about Lawrence; his only comments about Lawrence’s behavior have to do with how he acted around Cynthia. And though this might simply be due to the fact that nothing sinister has happened yet, it seems noteworthy that Hastings is such a trusting and unobservant person—he wants to be a detective, but his powers of observation and inference hint that he might not possess the cynical, calculating mind of a sleuth.
Themes
Hastings stops to get some stamps on the way back to Styles. Stepping out of the post office, he’s astonished to come face to face with his old Belgian friend, Hercule Poirot. He excitedly introduces Cynthia to Poirot, but Cynthia already knows him—Poirot is well acquainted with the people living at Mrs. Inglethorp’s house, since Mrs. Inglethorp has treated him and his fellow Belgians very well while they’ve been away from home during the war. The whole way back to Styles, Hastings talks about Poirot’s incredible skills as a detective.
There’s something comedic about how much Hastings admires Poirot, given that the novel has already implied that he himself isn’t necessarily built for detective work. Hastings has already declared that he wants to be a detective because of his friendship with Poirot, but the scene in the dispensary with Lawrence and Cynthia has subtly suggested that he doesn’t have the sharp, curious ways of thinking that somebody like Poirot surely possesses.
Themes
Literary Devices
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When Hastings and the others return, they find Mrs. Inglethorp in a strange mood. Cynthia asks if everything is all right, and Mrs. Inglethorp sharply says everything is fine. She then demands that Dorcas, one of the servants, bring her some stamps. Dorcas can see that Mrs. Inglethorp is upset and suggests that she might benefit from some rest, but Mrs. Inglethorp refuses: she must finish some letters before the mail goes out. Having said this, she asks Dorcas if she lit a fire in her bedroom like she asked, and Dorcas assures her that she did.
The Mysterious Affair at Styles is full of small details that might seem unimportant but later become quite crucial. This is especially true in the book’s first chapters, since even the smallest occurrences will later come under scrutiny in the aftermath of the novel’s defining event. Suffice it to say, this section contains an important detail—namely, the fact that Emily Inglethorp wants to have a fire going in her bedroom.
Themes
After Mrs. Inglethorp disappears into her room to write her letters, Hastings and Cynthia decide to play tennis. They each go get ready with the plan of meeting back up on the court. On his way, Hastings walks by the open window of Mrs. Inglethorp’s bedroom and overhears a conversation between her and Mary Cavendish. Their tones are forceful, as if they’re arguing, and Mary says, “Then you won’t show it to me?” Mrs. Inglethorp replies by assuring her that whatever they’re talking about has “nothing to do” with what Mary thinks, but Mary persists, accusing Mrs. Inglethorp of trying to “shield him”—though it’s unclear to whom she’s referring.
The particulars of this exchange are all but incomprehensible at this point in the book. The only thing that readers can glean from what Hastings overhears is that Mary thinks Emily Inglethorp is protecting someone (a man) by keeping quiet about something. Beyond this, it’s impossible to know what’s going on, but the confusion adds to the secrecy and suspense pervading the otherwise pleasant atmosphere of Styles Court.
Themes
Hastings hurries on and meets up with Cynthia, who tells him there has been a terrible argument between Emily Inglethorp and Alfred Inglethorp. Dorcas overheard the fight a little earlier and filled Cynthia in. Hastings immediately thinks about what Evelyn Howard implied about Alfred having an affair with Mrs. Raikes, but he doesn’t say anything. Despite all the drama, Alfred Inglethorp reveals no emotion that night at dinner. Afterwards, everyone settles in with some coffee, but Mrs. Inglethorp decides she’ll have hers in her room, where she will be writing a letter. Mary Cavendish is about to bring it to her, but Mr. Inglethorp tells her not to bother—he will bring it up.
Once again, the social dynamics at Styles Court are quite tense, as everyone seems to know about the arguments taking place in the house. In addition, this scene contains more small details that, though seemingly insignificant in the present, will factor heavily into later parts of the novel—details, for instance, like Alfred Inglethorp’s insistence upon bringing Emily her coffee.
Themes
Lawrence quickly follows Alfred upstairs. Meanwhile, everyone relaxes downstairs, and Hastings relishes the opportunity to simply pass the time in Mary Cavendish’s company. But then Dr. Bauerstein arrives, much to Hastings’s disappointment. Bauerstein is covered from head to toe in mud, explaining that he was just examining some rare ferns nearby when Mr. Inglethorp found him and insisted that he come in for coffee. Just then, Emily Inglethorp steps into the hall and asks Cynthia to bring up her dispatch case—a case she uses to store all of her correspondences. Because she stepped into the hall, Hastings notes, there are three witnesses who can attest that she was, at that point, still holding her coffee, which she had yet to sip.
While the events that Hastings narrates in this scene might seem exhaustive and trivial, the mere fact that his narration is so focused on small details hints that something major is going to happen. When he says that three people—himself included—witness Emily Inglethorp holding her coffee and that she hasn’t sipped it yet, he implies that something about her coffee (and the timeline of when she drinks it) is important.
Themes
After a moment, Dr. Bauerstein takes his leave. Alfred decides to walk him home, saying he has to meet an accountant in town to talk about certain accounts. He announces that he’s taking a key with him, so nobody has to sit up waiting to let him back in.
That Alfred goes out of his way to make sure nobody waits up for him only makes his behavior seem even more suspicious. At this point in the novel, it seems overwhelmingly likely that everyone’s misgivings about him might actually be well founded.
Themes
