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
Hastings walks outside and sees Lawrence playing croquet, so he approaches him and delivers Poirot’s message. He explains that Poirot wanted him to wait until they were alone before saying, “Find the extra coffee cup, and you can rest in peace.” Lawrence has no idea what he’s talking about. He asks him to say it again, but hearing it a second time doesn’t help him make any sense of the words.
Even Lawrence is stumped by Poirot’s mysterious message. Given that Lawrence has no idea what the detective could be referring to, it’s likely that Poirot has some kind of hidden motive, perhaps hoping the message will encourage Lawrence to think hard about something he might otherwise have ignored. In a way, then, Poirot begins to cast a wide net by involving other members of the Styles household in his investigation.
Themes
That afternoon, Hastings goes for a walk through the woods. He lies underneath a tree at a certain point and drifts to sleep. When he awakes, he realizes that John and Mary Cavendish are having an argument in the woods. They don’t know he’s nearby, and though he doesn’t necessarily want to, he can’t help but listen to their conversation. John asks Mary if she’s going to keep seeing Dr. Bauerstein even though John himself doesn’t want her to. Mary says she will do whatever she wants, adding that John shouldn’t act like he doesn’t have his own secret acquaintances. Just before she leaves, he catches her arm and asks if she’s in love with Bauerstein. “Perhaps,” she says before walking away.
Hastings stumbles on some interesting information in this scene, as he confirms that Mary and Dr. Bauerstein’s relationship is something that upsets John—indeed, it appears that Mary is having an affair, though neither she nor John fully say as much. If Dr. Bauerstein is a suspect in the murder case, though, Mary’s romantic relationship with him might account for her unwillingness to be completely truthful at the inquest.
Themes
Once Mary is gone, Hastings emerges as if he’s just walking through the woods. John doesn’t seem to suspect that he overheard anything, merely greeting him and starting to complain about the publicity that the murder has attracted to the family. He also expresses distress about the murderer’s identity—if it’s not Alfred Inglethorp, he says, then it must be somebody else in the house. As soon as he says this, Hastings has an idea, which he blurts out: the murderer must be Dr. Bauerstein. He even tells John that Poirot suspects Bauerstein, citing Poirot’s excitement after hearing that Bauerstein visited the house on Tuesday evening. Hastings himself thinks Bauerstein must have poisoned the coffee when Alfred let him into the house.
Hastings once again shows his impulsive side when he blurts out that Dr. Bauerstein must be the murderer. He does this, it appears, because he wants to bond with John over a mutual dislike of Bauerstein, of whom he himself is jealous because of his relationship with Mary. Caught up in his excitement, he suggests that even Poirot suspects Bauerstein of the murder—a somewhat irresponsible thing to say, since John is, at this point in the novel, just as suspicious as anyone else and therefore probably isn’t someone Hastings should be confiding in.
Themes
John Cavendish—whom Hastings has previously suggested is somewhat slow and unimaginative—is hesitant to go along with Hastings’s theory. He points out that Bauerstein wouldn’t have known whose cup he was poisoning. Hastings takes a moment and then suggests that the coffee wasn’t what killed Mrs. Inglethorp. Instead, Bauerstein must have poisoned her cocoa, which is why Poirot took it to be analyzed. But John points out that Bauerstein himself had already had the cocoa analyzed—a point Hastings latches onto, insisting that Bauerstein probably substituted the sample for one without poison. But then John reminds Hastings that cocoa isn’t bitter enough to mask the taste of strychnine.
The exchange between John and Hastings in the woods is somewhat humorous, since John makes Hastings look irrational and overexcited even though Hastings secretly thinks John is unintelligent. Hastings fancies himself a sharp, observant person who’s well-suited for detective work, but John quickly pokes holes in every single theory he proposes, ultimately illustrating that Hastings isn’t quite as clever as he’d like to think.
Themes
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Hastings is no longer sure of his theory. But then he realizes that Dr. Bauerstein might have had an accomplice—someone, perhaps, like Mary Cavendish. He hopes John hasn’t just thought the same thing. He also suddenly remembers the conversation he overheard between Mary and Mrs. Inglethorp, thinking that maybe Mrs. Inglethorp found out about her feelings for Bauerstein and threatened to tell John, ultimately giving Mary a motive to kill her. What’s more, he realizes that Miss Howard’s reluctance to admit her true suspicions supports the idea of Mary being the murderer. Evelyn Howard, after all, wouldn’t want to accuse Mary, and even Mrs. Inglethorp herself probably wouldn’t want to see the Cavendish name fall into disgrace, even if that meant letting her own death go “unavenged.”
Hastings’s theory spins out of control in this moment, as he tries desperately to make sense of his own suggestion. And yet, it’s worth noting that his thought process becomes a bit more detailed and in-depth, as he finally tries to make sense of the conversation he overheard between Mary and Emily—a conversation he previously couldn’t be bothered to even consider important. He thus goes from spouting off half-baked ideas to engaging in a more rigorous kind of mental investigation, suggesting that all detectives have to start somewhere, even when that means entertaining some unlikely ideas.
Themes
Not wanting John to think too much about the matter anymore, Hastings changes the subject. They return to Styles Court, where everyone is gathering for tea. Cynthia says she wants to talk to Hastings afterwards, so they go for a walk. She tells him that Mrs. Inglethorp promised to leave her money—but she didn’t do it, and now Cynthia doesn’t know what she should do. She wants to know if Hastings thinks she should leave Styles Court, and when he insists that everyone would be sad to see her go, she says that Mary Cavendish hates her. She also thinks Lawrence hates her.
Although Hastings might not be the best detective, it appears that certain members of the Styles Court household see him as a trustworthy confidant. Cynthia, at least, feels comfortable telling him about her tricky financial situation, revealing that Emily Inglethorp wasn’t quite as generous as she liked to pretend to be. She also speaks truthfully about how she feels unwanted at Styles, indicating that Hastings is simply the kind of person people want to confide in.
Themes
As she complains about everyone at Styles Court hating her, Cynthia throws herself on the grass. Hastings realizes she’s quite attractive and suddenly finds himself asking her to marry him. She can’t believe her ears, and instead of giving him a straight answer, she starts laughing hysterically. He’s offended, but she tries to assure him that he shouldn’t be—he clearly doesn’t mean what he says. She jokes that he should be careful about proposing to people out of nowhere; somebody might actually say yes sometime! She then thanks him for cheering her up and walks back.
Once again, Hastings acts quite impulsively, seizing on his sudden affection for Cynthia and deciding that they would make a good married couple. His thinking here is obviously ridiculous, but he’s unable to recognize his own absurdity, ultimately demonstrating a lack of self-awareness that contributes to why he’s not cut out for detective work. Such work, after all, requires people to be discreet, discerning, and capable of controlling their emotions.
Themes
Dissatisfied with his interaction with Cynthia, Hastings decides to go into town to check on Bauerstein, thinking that somebody should be keeping tabs on him. When he goes to Bauerstein’s apartment, though, a woman downstairs tells him that the police took him away. Before asking any other questions, Hastings sprints off to find Poirot.
While Hastings is clearly not cut out for detective work, it seems—in this moment, at least—that he’s onto something by suspecting Dr. Bauerstein of murdering Emily. Bauerstein, after all, has been arrested, though it’s worth noting that Hastings doesn’t stick around to find out why the doctor was taken in by the police—yet another indicator that he’s not very good at gathering important information.
Themes
