Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot- The Detective and his Methodology

Hercule Poirot, the legendary moustachioed Belgian private investigator, is recognised and respected by police forces and heads of state all over the world for his brilliance and grasp of the criminal mind. From Azerbaijan to Vietnam, Poirot has captured audiences' hearts and minds since he first appeared more than a century ago. His illustrious cases have been chronicled in 33 original books and more than 50 short pieces.


Poirot is characterised in writing as having an egg-shaped head that is frequently tilted to one side and eyes that gleam green when he is enthusiastic. Poirot is described in writing as standing at a modest 5'4", however there have been many interpretations of this on stage and screen. He takes great pride in his appearance and dresses extremely precisely.

Because of his moustache, he gained more notoriety. The moustache precedes Poirot into a room; it is lavish, majestic, enormous, and meticulously groomed; it is a distinctive conversation point, it is provocative, and it has a personality all its own.

A former Belgian police officer, Poirot is now a well-known private investigator. Poirot was quite picky about his books; he demands accuracy and neatness, and even arranges them by height. He takes tremendous pride in his appearance, as evidenced by his perfectly maintained black moustache. He takes great care in his thick, waxed black moustache and always dresses perfectly, down to his patent leather shoes. He dyes his grey hair a dark shade using a product called "Revivit."

Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple are two iconic fictional detectives that appear in detective fiction written by Agatha Christie. Both have captivated readers for years, serving as models for the majority of detective fiction that followed. Since his creation in 1916, he has become one of fiction's most well-known detectives. (When Agatha Christie wrote The Mysterious Affairs at Styles, her debut book.)

Poirot is a methodical person, and he believes that the best way to solve a crime is to use the brain's grey matter. He mocks techniques like examining footsteps, gathering cigarette ash, using a magnifying glass to look for clues, or taking fingerprints. He claims that by correctly arranging the puzzle pieces, any crime may be solved. He must merely "sit still in an armchair and think" since he is an armchair investigator.

Poirot frequently just sits down, thinks about a situation, and solves it. Poirot, who thinks that employing the brain's grey cells is the best instrument for solving crimes, also values the detective approach. He seems to dismiss techniques like looking at prints, taking photos, getting fingerprints, or using a magnifying lens to look for evidence.

The clinical method is primarily used by Poirot when conducting criminal investigations.

Poirot makes fun of a rival detective who concentrates on the usual trail of clues that had been established in detective fiction by example of Sherlock Holmes: footprints, fingerprints, and cigar ash as early as Murder on the Links, where he still heavily relies on clues.

From this point on, he makes a name for himself as a psychological investigator who investigates the victim or the murderer rather than laboriously going through the crime scene. His behaviour in the later novels is heavily influenced by the underlying presumption that certain crimes can only be committed by specific categories of people.

The goal of Poirot's approach is to encourage conversation. He regularly plays the part of "Papa Poirot" early on in the novels, a kind confessor, especially to young women. Later, he freely lies to other characters to gain their trust, either by inventing his own justification for being interested in the case or a personal justification for starting a line of questioning about them.
All of these methods aid Poirot in achieving his main objective. “People were destined to reveal themselves in the long run, whether through a lie or the truth”.


By-
Sriparna Mukherjee
Amity University, Kolkata

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