Agatha Christie is a genius of a woman. She created complex, realistic characters capable of murder, suicide, justice, and hope. Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple are, to this day, known to most mystery readers. Today we dive into her book themes, her life, and that one time she disappeared.
Christie was born in 1890 - yes, that long ago - and wrote 66 detective novels, 14 short story collections, and a lot of plays. She wrote under the name Mary Westmacott, as well. She learned to read at age 5 - by herself. The pharmacy education she had gave her a good handle on what drugs can do to someone. She was married twice, divorced once. She is a Dame (female equivalent of knighting and becoming a Sir).
The disappearance
When she found out her husband was cheating on her she became a bit unhinged. Early in December she left her daughter in the care of the housekeeper and took off without telling anyone where she was going. Her car was abandoned miles away beside a lake. The search went as far as dredging the lake and lasted 11 days. She was recognized at a spa, The Harrogate Spa Hotel, and was going under the name Theresa Neale (the name of the woman her husband's mistress). She didn't remember who she was. She never discussed that time in her life with anyone. She lived apart from her husband after that and eventually ended the marriage. All this happened around 1925 to 1927.
There was no evidence she was in an accident. There was a spring where a few kids had drowned and she was thought to have done the same in an act of suicide. The body was nowhere to be found. Her book was doing well, so they dismissed the suicide theory. Other mystery novelists, policemen, and civilians were brought in on the search. Arthur Conan Doyle took her glove to a medium to try to get any information at all. When they found her at the Harrogate she was in no hurry to leave with her husband and even left him waiting in the lobby. It is possible she was in a minor car accident with a concussion or she was in a state of fog caused by depression and trauma. She never figured out what she did in those 11 days she lost. After the fog lifted she no longer tolerated her husband's cheating and left him.
Her Main Characters
Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, and Tommy and Tuppence were her three main series. I'll go one by one.
1. Hercule Poirot - He is a Belgian detective with OCD and high standards. He uses the "little grey cells" to solve his cases. His sense of justice is clear and part of his character. His mustache is quite famous. His ego is rather large and he takes pride in his clothes and looks. He often works with Captain Hastings and Ariadne Oliver (a mystery novelist).
2. Miss Marple - The small village of St. Mary Mead is blessed by this older woman who gardens until her doctor tells her she can no longer bend down to do so. She eavesdrops, gets her info from her housekeeping help, and spends most of her time figuring everything out in her own house. She also complains about her gardener doing everything wrong and she can't do much about it because she can't bend down to do it herself. Her housekeeper Cherry and her husband live in the cottage behind her house.
3. Tommy and Tuppence - This pair is without work after WWI and finds all the trouble that they can to fill their time. They formed Young Adventurers LTD and all the adventures they want fall into their lap. They marry after the first book and make a life together. There are fewer books in this series compared to the previous main characters.
Themes In Her Work
After watching hours of Poirot I have noticed little things that happen more than once. Suicide is common in her work. Disturbing? Quite, but if she wrote some of this close to her disappearance it isn't surprising. Trauma in life shows up in the books she wrote. Another reason I think she had a blue period for a while in Poirot's series is the one-after-another frequency of suicide or double suicide endings.
Justice is another theme I see. Poirot embodies this, as well as other novels. And Then There Were None is all about people who did wrong and the law can't touch them, who now die one by one. The idea that justice is important enough to murder for shows up in Murder On The Orient Express.
One of the most interesting themes is that any human can commit murder when pushed far enough. In Curtains, we see Captain Hastings almost do so at the psychological manipulation of another person. Poirot is willing to do so in the same book to save others from this psychological manipulator. Even Poirot committed murder. Killing another human for money, revenge, or any other reason is, according to her books, scarily easy. I'm fairly certain that she isn't wrong, especially when someone has abused another person for a long time. The worst, most prolonged, cruelest murders are the ones done because someone else suffered at the victim's hands or was abused too often.
If you see cheating husbands and wives in her books you shouldn't be surprised. Agatha herself was cheated on and she knows all too well how that feels. With that experience and the human nature she observed, no one should be shocked when several characters are cheating on each other. It is sad that she put up with her husband for so long. While she did remarry and travel happily with her next husband, I'm sure it still hurt years later.
Lastly, here are the general patterns other readers found in her books. Some people have noticed that she made doctors murderers in several books. Trains also seem to interest her and several settings are trains. Detectives never getting a true vacation is not new to the mystery section. It shows up here. Casual past events brought up are rarely irrelevant. Usually, uniformed servers are ignored. Also, generation gaps, remaining in the past, and general mistrust are all there. One theme that comes up in a lot of women characters is the nonconforming manner of them. Basically, they are told they have to do one thing and do something else instead. This is in several books.
Sources:
https://www.agathachristie.com/about-christie
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Agatha-Christie
https://www.historyextra.com/period/20th-century/Agatha-christie-disappearance-mystery-facts-Poirot-miss-Marple-detective/#:~:text=On%20Friday%203%20December%201926,Christie's%20own%20'whodunnit'%20mysteries.
https://www.agathachristie.com/characters/hercule-poirot
https://dailytimes.com.pk/268145/agatha-christies-writings-tell-us-murder-is-easy/#:~:text=One%20of%20the%20recurring%20themes%20of%20her%20books%20is%20that,Hercule%20Poirot%20and%20Miss%20Marple.
https://www.librarything.com/topic/20848
https://community-archive.agathachristie.com/discussion/1086/recurring-themes-in-christies-work
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Agatha Christie Wiki-Fandom
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