Please enable JavaScript.

Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.

'The Mysterious Affair at Styles' (Agatha Christie's style…

- - - - Numerous references to WWI
        
        War games being played in the English countryside when Poirot makes his entrance
        
        Hastings is a conduit to WWI - he suffers nightmares of tanks going over no man's land towards the trenches
        
        First scenes of the film include real footage from the trenches
        
        Hasting himself draws a direct comparison between WWI & Styles when John Cavendish is first escorting him to the Country House
    - - Poirot leads his countrymen in singing 'It's a Long Way to Tipperary' a famous British WWI song
      - This message appears on the footage the Hastings is watching in the opening scenes of the film.
- - - - Pays attention to domestic details = distinct feminine quality
        
        Poirot's French heritage also contributes to his feminine qualities eg. hugging and kissing
        
        Contrast between Poirot and war (masculinity)
        
        in comparison to the men in the war scenes, Poirot's personality and behaviour can be perceived as more feminine especially during the 1920-30's.
  - - - Poirot: intuitive and intellectual
- - - - No melodramatic responses to. The film is portrayed more like a play/ theatre performance. For example the sons' reaction to their mother dying was quite subdued. This is deliberate to make pain less the focus of the story.
  - - - No deep characterisation within Christie's novels
  - - - All* dialogue within Christie's novels is imperative to the plot of the story
  - - - Inglethorp seems too obvious to be the murderer, then he is seemingly cleared as innocent in the middle of the plot by Poirot, however he turns out to be the murderer
- - - - Narrator
        
        Less intelligent than Poirot, likeable, makes assumptions based on prevailing views about class
        
        For example, Hasting outlines his theory that it was John Cavendish that murdered his mother because she threatened to change the will, thus completely overlooking other factors.
        
        Poirot shows Hastings up to be a complete amateur (idiot!)
      - Stupid, makes the detective explain everything (which helps the audience clarify their understanding of the case)
  - - - For example, Poirot discovers that items on the mantle-piece had been moved but we only find this out later in the story
      - The detective will always be one or two steps ahead of the audience
  - - - I think we are led to think we are expected to solve the puzzle, but actually we are meant to be thrown off without knowing so the smart detective can unravel the mystery at the end .
      - Christie gives us a lot of clues to work it out but they don't give us the full gist because they still have some prior knowledge that we aren't given to work