Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot's Christmas has several distinct and surprisingly functional couples:
Alfred & Lydia: Alfred is the somewhat high-strung "good" son married to Lydia, the cool and aloof wife. She creates miniature gardens, a revealing characterization (not simply a convenient one to the mystery). Although Lydia is tired of living in her father-in-law's home, she is intensely loyal to Alfred--without coming across as even slightly pressured or out of control (Christie created a similar wife, Nadine, in Appointment with Death). Alfred is torn by his commitments to his unkind father and his love for his wife. He hopes his wife will understand his decisions since he relies on her good sense and advice.
David & Hilda: David, another son, is the musician/dreamer, who idealizes his dead mother. He perceives his mother almost entirely as the victim of his father, a characterization that others refute. Hilda, his wife, is a kind of mother-earth figure: stolid, preternaturally calm, and honest. She worries for David and takes steps to help him make peace with the past--though she is too wise to nag or bully him towards that end. She balances his nervy, somewhat high-minded personality with a highly moral and firm personality of her own.
George & Magdalene: George, another son, is an MP and quite hilariously acts that way. Magdalene is his not entirely reliable and shallow wife who has got into trouble through overspending herself into debt. They "pompous" their way through the book as they fib and prevaricate with others and lie to each other. They are pitch-perfect in their reactions. (The television versions are also very funny.)
*Spoilers*
All of the couples are left standing at the end. Even better, Christie leaves the marriages intact. That is, she doesn't determine that one marriage deserves more consideration than another as being the "right" type of marriage. Even George and Magdalene, despite their problems, get along okay.
And I entirely agree with her! "Good" marriages are not determined by "proper" behaviors but by whether the people within the marriage can manage that particular marriage's idiosyncratic nature.
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| Martin and Osa Johnson |
A new couple emerges at the end of the book: Stephen, an illegitimate son, and Pilar, a woman pretending to be the granddaughter of the murdered man. They are quite similar in interests--though not in personality--to Despard and Rhoda from The Pale Horse. That is, although Stephen is more affable than Despard and Pilar is more confrontational than Rhoda, both prefer to leave England and go somewhere warm. They are explorers and travelers, not homebodies.
The power of Christie is that she creates Alfred & Lydia, thorough homebodies, without apology, and Stephen and Pilar, adventurers, without apology.
Stephen and Pilar will work out too.
