Death on the Nile

Death on the Nile

by

Agatha Christie

Hercule Poirot Character Analysis

Hercule Poirot is an eccentric and brilliant detective, from Belgium, who also happens to have a spectacular mustache. By the time Death on the Nile takes place, Hercule Poirot is already internationally famous and many of the other characters know him by reputation. This parallels Poirot’s reputation in the real world—by the publication of the novel, he was well-established as one of Christie’s most famous creations and one of the most popular fictional detectives of all time. Despite the fact that many characters know Poirot (including Colonel Race, who helped him solve a previous case), Poirot’s involvement in the events of the novel is largely accidental—or perhaps fate—as he encounters the events of the novel only because he is vacationing in the area. Although he is first approached by Linnet and Simon Doyle to help them deal with Jacqueline de Bellefort (who has been stalking them on their honeymoon), Poirot refuses to accept money from them and gets involved, as he describes it, only in the general interest of humanity. Poirot’s investigative prowess endears him to some characters, like Mrs. Otterbourne and Mrs. Allerton, but other characters who are keeping secrets (such as Tim Allerton and Rosalie Otterbourne) often feel uneasy when Poirot talks to them. Poirot figures out the culprits of the central crime well before any of the other characters, although he often withholds information to reveal it at a dramatic moment and is willing to admit that sometimes his initial deductions are incorrect. Notably, Poirot is more interested in uncovering crimes than punishing them—he gives the thief of Linnet’s pearls (Tim Allerton, with some help from Joanna Southwood) a chance to reform himself and quietly return them, and even tacitly allows one of the main culprits (Jacqueline) to commit suicide instead of facing arrest. Poirot is part of a long lineage of detectives who don’t always follow the letter of the law, and his status as an outsider helps Christie explore how a traditional justice system both does and doesn’t serve real justice.

Hercule Poirot Quotes in Death on the Nile

The Death on the Nile quotes below are all either spoken by Hercule Poirot or refer to Hercule Poirot. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Justice Theme Icon
).
Chapter One Quotes

“She cares too much, that little one,” he said to himself. It is not safe. No, it is not safe.”

Related Characters: Hercule Poirot (speaker), Jacqueline De Bellefort, Simon Doyle
Page Number: 15
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Two Quotes

Hercule Poirot made vague gestures to rid himself of this human cluster of flies. Rosalie stalked through them like a sleepwalker. “It’s best to pretend to be deaf and blind,” she remarked.

The infantile riff-raff ran alongside murmuring plaintively:

“Bakshish? Bakshish? Hip hip hurrah-very good, very nice. . . .”

Related Characters: Hercule Poirot (speaker), Rosalie Otterbourne (speaker)
Page Number: 39
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Three  Quotes

Poirot signalled to a passing waiter.

“A liqueur, Madame? A chartreuse? A creme de menthe?” Mrs. Otterbourne shook her head vigorously.

“No, no. I am practically a teetotaller. You may have noticed I never drink anything but water-or perhaps lemonade. I cannot bear the taste of spirits.”

Related Characters: Hercule Poirot (speaker), Mrs. Salome Otterbourne, Rosalie Otterbourne
Page Number: 49
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Four  Quotes

“No, Madame.” His tone was firm. “I will not accept a commission from you. I will do what I can in the interests of humanity.”

Related Characters: Hercule Poirot (speaker), Linnet Doyle, Jacqueline De Bellefort, Colonel Race
Page Number: 62-63
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Five  Quotes

“It is deeper than that. Do not open your heart to evil.”

Related Characters: Hercule Poirot (speaker), Linnet Doyle, Jacqueline De Bellefort, Simon Doyle
Page Number: 69
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Six  Quotes

“My dear Monsieur Poirot—how can I put it? It’s like the moon when the sun comes out. You don’t know it’s there anymore. When once I’d met Linnet—Jackie didn’t exist.”

Related Characters: Simon Doyle (speaker), Hercule Poirot, Linnet Doyle, Jacqueline De Bellefort
Page Number: 73
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Seven  Quotes

“Monsieur Poirot, I’m afraid—I’m afraid of everything. I’ve never felt like this before. All these wild rocks and the awful grimness and starkness. Where are we going? What’s going to happen? I’m afraid, I tell you. Everyone hates me. I’ve never felt like that before. I’ve always been nice to people—I’ve done things for them—and they hate me—lots of people hate me. Except for Simon, I’m surrounded by enemies . . . It’s terrible to feel—that there are people who hate you. . . .”

Related Characters: Linnet Doyle (speaker), Hercule Poirot, Jacqueline De Bellefort, Simon Doyle
Related Symbols: The Nile
Page Number: 93
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Thirteen  Quotes

Hercule Poirot was just wiping the lather from his freshly shaved face when there was a quick tap on the door, and hard on top of it Colonel Race entered unceremoniously. He closed the door behind him.

He said: “Your instinct was quite correct. It’s happened.”

Poirot straightened up and asked sharply: “What has happened?”

“Linnet Doyle’s dead—shot through the head last night.”

Related Characters: Hercule Poirot (speaker), Colonel Race (speaker), Linnet Doyle
Page Number: 148
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Fourteen  Quotes

Hercule Poirot nodded his head.

“You did not look. But I, I have the eyes which notice, and there were no pearls on the table beside the bed this morning.”

Related Characters: Hercule Poirot (speaker), Linnet Doyle, Tim Allerton, Miss Marie Van Schuyler
Related Symbols: Pearls
Page Number: 174
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Eighteen  Quotes

Poirot picked up the handkerchief and examined it.

“A man’s handkerchief-but not a gentleman’s handkerchief. Ce cher Woolworth, I imagine. Threepence at most.”

Related Characters: Hercule Poirot (speaker), Linnet Doyle, Jacqueline De Bellefort, Simon Doyle , Colonel Race, Miss Marie Van Schuyler, Fleetwood
Related Symbols: The Nile
Page Number: 209
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Nineteen  Quotes

“People think I’m awful. Stuck-up and cross and bad-tempered. I can’t help it. I’ve forgotten how to be-to be nice.”

“That is what I said to you; you have carried your burden by yourself too long.”

Related Characters: Hercule Poirot (speaker), Rosalie Otterbourne (speaker), Jacqueline De Bellefort, Simon Doyle , Mrs. Salome Otterbourne, Signor Richetti
Page Number: 217
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Twenty-Two  Quotes

Finally he turned his attention to the washstand. There were various creams, powders, face lotions. But the only thing that seemed to interest Poirot were two little bottles labelled Nailex. He picked them up at last and brought them to the dressing table. One, which bore the inscription Nailex Rose, was empty but for a drop or two of dark red fluid at the bottom. The other, the same size, but labelled Nailex Cardinal, was nearly full. Poirot uncorked first the empty, then the full one, and sniffed them both delicately.

Related Characters: Colonel Race (speaker), Hercule Poirot, Linnet Doyle, Simon Doyle , Miss Bowers
Related Symbols: Pearls
Page Number: 237
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Twenty-Three  Quotes

The body of the dead woman, who in life had been Louise Bourget, lay on the floor of her cabin. The two men bent over it.

Race straightened himself first.

“Been dead close on an hour, I should say. We’ll get Bessner on to it. Stabbed to the heart. Death pretty well instantaneous, I should imagine. She doesn’t look pretty, does she?”

“No.”

Poirot shook his head with a slight shudder.

The dark feline face was convulsed, as though with surprise and fury, the lips drawn back from the teeth.

Poirot bent again gently and picked up the right hand. Something just showed within the fingers. He detached it and held it out to Race, a little sliver of flimsy paper coloured a pale mauvish pink.

“You see what it is?”

“Money,” said Race.

“The corner of a thousand-franc note, I fancy.”

Related Characters: Hercule Poirot (speaker), Colonel Race (speaker), Linnet Doyle, Jacqueline De Bellefort, Simon Doyle , Mrs. Salome Otterbourne, Rosalie Otterbourne, Tim Allerton, Louise Bourget, Dr. Bessner
Related Symbols: Pearls
Page Number: 246
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Twenty-Four  Quotes

Mrs. Otterbourne continued: “The arrangement was that I should go round to the stern on the deck below this, and there I should find the man waiting for me. As I went along the deck a cabin door opened and somebody looked out. It was this girl-Louise Bourget, or whatever her name is. She seemed to be expecting someone. When she saw it was me, she looked disappointed and went abruptly inside again. I didn’t think anything of it, of course. I went along just as I had said I would and got the-the stuff from the man. I paid him and-er-just had a word with him. Then I started back. Just as I came around the corner I saw someone knock on the maid’s door and go into the cabin.”

Race said, “And that person was—?"

Bang!

The noise of the explosion filled the cabin. There was an acrid sour smell of smoke. Mrs. Otterbourne turned slowly sideways, as though in supreme inquiry, then her body slumped forward and she fell to the ground with a crash. From just behind her ear the blood flowed from a round neat hole.

Related Characters: Colonel Race (speaker), Mrs. Salome Otterbourne (speaker), Hercule Poirot, Jacqueline De Bellefort, Simon Doyle , Louise Bourget, Dr. Bessner
Page Number: 263
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Twenty-Six  Quotes

“Perhaps not, but the custom, it still remains. The Old School Tie is the Old School Tie, and there are certain things (I know this from experience) that the Old School Tie does not do! One of those things, Monsieur Fanthorp, is to butt into a private conversation unasked when one does not know the people who are conducting it.”

Related Characters: Hercule Poirot (speaker), Linnet Doyle, Jacqueline De Bellefort, Simon Doyle , Andrew Pennington, James Fanthorp
Page Number: 280
Explanation and Analysis:

“That was an accident. I swear it was an accident!” The man leant forward, his face working, his eyes terrified. “I stumbled and fell against it. I swear it was an accident. . . .”

The two men said nothing.

Pennington suddenly pulled himself together. He was still a wreck of a man, but his fighting spirit had returned in a certain measure. He moved towards the door.

“You can’t pin that on me, gentlemen. It was an accident. And it wasn’t I who shot her. D’you hear? You can’t pin that on me either—and you never will.”

He went out.

Related Characters: Andrew Pennington (speaker), Hercule Poirot, Linnet Doyle, Simon Doyle , Colonel Race
Page Number: 291
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Twenty-Seven  Quotes

“Well, sir, where do we go from here? I admit taking the pearls from Linnet’s cabin and you’ll find them just where you say they are. I’m guilty all right. But as far as Miss Southwood is concerned, I’m not admitting anything. You’ve no evidence whatever against her. How I got hold of the fake necklace is my own business.”

Poirot murmured: “A very correct attitude.”

Related Characters: Hercule Poirot (speaker), Tim Allerton (speaker), Linnet Doyle, Colonel Race, Joanna Southwood
Related Symbols: Pearls
Page Number:  298
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Twenty-Nine  Quotes

Poirot was silent. But it was not a modest silence. His eyes seemed to be saying: “You are wrong. They didn’t allow for Hercule Poirot.”

Aloud he said, “And now, Doctor we will go and have a word with your patient.”

Related Characters: Hercule Poirot (speaker), Jacqueline De Bellefort, Simon Doyle , Cornelia Robson, Dr. Bessner
Page Number: 321
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Thirty  Quotes

“Yes,” she said “it’s rather horrible isn’t it? I can’t believe that I—did that! I know now what you meant by opening your heart to evil . . . You know pretty well how it happened. Louise made it clear to Simon that she knew. Simon got you to bring me to him. As soon as we were alone together he told me what had happened. He told me what I’d got to do. I wasn’t even horrified. I was so afraid—so deadly afraid . . . That’s what murder does to you. Simon and I were safe—quite safe—except for this miserable blackmailing French girl. I took her all the money we could get hold of. I pretended to grovel. And then, when she was counting the money, I—did it! It was quite easy. That’s what’s so horribly, horribly frightening about it . . . It’s so terribly easy. . . .”

Related Characters: Jacqueline De Bellefort (speaker), Hercule Poirot, Linnet Doyle, Simon Doyle , Mrs. Allerton, Louise Bourget
Page Number: 327
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Thirty-One  Quotes

Mrs. Allerton shivered. “Love can be a very frightening thing.”

“That is why most great love stories are tragedies.”

Mrs. Allerton’s eyes rested upon Tim and Rosalie, standing side by side in the sunlight, and she said suddenly and passionately: “But thank God, there is happiness in the world.”

Related Characters: Hercule Poirot (speaker), Mrs. Allerton (speaker), Jacqueline De Bellefort, Simon Doyle , Rosalie Otterbourne, Tim Allerton
Page Number: 333
Explanation and Analysis:
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Hercule Poirot Quotes in Death on the Nile

The Death on the Nile quotes below are all either spoken by Hercule Poirot or refer to Hercule Poirot. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Justice Theme Icon
).
Chapter One Quotes

“She cares too much, that little one,” he said to himself. It is not safe. No, it is not safe.”

Related Characters: Hercule Poirot (speaker), Jacqueline De Bellefort, Simon Doyle
Page Number: 15
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Two Quotes

Hercule Poirot made vague gestures to rid himself of this human cluster of flies. Rosalie stalked through them like a sleepwalker. “It’s best to pretend to be deaf and blind,” she remarked.

The infantile riff-raff ran alongside murmuring plaintively:

“Bakshish? Bakshish? Hip hip hurrah-very good, very nice. . . .”

Related Characters: Hercule Poirot (speaker), Rosalie Otterbourne (speaker)
Page Number: 39
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Three  Quotes

Poirot signalled to a passing waiter.

“A liqueur, Madame? A chartreuse? A creme de menthe?” Mrs. Otterbourne shook her head vigorously.

“No, no. I am practically a teetotaller. You may have noticed I never drink anything but water-or perhaps lemonade. I cannot bear the taste of spirits.”

Related Characters: Hercule Poirot (speaker), Mrs. Salome Otterbourne, Rosalie Otterbourne
Page Number: 49
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Four  Quotes

“No, Madame.” His tone was firm. “I will not accept a commission from you. I will do what I can in the interests of humanity.”

Related Characters: Hercule Poirot (speaker), Linnet Doyle, Jacqueline De Bellefort, Colonel Race
Page Number: 62-63
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Five  Quotes

“It is deeper than that. Do not open your heart to evil.”

Related Characters: Hercule Poirot (speaker), Linnet Doyle, Jacqueline De Bellefort, Simon Doyle
Page Number: 69
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Six  Quotes

“My dear Monsieur Poirot—how can I put it? It’s like the moon when the sun comes out. You don’t know it’s there anymore. When once I’d met Linnet—Jackie didn’t exist.”

Related Characters: Simon Doyle (speaker), Hercule Poirot, Linnet Doyle, Jacqueline De Bellefort
Page Number: 73
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Seven  Quotes

“Monsieur Poirot, I’m afraid—I’m afraid of everything. I’ve never felt like this before. All these wild rocks and the awful grimness and starkness. Where are we going? What’s going to happen? I’m afraid, I tell you. Everyone hates me. I’ve never felt like that before. I’ve always been nice to people—I’ve done things for them—and they hate me—lots of people hate me. Except for Simon, I’m surrounded by enemies . . . It’s terrible to feel—that there are people who hate you. . . .”

Related Characters: Linnet Doyle (speaker), Hercule Poirot, Jacqueline De Bellefort, Simon Doyle
Related Symbols: The Nile
Page Number: 93
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Thirteen  Quotes

Hercule Poirot was just wiping the lather from his freshly shaved face when there was a quick tap on the door, and hard on top of it Colonel Race entered unceremoniously. He closed the door behind him.

He said: “Your instinct was quite correct. It’s happened.”

Poirot straightened up and asked sharply: “What has happened?”

“Linnet Doyle’s dead—shot through the head last night.”

Related Characters: Hercule Poirot (speaker), Colonel Race (speaker), Linnet Doyle
Page Number: 148
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Fourteen  Quotes

Hercule Poirot nodded his head.

“You did not look. But I, I have the eyes which notice, and there were no pearls on the table beside the bed this morning.”

Related Characters: Hercule Poirot (speaker), Linnet Doyle, Tim Allerton, Miss Marie Van Schuyler
Related Symbols: Pearls
Page Number: 174
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Eighteen  Quotes

Poirot picked up the handkerchief and examined it.

“A man’s handkerchief-but not a gentleman’s handkerchief. Ce cher Woolworth, I imagine. Threepence at most.”

Related Characters: Hercule Poirot (speaker), Linnet Doyle, Jacqueline De Bellefort, Simon Doyle , Colonel Race, Miss Marie Van Schuyler, Fleetwood
Related Symbols: The Nile
Page Number: 209
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Nineteen  Quotes

“People think I’m awful. Stuck-up and cross and bad-tempered. I can’t help it. I’ve forgotten how to be-to be nice.”

“That is what I said to you; you have carried your burden by yourself too long.”

Related Characters: Hercule Poirot (speaker), Rosalie Otterbourne (speaker), Jacqueline De Bellefort, Simon Doyle , Mrs. Salome Otterbourne, Signor Richetti
Page Number: 217
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Twenty-Two  Quotes

Finally he turned his attention to the washstand. There were various creams, powders, face lotions. But the only thing that seemed to interest Poirot were two little bottles labelled Nailex. He picked them up at last and brought them to the dressing table. One, which bore the inscription Nailex Rose, was empty but for a drop or two of dark red fluid at the bottom. The other, the same size, but labelled Nailex Cardinal, was nearly full. Poirot uncorked first the empty, then the full one, and sniffed them both delicately.

Related Characters: Colonel Race (speaker), Hercule Poirot, Linnet Doyle, Simon Doyle , Miss Bowers
Related Symbols: Pearls
Page Number: 237
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Twenty-Three  Quotes

The body of the dead woman, who in life had been Louise Bourget, lay on the floor of her cabin. The two men bent over it.

Race straightened himself first.

“Been dead close on an hour, I should say. We’ll get Bessner on to it. Stabbed to the heart. Death pretty well instantaneous, I should imagine. She doesn’t look pretty, does she?”

“No.”

Poirot shook his head with a slight shudder.

The dark feline face was convulsed, as though with surprise and fury, the lips drawn back from the teeth.

Poirot bent again gently and picked up the right hand. Something just showed within the fingers. He detached it and held it out to Race, a little sliver of flimsy paper coloured a pale mauvish pink.

“You see what it is?”

“Money,” said Race.

“The corner of a thousand-franc note, I fancy.”

Related Characters: Hercule Poirot (speaker), Colonel Race (speaker), Linnet Doyle, Jacqueline De Bellefort, Simon Doyle , Mrs. Salome Otterbourne, Rosalie Otterbourne, Tim Allerton, Louise Bourget, Dr. Bessner
Related Symbols: Pearls
Page Number: 246
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Twenty-Four  Quotes

Mrs. Otterbourne continued: “The arrangement was that I should go round to the stern on the deck below this, and there I should find the man waiting for me. As I went along the deck a cabin door opened and somebody looked out. It was this girl-Louise Bourget, or whatever her name is. She seemed to be expecting someone. When she saw it was me, she looked disappointed and went abruptly inside again. I didn’t think anything of it, of course. I went along just as I had said I would and got the-the stuff from the man. I paid him and-er-just had a word with him. Then I started back. Just as I came around the corner I saw someone knock on the maid’s door and go into the cabin.”

Race said, “And that person was—?"

Bang!

The noise of the explosion filled the cabin. There was an acrid sour smell of smoke. Mrs. Otterbourne turned slowly sideways, as though in supreme inquiry, then her body slumped forward and she fell to the ground with a crash. From just behind her ear the blood flowed from a round neat hole.

Related Characters: Colonel Race (speaker), Mrs. Salome Otterbourne (speaker), Hercule Poirot, Jacqueline De Bellefort, Simon Doyle , Louise Bourget, Dr. Bessner
Page Number: 263
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Twenty-Six  Quotes

“Perhaps not, but the custom, it still remains. The Old School Tie is the Old School Tie, and there are certain things (I know this from experience) that the Old School Tie does not do! One of those things, Monsieur Fanthorp, is to butt into a private conversation unasked when one does not know the people who are conducting it.”

Related Characters: Hercule Poirot (speaker), Linnet Doyle, Jacqueline De Bellefort, Simon Doyle , Andrew Pennington, James Fanthorp
Page Number: 280
Explanation and Analysis:

“That was an accident. I swear it was an accident!” The man leant forward, his face working, his eyes terrified. “I stumbled and fell against it. I swear it was an accident. . . .”

The two men said nothing.

Pennington suddenly pulled himself together. He was still a wreck of a man, but his fighting spirit had returned in a certain measure. He moved towards the door.

“You can’t pin that on me, gentlemen. It was an accident. And it wasn’t I who shot her. D’you hear? You can’t pin that on me either—and you never will.”

He went out.

Related Characters: Andrew Pennington (speaker), Hercule Poirot, Linnet Doyle, Simon Doyle , Colonel Race
Page Number: 291
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Twenty-Seven  Quotes

“Well, sir, where do we go from here? I admit taking the pearls from Linnet’s cabin and you’ll find them just where you say they are. I’m guilty all right. But as far as Miss Southwood is concerned, I’m not admitting anything. You’ve no evidence whatever against her. How I got hold of the fake necklace is my own business.”

Poirot murmured: “A very correct attitude.”

Related Characters: Hercule Poirot (speaker), Tim Allerton (speaker), Linnet Doyle, Colonel Race, Joanna Southwood
Related Symbols: Pearls
Page Number:  298
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Twenty-Nine  Quotes

Poirot was silent. But it was not a modest silence. His eyes seemed to be saying: “You are wrong. They didn’t allow for Hercule Poirot.”

Aloud he said, “And now, Doctor we will go and have a word with your patient.”

Related Characters: Hercule Poirot (speaker), Jacqueline De Bellefort, Simon Doyle , Cornelia Robson, Dr. Bessner
Page Number: 321
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Thirty  Quotes

“Yes,” she said “it’s rather horrible isn’t it? I can’t believe that I—did that! I know now what you meant by opening your heart to evil . . . You know pretty well how it happened. Louise made it clear to Simon that she knew. Simon got you to bring me to him. As soon as we were alone together he told me what had happened. He told me what I’d got to do. I wasn’t even horrified. I was so afraid—so deadly afraid . . . That’s what murder does to you. Simon and I were safe—quite safe—except for this miserable blackmailing French girl. I took her all the money we could get hold of. I pretended to grovel. And then, when she was counting the money, I—did it! It was quite easy. That’s what’s so horribly, horribly frightening about it . . . It’s so terribly easy. . . .”

Related Characters: Jacqueline De Bellefort (speaker), Hercule Poirot, Linnet Doyle, Simon Doyle , Mrs. Allerton, Louise Bourget
Page Number: 327
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Thirty-One  Quotes

Mrs. Allerton shivered. “Love can be a very frightening thing.”

“That is why most great love stories are tragedies.”

Mrs. Allerton’s eyes rested upon Tim and Rosalie, standing side by side in the sunlight, and she said suddenly and passionately: “But thank God, there is happiness in the world.”

Related Characters: Hercule Poirot (speaker), Mrs. Allerton (speaker), Jacqueline De Bellefort, Simon Doyle , Rosalie Otterbourne, Tim Allerton
Page Number: 333
Explanation and Analysis: