National Identity and International Connections Theme Analysis

As with many Agatha Christie novels, the characters in Death on the Nile come from a variety of backgrounds, and many have personalities shaped by their backgrounds. From the careful, reserved Englishman James Fanthorp to the fiery Italian Signor Richetti, each character embodies characteristics (or, in some cases, stereotypes) of their home country. The Karnak—the steamer boat that they all take up the Nile—becomes both a melting pot, where these characters from around the world temporarily become part of a shared environment, and a pressure cooker, where the characters’ different personalities come into (sometimes violent) conflict. Even before boarding the steamer, many of the characters were well-traveled and cosmopolitan, with some of them being multilingual, suggesting that borders between national identities can be blurred. Christie’s multinational cast of characters emphasizes the role that environment plays in shaping people’s personality and also shows that people can subvert expectations associated with their nationalities or take on elements of other cultures.

The first chapter of the book emphasizes the international character of the story by showing all the characters in different settings. Some characters, like Linnet and Pennington, are shown in their home environment. Linnet’s introduction in her English country village emphasizes how she was shaped by her role in high society—and by English ideas of class. By contrast, Pennington is given a brief scene in a New York City office to emphasize how his job as an international man of business shapes him. Other characters like Tim and Mrs. Allerton, as well as Rosalie and Mrs. Otterbourne, are already abroad when they’re introduced. These characters reveal their personality through the ways that they behave while out of their element: Tim’s complaint that Majorca is cold reveals him to be spoiled, whereas Mrs. Otterbourne’s turban in Jerusalem reveals her to be dramatic. Poirot’s own introduction emphasizes his cosmopolitan character: he is a Belgian man eating at a French restaurant in England. His multiculturalism is important because it allows him to find common ground with, and understand, a wide variety of characters.

By contrast, subsequent chapters emphasize the isolation of the characters on the Karnak, showing how circumstances can force people together and create new, blended cultures. The settings of the novel are notably limited, as the characters are usually confined to small spaces: the patio of the hotel and the boat on the Nile. The smaller settings of various parts of the boat—the deck rail, the smoking room, and Dr. Bessner’s cabin, for instance—and the way they continually reappear emphasize how the characters have been pushed together into a small space where they are forced to interact with one another. The dining saloon in particular is a place where all the characters come together, and much of the most important action in the story takes place there. The room represents how the Karnak has created a new, shared culture for its passengers, without fully overriding their old identities.

Even as the novel functions as a kind of melting pot of different nationalities—and celebrates Poirot for being able to navigate these differences—some of the novel’s portrayals fall back on stereotypes or even racism. The dancing Nubian boys outside Abu Simbel who appear to be decapitated are one such example. They are presented as an exotic curiosity, echoing racist and colonialist attitudes. Other examples are less explicit but still significant. Christie strongly suggests, for example, that Signor Richetti’s crimes can be at least partly attributed to his being a “hot-tempered” Italian, that Jacqueline looks “Latin” when she’s violent, and that Louise is considered nefarious because of her “Latin” side.

As with her treatment of class, Christie’s treatment of different nationalities is a mixed bag for modern readers. Alongside a curiosity for other cultures, Christie frequently resorts to stereotypes that modern readers may find outdated and offensive. Though the novel may inspire her audience to wonder at all the different kinds of people in the world, it is also a time capsule of racist attitudes that have persisted in some form into the present day.