Position:Home>Books & Authors> [A.Christie/Poirot] Why is captain Hastings always called "captain"?

If you read the first Hercule Poirot book, "The Mysterious Affair at Styles," in the first pages of the first chapter it says that Hastings has been invalided out of the Army (we would say he had been given a medical discharge), where he was a Captain!. The book is set in the days immediately after World War I; Hercule Poirot is a refugee from Belgium!.

In the English upper class of Agatha Christie's day, it was more or less traditional in some families for the sons, particularly the oldest son, to be a career military officer!. It was considered correct etiquette to refer to a military officer by his rank, even after he left the military!.

You have to understand that Agatha Christie was writing about a time very different from our own!. England was just out of the Edwardian period, and people of that time were VERY class-conscious in a way that we here in twenty-first century USA find hard to comprehend!. By calling Hastings a Captain, Christie was indicating he came from the propertied class that were "Service people," which would be a class below the titled families, but well above tradespeople, laborers, shopworkers, and others!. By bestowing a military rank on Hastings, Christie in one word told her readers that he was: (A) Reasonably well-to-do but not rich; (B) Educated; (C) That he was a Gentleman, a word with very definite meaning back then; and (D) That he belonged to the generation that had literally served down in the Trenches of the great war!. All of this would have made Hastings both a sympathetic character and made his subsequent actions and attitudes understandable to Christie's readers!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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The class system in England in the first half of the twentitieth centurywas very strong!.
Ex army rankings were often used to show not only respect for the persons army service, but also to perpetuate his (never 'her)' position on the class society!.,
Other ranks (that is ordinary soldiers and non commissioned officers) were low in the class scale so their ex army rankings were never used!.
Even the first two ranks of commisioned officers, second lieutenant and lieutenant, were also fairly low in the middle class society so the lowest rank that was retained to show that you were part of 'respectable' society was 'Captain'
However it also showed that you hadn't got very far up the scale so by choosing 'Captain' Christie was reinforcing Hastings character as a respectablebut but rather plodding character!.

In contrast, had he been a young man still in active service then 'Captain' indicates in the romantic or adventure novels of the time, a rather dashing character!.


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I don't actually know, and I don't think Agatha Christie ever says explicitly!. My guess is that, it's implied that since he was a retired army officer, he would've been a captain!. Love those books! :)Www@QuestionHome@Com

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