Hercule Poirot Or Sherlock Holmes?
Both main characters, Holmes and Poirot, use the powers of intellectual deduction to solve crimes. Both also are attended by assistants whom they underestimate and verbally abuse. Both are also intellectual snobs. Holmes is a cocaine abuser and a scientist, while Poirot is just a natural at deduction. Doyle's novels are set in England, while Christie has her characters traveling wherever crime may be: i.e. Mystery on the Orient Express, Murder in the Mesopotamia and Murder on the Nile. Both authors killed off their serial detectives and wrote books with other characters. Those of Miss Christie's, such as Miss Marple, gained more popularity among readers than Doyle's other books. In literary circles, Doyle is considered an Author with a capital A, while Christie was always thought of as merely a commercially successful writer (female, perhaps?) I personally prefer Christie because her secondary characters are more than just stage dressing for the "great man" to pontificate before.
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Poirot . We have just gotten completely used to him as a character. Also he represents many different changes that occurred in Agatha's time. Acceptance of foreigners , women working , divorce ...
Quiet honestly , Sherlock holmes is okay , but I don't find him all that. I would prefer reading Agatha Christie s poirot anyday , everyday
It's hard to compare the two on a literary level, because Poirot usually appears in novels, while Holmes generally appears in short stories. In The Hound of... he's more of a side character - appearing in the beginning and the end.
Personally, I find them both very enjoyable - from both I get a sense of England at their time; language, culture. It's the fact that Poirot cares greatly for the human element, he "studies human nature" that makes his stories perhaps more entertaining. Holmes is brilliant, and a great performer. But he's cold and analytical, with only Watson to throw warmth and feeling into the story and prevent it from just being a puzzle. Whereas both Poirot and Hastings are sympathetic, emotional creatures - not to mention the wonderful cast of characters around them that truly draw us into the story. It ceases to become merely a case, a question, a puzzle to be solved, and becomes instead a human drama.
Both the detectives had chivalrous sidekicks who were stereotypical British gentlemen. While Holmes had his able Dr. Watson, Poirot enjoyed the company of Captain Arthur Hastings. Apart from of course chronicling the adventures of their famous companions, they also assisted them in fieldwork some times taking the law in their own hands. Watson and Hastings suffered in their role as innocent stooges as both Holmes and Poirot were conceited and downright rude when in their most uncharitable moods. Vanity was an essential ingredient in the make-up of both Holmes and Poirot and none could vouch for this more than their two assistants. This vanity was a manifestation of their supreme self-confidence abetted by years of exercising the little gray cells. And yet there have been times when this confidence has been shaken. “The Yellow Face” set in Norbury and “The Chocolate Box” stand as the rare failures of Holmes and Poirot respectively. At one point Poirot asked of Hastings, “If at any time you think I am growing conceited, you shall say to me ‘Chocolate Box’, it is agreed?” just as Holmes once said to Watson, “If it should ever strike you that I am getting a little overconfident in my powers, kindly whisper ‘Norbury’ in my ears.” The similarity in both these cases is only too obvious to miss.
Of course, along with a stooge assistant all detectives need a policeman that they can outwit. So while Sherlock Holmes had Inspector Lestrade, Hercule Poirot had to contend with Scotland Yard’s Inspector Japp. In spite of their self-importance, both Holmes and Poirot were content to let the grateful inspectors take all the credit for solving the cases. For the two detectives, the satisfaction and success of solving a tough case was a greater reward than any public appreciation.
Another interesting parallel is that Holmes and Poirot had strong feelings for only the one woman, both of whom were strangely on the other side of the law. While it was Countess Vera Rossakoff for Poirot, Holmes was attached to Irene Adler whom he invariably mentioned not by her name but by the sobriquet of “The Woman”. However, these relationships do not go far and the two ladies feature in not more than two or three adventures.
A further striking resemblance is their choice of vocation after retirement, which were far removed from the world of crime that the two detectives had been accustomed to. While Holmes famously took to beekeeping and wrote books on the same, Poirot kept himself busy through the cultivation of vegetable marrows.
If I have to pick between the two then it would be Poirot by a whisker.