Hercule Poirot's Christmas

Christie demonstrates that the sins of the past are heavy burdens that inevitably resurface to shape individuals’ identities and drive characters toward retribution. Accordingly, the plot revolves around a murder that is motivated by vengeance for a decades-old grievance. Through this, the author suggests that family history is a powerful and often destructive inheritance and that justice, or its violent perversion, is merely a matter of time.

The murder itself is the ultimate eruption of the family’s buried history. The crime’s true motive lies not in the family’s present squabbles over the will as the characters initially suspect but in an injustice committed by Simeon a generation earlier. The murderer is revealed to be Superintendent Sugden, a son born out of wedlock, who has harbored a long-simmering desire for revenge against the father who abandoned his mother. Sugden’s calculated act of retribution reframes the murder as the settling of a decades-old debt. This revelation aligns with the proverb David cites in reaction to his father’s death: “The mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceeding small” (135). This saying captures the novel’s central idea that the consequences of past sins are unavoidable. In a sense, the murderer himself is also a victim of the past. Unable to forgive Simeon’s old wrongs, he descends from a well-respected police superintendent to a violent killer, betraying the laws that he pledged to enforce. Ultimately, Sugden loses his freedom as well as his reputation to his grudge. By rooting the murder in a long-held secret, Christie illustrates that the past is never truly over and that its unresolved conflicts will eventually demand a violent reckoning. 

The psychological weight of the past is also evident in Simeon’s acknowledged children, who are haunted by his transgressions. From the time that Harry and Alfred were children, their father favored Harry and encouraged him to bully his brother because he believed that Harry is the “only one out of all the litter” to take after him (34). The return of the prodigal son forces the family to confront a history of betrayal and conflict. His presence reopens old wounds, particularly for Alfred, and reinforces the idea that the past is a living, disruptive force in the present. Out of all the Lee children, David’s identity is the most closely bound to the theme. His character is almost entirely defined by his unresolved trauma over his father’s cruel treatment of his mother. Upon returning to Gorston Hall, he fixates on his mother’s possessions and is consumed by a hatred that has festered for 20 years. 

By the end of the novel, the murder and the investigation spur the brothers to move on from the past. Harry and Alfred reconcile instead of repeating old patterns of antagonism and resentment, and David frees himself by releasing his hatred for his father and deciding “to break with the past altogether” (268). Although the past is a heavy burden, the Lee family’s decisions at the resolution show that healing is possible.