Emily Inglethorp's Will (Symbol)
Though there prove to be many iterations of it, Emily Inglethorp's will represents her loyalties; in fact, that there were so many iterations of the will speaks symbolically of her character. Her generosity was, as Evelyn says, conditional (79). Emily has an argument with her son and amends her will. She finds evidence of her husband's infidelity and burns the will. Her lawyer, Mr. Wells, tells Poirot and Hastings that Emily “on an average, ... made a new will at least once a year," and says, "she was given to changing her mind as to her testamentary dispositions, now benefiting one, now another member of her family" (71). Emily's many wills symbolize the conditionality of her "love," which she expressed by promising financial security to those in her good graces.
Poirot's House of Cards (Symbol)
During a recess in the trial of John Cavendish, Hastings watches Poirot build a house of cards. Poirot, observing Hastings' reaction to the sight of him building the house of cards, says, “No, mon ami, I am not in my second childhood! I steady my nerves, that is all. This employment requires precision of the fingers. With precision of the fingers goes precision of the brain. And never have I needed that more than now!" (199). Poirot's house of cards symbolizes his unconventional, eccentric methods which ultimately help him focus and contribute to his mastery of deduction and precise observation.
Link in the Chain (Motif)
Poirot's favorite metaphor for the case is that it is like "a chain" (39, 181, 183, 213), and he refers to individual clues as "links" in said chain sixteen times; one of the final, pivotal chapters is even titled, "The Last Link." The "link in the chain" motif is evoked in moments of frustration and when Poirot is "getting warmer," or coming maddeningly close to connecting a clue or circumstance to the larger cascade of clues and circumstances that, together, compose the entire case. Evocation of the "link" motif tells the reader that Poirot is hovering over the next revelation that will move the case forward, and it provides a certain rhythm to the sequence of events.
Styles Court (Symbol)
Styles Court is more than a building, it is a whole atmosphere, and it symbolizes a nostalgia for a fading system of landed gentry and feudal pastoral life. The Cavendishes and Inglethorps are country squires and minor nobles; they rub elbows and raise funds with people of royal lineage. Styles is their identity. It is a symbol of the hegemony from which they benefit.
The Black Beard (Symbol)
The black beard prop is somewhat of a smoking gun for the first major question of the case: who purchased the strychnine from the chemist's? Of course, as it turns out the strychnine purchased is not the strychnine used to actually poison Emily Inglethorp; its purchase was merely devised as a ruse to lead police to arrest Alfred Inglethorp, charge him for Emily's murder, and then be forced to release him when he presents his ironclad alibi. Agatha Christie exoticizes the idea of a black beard generally, not just in the context of Alfred Inglethorp. Hastings flags Inglethorp's black beard and eccentric dress as an immediately villainizing quality. He does the same to Dr. Bauerstein, who is, not incidentally, German and Jewish, two aspects of his identity that rouse suspicion among the Cavendish clan. And, when Dorcas first acknowledges the existence of the beard, she says:
I shall never forget the night he came down as the Char of Persia, I think he called it—a sort of Eastern King it was. He had the big paper knife in his hand, and "Mind, Dorcas," he says, "you’ll have to be very respectful. This is my specially sharpened scimitar, and it’s off with your head if I’m at all displeased with you!" Miss Cynthia, she was what they call an Apache, or some such name—a Frenchified sort of cut-throat, I take it to be. A real sight she looked. You’d never have believed a pretty young lady like that could have made herself into such a ruffian. Nobody would have known her. (137)
Dorcas's account demonstrates the extent to which the long black beard was a sign, to the Cavendishes, of the Other. The final sentence in her account also foreshadows the later revelation that Eve Howard was the one who disguised as Inglethorp to purchase the strychnine.
