Playing the game
Curtain“Playing the game” is an expression whose meaning turns on who invokes it and why. It begins as a familiar rule of conduct associated with Hercule Poirot, then becomes Poirot’s own description of how he is treating Arthur Hastings: by playing fair and leaving him a genuine chance to solve the mystery.
Earlier Meaning
When Stephen Norton hesitates over asking Hercule Poirot for advice because Poirot is a foreigner, Arthur Hastings recognizes the concern behind his hesitation. Hastings recalls Poirot’s scathing remarks about “playing the game,” a standard of fair conduct familiar to him. He reassures Norton that Poirot would respect his confidence and that Norton need not follow the advice. Norton accepts the suggestion and decides to consult Poirot.
Poirot’s Deliberate Fairness
The phrase acquires a more immediate significance in Poirot’s explanation to Hastings. Poirot says he chose to be “sporting,” and presents his conduct as a reversal of Hastings’s earlier reproaches: he is playing fair, giving Hastings “a run for your money,” and playing the game. The point is not merely that Poirot is following a general convention. He says he has chosen to let Hastings discover the truth, rather than keep it from him.
Clues and the Reader’s Chance
Poirot connects this declared fairness to the evidence itself. After telling Hastings that he has every chance to discover the truth, he offers to enumerate the clues, beginning with the keys. The expression thus links personal conduct to the structure of the mystery: fairness means not simply claiming honesty, but making the path toward the solution available for examination. Its return also gives the earlier exchange a new resonance, as Poirot’s familiar principle becomes a standard by which his final treatment of Hastings can be understood.
