Murder on the Orient Express | Themes

Murder on the Orient Express Themes

The Nature of Justice

This is the novel's central theme, in that its action is based almost entirely upon the question of what true justice is, how it's served, and whether it's possible and/or right for it to be served by means outside the traditional justice system (police, lawyers, courts, etc). It explores the question of which is more valid - legal justice (as manipulated and eventually escaped by Ratchett/Cassetti) or human justice (as embodied in the actions of the ex-tended Armstrong family).

It's important to note that Poirot, ostensibly an agent of the first sort of justice, eventually becomes an advocate for the second. For him, legal justice becomes secondary when faced with both the magnitude of Ratchett's crimes and the entwined logic and passion of Mrs. Hubbard and the other self-appointed members of Ratchett's jury. This transformation of the central character's perspective combines with the comments...
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