Editing Hercule Poirot (section)

=== Captain Arthur Hastings ===
{{Main|Arthur Hastings}}

Hastings, a former British Army officer, meets Poirot during Poirot's years as a police officer in Belgium and almost immediately after they both arrive in England. He becomes Poirot's lifelong friend and appears in many cases. Poirot regards Hastings as a poor private detective, not particularly intelligent, yet helpful in his way of being fooled by the criminal or seeing things the way the average man would see them and for his tendency to unknowingly "stumble" onto the truth.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |year=2000 |first=Bunson |last=Matthew |title=Hastings, Captain Arthur, O.B.E. |encyclopedia=The Complete Christie: An Agatha Christie Encyclopedia |publisher=Pocket Books |location=New York}}</ref> Hastings marries and has four children – two sons and two daughters. As a loyal, albeit somewhat naïve companion, Hastings is to Poirot what Watson is to Sherlock Holmes.

Hastings is capable of great bravery and courage, facing death unflinchingly when confronted by ''The Big Four'' and displaying unwavering loyalty towards Poirot. However, when forced to choose between Poirot and his wife in that novel, he initially chooses to betray Poirot to protect his wife. Later, though, he tells Poirot to draw back and escape the trap.

The two are an airtight team until Hastings meets and marries Dulcie Duveen, a beautiful music hall performer half his age, after investigating the ''Murder on the Links''. They later emigrated to Argentina, leaving Poirot behind as a "very unhappy old man". Poirot and Hastings reunite during the novels ''The Big Four'', ''Peril at End House'', ''The ABC Murders'', ''Lord Edgware Dies'', and ''Dumb Witness,'' when Hastings arrives in England for business, with Poirot noting in ''ABC Murders'' that he enjoys having Hastings over because he feels that he always has his most interesting cases with Hastings. 

The two collaborate for the final time in ''Curtain'' when the seemingly-crippled Poirot asks Hastings to assist him in his final case. When the killer they are tracking nearly manipulates Hastings into committing murder, Poirot describes this in his final farewell letter to Hastings as the catalyst that prompted him to eliminate the man himself, as Poirot ''knew'' that his friend was not a murderer and refused to let a man capable of manipulating Hastings in such a manner go on.