| “ | Naturally, if I had been unable to sleep, if I had mounted the stairs, then perhaps I might have seen this assassin, this monster, enter or leave Madame’s cabin, but as it is — Monsieur, I implore you — you see how it is? What can I say? | „ |
| ~ Louise Bourget's famous testimony to Poirot; note the use of "if" and "perhaps" in her sentence that implied she was lying. |
Louise Bourget is a minor character and the second victim in Agatha Christie's 1937 Hercule Poirot novel Death on the Nile and its adaptations. She is the maid of Linnet Doyle, the novel's first and primary victim. She was questioned by Poirot after the death of the Linnet, due to possibilities for her to witness the murder.
However, like many other victims in Agatha Christie's novels, she can be considered as a villainous victim after her true nature was revealed to be a greedy liar who attempts to gain profits from the murder by blackmailing the culprits. She was later killed by one of the culprits for meddling their plans.
Portrayals[]
- In he 1978 film adaptation, she was portrayed by the late Jane Birkin, who later portrayed Christine Redfern in the 1982 film adaptation of Evil Under the Sun.
- In the 2004 TV episiode adaptation from Agatha Christie's Poirot, she was portrayed by Félicité Du Jeu.
- In the upcoming 2022 film adaptation, she will be portrayed by Rose Leslie, who is best known for her portrayal of Ygritte from Game of Thrones.
Overview[]
Louise witnessed Simon Doyle murdering Linnet, but she chose to blackmail Simon with it and lied to Poirot that she never saw the murder, resulting in a confusion on Poirot and Colonel Race's investigation upon the case. Louise soon became victim of Jacqueline de Bellefort when Poirot had discovered the oddness in Louise's testimony, which frequently used "if" and "perhaps".
Mrs. Otterbourne witnessed Jacqueline entering Louise's cabin before stabbing her, but was killed by Jacquelin before she had the chance to warn Poirot.
Although it could be intepreted that Louise tried to blackmail from the culprit continuously so that she lied to Poirot, her constant use of "if" and "perhaps" had hinted that she was giving both Poirot and the culprit a clue since Simon was also presented during her testimony. It was also suggested that Louise attempted to betray Simon anyway but had to describe the situation more ambiguously to Poirot.
Trivia[]
- Louise is easily the least sympathetic character in Death on the Nile, even more so than Linnet, for being a greedy person who kept the truth as a secret, merely in order to blackmail the killer, and cowardly lying to Poirot so that she can gain more from the culprit. Louise is also obviously the biggest fool in the story, since blackmailing a murderer for money, whether it occurs in real-life or detective novels, is easily a stupid move that can only turn the blackmailer into a victim, nothing more.
- Louise's characteristics bares some similarities to Leopold Reynolds, a minor character in Dame Christie's later novel Hallowe'en Party and the brother of its first victim, Joyce Reynolds. Like Louise, Leopold also blackmailed the culprit for his own personal gain after seeing his sister being murdered, and he concealed the truth away from everyone in order to blackmail from the culprit continuously. They both ended up being just another victim as well after the culprit deemed them to be too much of a nuisance.
- However, while still being unsympathetic, Leopold Reynolds is much less villainous than Louise. It was because that Leopold never intentionally lied to Poirot about how he saw nothing, only stating he didn't feel sad about Joyce's death (particularly because he never liked her and he tried to exploit from her death). Louise, however, outright lied to Poirot that she saw nothing (though she was a very bad liar) when he asked her. As a result, while Leopold concealed the truth, he did not conceal his true feeling over his sister.
- Nevertheless, since Poirot did not suspect Leopold was a witness, he never asked Leopold if he ever saw his sister being murdered, only asking if she saw a murder (something she proclaimed not long before she was murdered). As a result, if Poirot asked if Leopold saw who killed Joyce, Leopold might have done the same thing as Louise did - lying to save himself and keep blackmailing the culprit.
- Before her role in the 2020s film was comfirmed to be Louise, Rose Leslie was reported that she will portray the role of Jacqueline de Bellefort (which eventually comfirmed to be Emma Mackey instead).
