Ella Purnell as Hester Argyle
In the novel Ordeal by Innocence, Hester Argyle is an adopted daughter of Leo and Rachel. She is about 20 and is challenged to find her own place in the world. She shows her strong emotions.
She is described by Dr Arthur Calgary as "the face of Trgaedy itself--it was a young face. Indeed it was in the poignancy of its youth that tragedy had its very essence". Her eyes are deep blue, and have dark shadows around them. She has "upspringing black hair", and the bones of her skull and cheekbones have a "mournful beauty" about them.
Hester was an illegitimate child. Her biological mother was a young Irish hospital nurse. Shortly after Hester came to Sunny Point, her biological mother married an American GI, and begged the Argyles to take Hester in permanently, as she did not want to tell her husband that she had a child. At the end of the war, Hester's biological mother went to the United States with her husband, and had never been heard from since.
Hester did not know that she was adopted until she was nearly sixteen years old. She had known that her siblings were adopted, and had asked about it one day. She had then found out that she was also adopted. This made her feel awful, as if she did not belong anywhere. She suggests that this may be the reason she is always unsure of herself.
As a teenager, Hester felt that Mrs Argyle was always right. Mrs Argyle had been right about all the things she would not let Hester do, and Hester had always been wrong. This made Hester feel that she could not bear it, and that she had to be brave, and go off on her own. This was why she ran away to join a fourth-class touring theatrical company. Mrs Argyle had suggested that Hester go to RADA and study acting properly if she wanted to be an actress. However, Hester did not want to do this, as she did not seriously want to become an actress, and just wanted to show that she could be on her own.
Hester later had a love affair with a middle-aged member of the theatrical company. She would later explain to Philip Durrant that she had wanted to have "a proper love affair", not "a silly, girlish thing". The man was a married man, and had told her that he had a very unhappy life. She had expected it to be "a grand passion", but discovered that it was just "a cheap little affair", and that none of the things the man had told her about his wife and married life were true.
Mrs Argyle went after Hester, and settled everything with the man. Hester returned home with her, having seen that she was not a good actress.
When Dr Calgary first arrives at Sunny Point, Hester opens the door. She tells him that Leo does not see people he does not know, and that he should write to make an appointment. However, after finding that he comes with a letter of introduction from Mr Marshall, she brings him up to Leo's library.
Hester is in the library with Leo, Gwenda Vaughan, and Kirsten Lindstrom, when Dr Calgary tells them that Jacko Argyle was innocent of the murder of Mrs Argyle. As Dr Calgary is leaving the house, she asks him why he came, and tells him that justice will not mean anything to Jacko now, because he is dead. She says that it is not the guilty who matter, but the innocent.
Hester had made plans to go to a lecture on criminal types in Shakespeare that evening, with her boyfriend, Dr Donald Craig. However, after receiving Dr Calgary's news, she telephones him to say that she cannot go to the lecture after all. She tells him that she cannot see anyone at the moment, not even him.
When Hester looks at herself in the mirror, it is not out of vanity. Instead, it is more of an "anxious questioning" and "the humility of one who has never really been sure of herself".
Kirsten Lindstrom tells Hester that if Jacko did not kill Mrs Argyle, someone else in the house did. She warns Hester that although she may think she knows someone well, she can never be sure, and so she must be on her guard against everyone. Hester suggests that Mrs Argyle might have let an outsider into the house on the evening of the murder, if they had come with "a hard luck story". Kirsten says that this is unlikely, and tells Hester that it would be wise of her to leave the house. Hester becomes upset, saying that the whole thing is nonsense, and that she wishes Dr Calgary had never come.
Hester tells Superintendent Huish that she does not remember what she did on the day of the murder now. Kirsten says that Hester helped her wash up after tea, and then went upstairs to her bedroom. She was going to Drymouth to see an amateur production of Waiting for Godot that evening.
Hester tells Superintendent Huish that she left the house at about seven o'clock. She needed some money, because the petrol in her car was nearly down to empty, so she went in to Mrs Argyle's study to ask for some. Kirsten had called out from the hall saying she had some cash and would give it to Hester, and Mrs Argyle had agreed to that.
After getting the money, Hester went back to Mrs Argyle's study to say goodnight to her. Kirsten had gone out on foot just after giving Hester the money, and said that Hester passed her in the car just as she got to the end of their road.
Dr Craig is of the opinion that Hester is young for her age, unsure if herself, and "liable to have brainstorms". He thinks that it is possible that she killed Mrs Argyle as an act of emotional defiance and rebellion. He later asks her if she had any earthly reason for killing Mrs Argyle. Hester says that she often thought about killing her, and sometimes used to dream about killing her. In her dreams, sometimes she would shoot Mrs Argyle, and sometimes she would deal her a blow to the head. According to Hester, she is often very violent in dreams.
Dr Craig tells Hester that he loves her, and will stand by her, but he has to know the truth. She asks if he would believe her if she said that she did not kill Mrs Argyle, and he answers that he would. However, she does not believe him, and runs away from him.
Philip later finds Hester leaning out of a window along the passage. He is able to tell that she is considering suicide, and asks her to talk to him about the trouble instead. She tells him that the relationship between her and Dr Craig cannot ever come right.
Hester says that she has often thought of killing herself, ever since she was fourteen. She tells Philip that Mary and Kirsten suspect her of killing Mrs Argyle, and as she has no chance of getting anyone to believe that she did not, it would be better to throw herself over the Point. Philip tells her not to be a fool, and they end up kissing.
Hester later goes to London to see Dr Calgary. She tells him that he started all the trouble, and that he has to help her. She is relieved when he says that he knows that she did not kill Mrs Argyle, because of what she had said to him about innocence.
Hester tells Dr Calgary that she feels that if Mrs Argyle had lived longer, until Hester was a little older and more settled, that they could have been friends, and she would have been glad to have Mrs Argyle's help and advice. However, as things were, Mrs Argyle had only made her feel ineffectual and stupid.
Hester explains to Dr Calgary that she feels that she is fluid, and was never anybody. She was always just "trying on shapes" of other people whom she admired, and never stayed in any particular shape for long. She had thought that if she ran away to go on the stage and had an affair, she would feel like she was herself, or at least that she was somebody. She says that she now sees that she was being silly and childish.
Hester comes to the realization that she has been dramatizing herself again, and Dr Calgary suggests that it is a habit of hers. She says that this was why she had initially thought she would be a good actress.
At the end of the novel, Dr Calgary returns to Sunny Point to tell the family who killed Mrs Argyle. Once again, Hester opens the door for him, with the "same defiance in her face, the same air of desperate tragedy". However, she then smiles and says that she is glad he has come.
After the murderer is revealed, they leave the house, and Hester cries out that they should be stopped, so that they do not kill themselves. However, Leo tells Hester to let them go.
Dr Calgary tells Hester that she can now marry Dr Craig and be happy. However, she says that she does not think she loves him. She says that Dr Craig did not believe in her and did not know she was innocent. She says that she wants to marry Dr Calgary, if he wants her.
Portrayals[]
Ordeal by Innocence (1984)[]
In the Cannon Films 1984 adaptation, Hester is portrayed by Valerie Whittington. Here she is considerably younger, being only about fourteen at the time Arthur Calgary appears at the house. Like in the original novel, she is especially close to Kirsten Lindstrom and also like in the original novel, she befriends Arthur Calgary, although obviously not in a romantic manner. She is portrayed as an inquisitive snooper, always eavesdropping on conversations. Philip Durrant says of her that she would have been an asset to British intelligence during the war. She is a source of information and gossip and hence tells Arthur Calgary about Jacko Argyle and the wife of the bookmaker Archie Leach for example. Hester also tells Arthur Calgary that at the time of Rachel Argyle's murder, she was in the kitchen helping Kristin with the cooking. But later Maureen reveals that Hester was actually in her cinema, watching an "X" movie. She is not allowed out at night so she obviously would have lied about her whereabouts. This revelation turns out to be crucial to Calgary's investigation. At one point Hester also runs away from Sunny Point to Dartmouth because she is afraid of what is going on in the house. She meets Calgary who persuades her to go back. She returns just in time to stumble upon the body of Philip Durrant who has just been murdered.
Agatha Christie's Marple (2007)[]
In the 2007 Agatha Christie's Marple episode Ordeal by Innocence, Hester is portrayed by Stephanie Leonidas
Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha (2009)[]
In Am Stram Gram, the France Télévisions adaptation of Ordeal by Innocence for the TV series Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie, the parallel character is Esther Vallabrègues.
Ordeal by Innocence (BBC 2018)[]
In the BBC miniseries adaptation of Ordeal by Innocence, she was portrayed by Ella Purnell.