Dulcie Duveen, also known as Cinderella, is a major protagonist of Agatha Christie's 1923 Hercule Poirot novel, The Murder on the Links. She is a stage actress and Bella Duveen's twin sister, as well as the love interest and later wife of Captain Arthur Hastings.
In the BBC 4 Radio adaptation, she was voiced by Madeline Smith.
Biography[]
Dulcie Duveen (married name: Hastings) is a stage performer and Bella's sister, who works as part of her stage act. She and Arthur Hastings met on a train in Murder on the Links, but under her stage name of "Cinderella", and is his love interest in the novel.
Upon her sister's false testimony to "confess" the crime, Dulcie later assisted Poirot, Eloise Renauld and Hastings to seek out the true murderer of Paul Renauld in order to rescue her sister.
The culprit was revealed to be Marthe Daubreuil, who was lured by Poirot into exposing herself and intruding the Renaulds' house. Before Marthe could kill Eloise, Dulcie shot Marthe dead and saved Eloise. By the end of the story, Dulcie became Hastings' wife.They had at least two sons and a daughter called Julia, who married a doctor.
According to Hasting's narration in Curtain, Dulcie passed away before 1976 where the novel took its place.
Trivia[]
- Dulcie is the first female character in the series who had killed the main antagonist of the series, and the only non-culprit to do so.
- Dulcie Duveen only appeared in the novels and audio adpatations, and she hadn't make any appearance in Agatha Christie's Poirot, and her character were mostly merged with Bella into one character. As a result, some changes was made:
- Her role as Hasting's lover and wife was taken over by her twin sister, Bella Duveen, who had dumped Jack for his infidetily and married Hasting under Poirot's advice.
- Due to their relationship as twin sisters and their physical simiarities, this page used snapshots of Bella SPECIFICALLY before dating Hastings as a substitude to Dulcie's images, to keep up with the novel's canoncity. They will be removed and transferred to Bella's page if there is another future film adaptation which included Dulcie's role is released.
- In the adaptation, Marthe was not killed by Dulcie when she tried to attack Eloise Renauld, but by Paul Renauld's secretary.