Literary Techniques for Suspense in And Then There Were None By Agatha Christie
And Then There Were None, is an intriguing murder mystery novel that follows the lines of a poem called “Ten Little Indians”. The story is intricately written to keep the reader in absolute suspense from the beginning to end.
The novel involves eight people being mysteriously invited to spend a summer holiday on “Indian Island”. Among the eight are a judge (Justice John Wargrave), doctor (Edward James Armstrong), military general (General John Macarthur), former inspector/current private detective (William Blore), mercenary (Phillip Lombard), young rich athlete (Tony Marston), religious woman (Emily Brent), and a schoolteacher (Vera Claythorne).
Additionally, a married couple consisting of a butler (Thomas Rogers) and a maid (Ethel Rogers) are both already present on the island. With the exception of the Rogers’, only the host, who is expected to arrive the next day, is absent. As the guests begin talking together, they discover that all of them were invited by a Mr. U.N. Owen. Wargrave surmises that their host’s name is fictitious since it so closely resembles the word “unknown.” The other guests agree, and tension begins to build. Another mystery is the fact that each of the guests has found a poem titled “Ten Little Indians” in each of their rooms, and mysteriously enough, it appears that there are ten small Indian statuettes arranged at the dinner table. It doesn’t take long for each of the guests to realize that the poem and statuettes are representative for each of them.
The Essay on A Very Indian Poem in English
Nissim Ezekiel is one of those Indian poets writing in English who creates an authentic flavor of India, by his use of Indian English – Pidgin English on Bazar English, as it is often called. In this poem, the Indian flavor has been created by stressing the various mistakes which Indians commit in their use of English, by bringing in the hopes and aspirations of free India, and also the ...
With passing of the first night’s dinner, the group hears a mysterious voice condemning each one of them to a specific murder. A phonograph is found behind one of the walls, it is later discovered that the butler, Mr. Rogers, had been instructed to do it by the host, but that he hadn’t known what was on the recording. Every guest begins to suspect all of the other guests.
The first murder occurs when Marston dies from poisoned whiskey. The next morning, it is announced that Mrs. Rogers died in her sleep of unknown causes. Along with their deaths, two of the dolls disappear from the dinner table. Based on the two deaths and the mysterious circumstances surrounding the murders, the remainder of the guest decide to leave the island on the supply ship due to arrive the next morning. However, the ship never arrives, nor does their host. It is later discovered that the host instructed the local costal residents not to answer any distress calls from the island as the guests would be playing a game. The remaining guests are killed off, one by one, until there are none. Each death is somehow related to the story line of the poem, along with the fact that a doll disappears with each of the murders.
In the end, the murders are subsequently investigated by two police officers. From all the facts, journals and a message from Wargrave that is found in a bottle, they determine that Wargrave and Armstrong carried out the murders. Wargrave’s body is never found.
I feel that the most prevalent topic in the novel is the idea of Evil and Injustice. All of the people that are invited to the island are persons guilty of committing murders and never being brought to justice. In his deranged feelings of needing to exact justice by himself, Wargrave devised a brilliant plan in how to find and kill off nine unsuspecting persons without getting caught. Wargrave didn’t pick anyone from his experience in the courtroom, he used the names of persons that had escaped justice from conversations with other persons.
After it is learned that Wargrave planned the whole thing, his motives are quickly revealed. Wargrave, in his bottled message, stated that he was a sadistic young boy who grew to desire a position in the justice system so that he could punish those who deserved it. His reason for committing the murders was easy to understand. In Wargrave’s mind, each of the guests, to include the Rogers’ couple was guilty of murder. Since none of them had been punished for their crimes, he took it upon himself to punish them since no one else had. His belief was founded on the idea that the wicked should be punished, so he devised a plan to kill each of them for their crimes. He employed Armstrong to assist him in his own false death, and was then allowed to kill everyone else without them ever knowing who the real killer was.
The Essay on The Death Penalty 8
When committing a rape, murder, or treason does it occur to you that, if Caught, you could be, electrocuted, gassed, or lethally injected? I highly doubt it. So what is it that is running through your mind? Do you honestly think you can murder or rape some innocent person and get away with it? I don't think so. I feel the death penalty is a great concept. My philosophy is, why should someone that ...
Another topic I found in the book was the area of suffering. As the phonograph played, it described how each person was responsible for the death of another person(s).
Each one of them knew what their crime was, and began to panic at the thought that someone else in their new surroundings knew what they had done. Their suffering was not a physical pain, but more of a mental one. I think that the two major contributing factors to the guests’ suffering were individual statuettes disappearing with each of the murders, and that each of the deaths could be directly related to the poem found in their rooms. After the first night, two people had died and two statuettes had subsequently been removed. The guests quickly begin to make presumptions as to who the killer is, but begin to feel real fear in not knowing for sure.
Wargrave determined the order of his victims according to the severity of their crime. Those who committed the worst crimes died last so that they had to endure the most suffering. That is, each murdered victim increased their levels of suspicions to not only who the killer was, but also to worry about if the killer was going to kill them. This becomes obvious as Marston, who accidentally killed two children, dies first. Besides Wargrave, the last person to die, Vera suffered the most. She had the longest time to endure the fact of not knowing who the murderer was, as well as not knowing if she too would die. Guilt also played a vital role in some of the guests. The general was so grief stricken by his guilt that he all but set himself up to be killed, and even made comments to other guests that he was ready to die. In an absolute panic, Vera ends up killing Blore and then, not being able to deal with what is happening, she commits suicide.
The Essay on "The Death Penalty Is A Step Back" And "Death To The Killers"
In Coretta Scott King’s “The Death Penalty Is a Step Back” and Mike Royko’s “Death to the Killers,” each author presents their individual analysis on the topic of capital punishment. The writers discuss their personal opinions on the issue of the death penalty, while giving several reasons to support their convictions. The authors have dissimilar views on the ...
The last topic of discussion I found was the one pertaining to death. Death occurs continuously throughout the novel. After the guests realize that the other guests are not having mere accidents or killing themselves, they realize they are all going to die. With the exception of Wargrave, all of the island’s guests die. Rather, they are all murdered.
This was an exceptional novel, masterfully written to propel the reader into feeling the very same fears, doubts and suspicions as the characters. The only thing I didn’t like was the fact that Wargrave is never found, nor is there a mention as to why his body is never found.
