Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None - Essay Example

‘And Then There Were None’ – Agatha Christie Chapter I-XII Even 12 chapters in to the book, it is difficult to identify who will be the next target. Right before the murder occurs, one can tell who is about to die, as seen in the case of MacArthur, Rogers and Brent.However, with five characters left, it is difficult to pick who could be the target and who the murderer is since perhaps five of the smartest and strongest characters are left. Any and all have equal motive; and it seems that a second murderer could emerge, one who doesn’t want to mete out justice but wants to fight for his/her survival.

It would seem like a valid decision at this point. Nevertheless, of the remaining five, the poem ‘’Ten Little Indians’ says:“Five little Indian boys going in for law, one got in Chancery and then there were four.”Lawrence Wargrave, being a judge, it seems is being alluded to here. The second verse says that “one got in Chancery”. Perhaps Judge Wargrave is not the one who dies but the one who commits the murder. Being a judge, “getting in to Chancery”, all imply the notions of the meting out of justice.

Perhaps, it can be argued, that Wargrave feels he has the right to punish these people who are guilty of murder (in some way or another). His last name “Wargrave” is not a common name, and could also be Christie’s way of telling us that the man perceives himself to be a soldier of justice of some kind, going to war against those he believes to be wrong; digging their “graves”.As for who dies next, we could look at the next part of the poem:“Four little Indian boys going out to sea; A red herring swallowed one and then there were three.

” The immediate conclusion that one could spring to is that the next victim could be Philip Lombard. The use of “red herring” could signal in this case, to Lombard’s underestimation of Vera Claythorne. What he assumes her to be, and what she potentially could be, could lead to his possible demise; which leads us to another conclusion – that Claythorne could also be the murderer. This is not the only conclusion however. Whilst Claythorne could also be a murderer she might simply just be more resourceful than Lombard assumed her to be, and so saves herself from a sticky situation.

Apart from Wargrave, the only other individual who seems to be a potential candidate is Blore. He is a former policeman, and might have similar notions of delivering justice, as presumed in the case of Wargrave. He also takes charge often which could be his way of manipulating the characters.