AND THEN THERE WERE NONE by: Agatha Christie
SUMMARY
Eight people, all strangers to each other, are invited to Indian Island, off the English coast. Vera Claythorne, a former governess, thinks she has been hired as a secretary; Philip Lombard, an adventurer, and William Blore, an ex-detective, think they have been hired to look out for trouble over the weekend; Dr. Armstrong thinks he has been hired to look after the wife of the island’s owner. Emily Brent, General Macarthur, Tony Marston, and Judge Wargrave think they are going to visit old friends. When they arrive on the island, the guests are greeted by Mr. and Mrs. Rogers, the butler and housekeeper, who report that the host, someone they call Mr. Owen, will not arrive until the next day. That evening, as all the guests gather in the drawing room after an excellent dinner, they hear a recorded voice accusing each of them of a specific murder committed in the past and never uncovered. They compare notes and realize that none of them, including the servants, knows “Mr. Owen,” which suggests that they were brought here according to someone’s strange plan. As they discuss what to do, Tony Marston chokes on poisoned whiskey and dies. Frightened, the party retreats to bed, where almost everyone is plagued by guilt and memories of their crimes. Vera Claythorne notices the similarity between the death of Marston and the first verse of a nursery rhyme, “Ten Little Indians,” that hangs in each bedroom. The next morning the guests find that Mrs. Rogers apparently died in her sleep. The guests hope to leave that morning, but the boat that regularly delivers supplies to the island does not show up. Blore, Lombard, and Armstrong decide that the deaths must have been murders and determine to scour the island in search of the mysterious Mr. Owen. They find no one, however. Meanwhile, the oldest guest, General Macarthur, feels sure he is going to die and goes to look out at the ocean. Before lunch, Dr. Armstrong finds the general dead of a blow to the head. The remaining guests meet to discuss their situation. They decide that one of them must be the killer. Many make vague accusations, but Judge Wargrave reminds them that the existing evidence suggests any of them could be the killer. Afternoon and dinner pass restlessly, and everyone goes to bed, locking his or her door before doing so. The next morning, they find that Rogers has been killed while chopping wood in preparation for breakfast. At this point, the guests feel sure the murders are being carried out according to the dictates of the nursery rhyme. Also, they realize that the dining-room table initially featured ten Indian figures, but with each death one of the figures disappears. After breakfast, Emily Brent feels slightly giddy, and she remains alone at the table for a while. She is soon found dead, her neck having been injected with poison. At this point, Wargrave initiates an organized search of everyone’s belongings, and anything that could be used as a weapon is locked away. The remaining guests sit together, passing time and casting suspicious looks at each other. Finally, Vera goes to take a bath, but she is startled by a piece of seaweed hanging from her ceiling and cries out. Blore, Lombard, and Armstrong run to help her, only to return downstairs to find Wargrave draped in a curtain that resembles courtroom robes and bearing a red mark on his forehead. Armstrong examines the body and reports that Wargrave has been shot in the head. That night, Blore hears footsteps in the hall; upon checking, he finds that Armstrong is not in his room. Blore and Lombard search for Armstrong, but they cannot find him anywhere in the house or on the island. When they return from searching, they discover another Indian figure missing from the table. Vera, Lombard, and Blore go outside, resolving to stay in the safety of the open land. Blore decides to go back into the house to get food. The other two hear a crash, and they find someone has pushed a statue out of a second-story window, killing Blore as he approached the house. Vera and Lombard retreat to the shore, where they find Armstrong’s drowned body on the beach. Convinced that Lombard is the killer, Vera steals Lombard’s gun and shoots him. She returns to her bedroom to rest, happy to have survived. But upon finding a noose waiting for her in her room, she feels a strange compulsion to enact the last line of the nursery rhyme, and hangs herself. The mystery baffles the police until a manuscript in a bottle is found. The late Judge Wargrave wrote the manuscript explaining that he planned the murders because he wanted to punish those whose crimes are not punishable under law. Wargrave frankly admits to his own lust for blood and pleasure in seeing the guilty punished. When a doctor told Wargrave he was dying, he decided to die in a blaze, instead of letting his life trickle away. He discusses how he chose his victims and how he did away with Marston, Mr. and Mrs. Rogers, Macarthur.
ANALYSIS: PSYCHOANALYTIC
The story And There Were None written by Agatha Christie basically talks about events of killings/murders wherein it shows how a person engaged his/her thoughts and feelings when it comes to death. According to my readings, Agatha Christie uses her own experienced to come up with the story, And There Were None and this covers the id, ego and superego by Freud. In fact, it is related to psychoanalytic theory by Sigmund Freud and the reasons are the following: Agatha Christie’s grandfather died in a car accident, that is why she come up with the scenario in the story wherein there were two kids who murdered by someone, and she probably thought that it was the same happening as what happened to her grandfather. Second, her brother died at a young age and obviously, Christie was very hurt about the happening and it would make sense for her to punish the sinner. Thus, Agatha Christie’s real-life scenario depicted to some happening in her own work. Her piece is true to psychoanalytic theory since thoughts and feelings were ones being affected by life scenario and most of all, her work was inspired by her own life events.
"According to Freud and his followers, most human behavior is the result of desires, impulses, and memories that have been repressed into an unconscious state, yet still influence actions.” (Clark, n.d.). This shows that even though she may have repressed her thoughts and memories, they still influence her actions such as her writing. The whole novel was about ten people on an island who were all end up to death. Ironically speaking, the ten people were killed because they killed someone in the past that remain injustice. Basically, the author gave importance about punishing the sinners, but it ends up to a wrong way of punishment. In addition, according to Curan, (n.d.), Agatha was homeschooled, isolated and experiencing difficult situation such as death at a very young age that is why she really had the hard time to cope up a good mindset about life happening. Christie had to deal with death at a young age in which not having a grandfather, father, and brother brought a great impact to her life. Christie is missing the Oedipus Complex, “the desire for sexual involvement with the parent of the opposite sex and a concomitant sense of rivalry with the parent of the same sex”, (Brizee,n.d.). This aspect hinders a child 's development, and this would attribute to Christie’s anti-socialness. While knowing these things, I realized that Christie’s thoughts and feelings while writing the whole novel was very unusual. I mean, she wrote the story recalling all the bad happenings in her life which would greatly affect her inner peace. And There Were None was an example of a great tragedy that depicts real-life scenario and targets the reader’s feelings toward the story. Overall, Agatha Christie uses her life experiences with the power of reminiscing memories that strikes the minds and hearts of the readers especially when it comes to the payment of sins (death).
Christie’s work was remarkably interesting. It gives a moral lesson about how to deal your thoughts and emotions when it comes to life difficulties. In fact, her own experiences prove that she became strong amidst what happened. However, I am not saying that the way of punishing the sinners in the story was right since it was not. It is just that, the way she wrote the story was the way how difficult her life before like, it affects her mind to think what her life would be without her family and her heart to feel how empty she was to experience death within the members of her family. If I would put my feet to Christie’s shoes, probably I have the heavy heart while writing the story and I believe she had it too. However, I believed we are great authors of our life stories and Agatha Christie made it so. The main tools in writing are the real thoughts and feelings to move the hearts and minds of the readers. Thus, just like Agatha be the best version of your own piece.
REFERENCES:
Brizee (n.d.). Agatha Christie's Theory In And Then There Were None. Retrieved from https://www.cram.com/essay/Agatha-Christies-Theory-In-And-Then There/P3P3B9PNBXYQ.
Clark (n.d.). Agatha Christie's Theory In And Then There Were None. Retrieved from https://www.cram.com/essay/Agatha-Christies-Theory-In-And-Then There/P3P3B9PNBXYQ.
Curan (n.d.). Agatha Christie's Theory In And Then There Were None. Retrieved from https://www.cram.com/essay/Agatha-Christies-Theory-In-And-Then There/P3P3B9PNBXYQ.
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