Characterization in and Then There Were None

“Ten little soldier boys went out to dine; One choked his little self and then there were Nine…One little soldier boy left all alone; he went and hanged himself And then there were None” (Green). A group of 10 strangers are sent to the mysterious Soldier Island for a so called vacation. What they don’t know is that there is one murderer among them. During their first night on the island, a mysterious record reveals the darkest secret of each person, they are murderers. Soon after that, the first murder is committed and death is among them. As the crowd of ten diminishes, the china soldiers on the table do as well, until there are none. In And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, the theme of guilt is portrayed when Vera Claythorne hangs herself, when the record is played on the gramophone, and when Miss Emily Brent has flashbacks.

Foreshadow(v); be a warning or indication of (a future event). Foreshadowing is a prominent tool used by many authors to hint about future events in literature. Additionally, point of view can insert a sense of dramatic irony into a novel to intrigue a reader. In Agatha Christie’s, And Then There Were None, the elements of foreshadow and point of are clearly demonstrated throughout the novel.

Vera Claythorne, a games mistress and former governess to Cyril Ogilvie Hamilton, may not be as innocent as she seems. Starting off as a proper, sympathetic, and intelligent woman in Agatha Christie’s novel And Then There Were None, Claythorne drastically changes from beginning to end. When Mrs. Una Nancy Owen invited her to the island, Vera seems a bit confused. Not knowing why she was invited other than because she was “fit for the job”, she accepted and planned to serve as a secretary to Owen. When asked to go to the island, it could be believed that she has horrifying flashbacks from the day she murdered Cyril Hamilton.

“Women cannot be murderers.” Even though this was not explicitly stated in the newspapers, The Boston Herald in its article “Lizzie Borden” conveys the perception that the feminine ways associated with women would make it impractical for women to commit murder. Lizzie Borden, a young lady accused of brutally killing her stepmother and father with multiple blows to their heads with a hatchet was described as a religious, sincere, and modest human being in The Boston Herald’s article covering Lizzie’s life before and after the murders. During Lizzie’s youth, she suffered from isolation because of her reserved personality and belief that nobody appreciated her presence, but in womanhood turned her life around and attain friendships who vouched for her good character during the time of the investigation. The Boston Herald’s article “Lizzie Borden: Her School and Later Life - A Noble Woman, Though Retiring”, successfully persuades the reader of Lizzie Borden’s innocence with the focus on her femininity through diction and logic.

And Then There Were None is an enthralling mystery novel by esteemed author Agatha Christie. It is a horror filled scenario in which ten people are trapped on an island, and get killed off one by one, the deaths corresponding with the children's rhyme ‘Ten Little Indians.’ In order to benefit themselves, three alliances are formed throughout the novel: between Blore, Armstrong, and Lombard; Claythorne and Lombard; and Armstrong and Wargrave. The alliances have great impact on the characters’ actions and the novel itself, in aiding or hindering the murderer, and building suspense as alliances fall.

“Beware of pretty faces that you find, a pretty face can hide an evil mind.” This quote from Johnny Ramistella sheds light on the many problems society faces today. This problem is seeing the evil and corrupt passed the semblance person they formed from twisted lies and fake stories. Agatha Christie, the author of And Then There Were None, uses her impeccable writing skills to create a character who arguable is the evilest character in this murder mystery: Vera Claythorne. Because of her motive of her past murder, being the last guest left alive on Solider Island, and self-proclaimed liar, Vera Claythorne is the evilest guest on Soldier Island.

Christie’s novel is set in the 1930s and takes place on a fictional island off the English coast, Indian island, whereas Ruth´s novel is set in Northumberland, deep in the woods of Kielder forest, which is near the village Stonebridge. In both settings the houses the characters are staying in is starkly out of place. A modern glass house in the middle of a laid off forest, vulnerable to the darkness of the night with a “sense of being watched”, and a mansion located on an isolated abandoned island. The settings of the two novels alone sets a very sinister, compulsive and suspenseful atmosphere. Both places are hard to reach and leave by oneself, the authors create an even more ominous tone to the novels by taken the characters appurtenance to external communication, creating the sense of a psychological as well as physical isolation. Each author has their own way into luring the characters to the setting they are supposed to be at in order for the stories of the novels to fall into place. Here the two novels slightly take their own ways to approach this. In Christie’s “And then there were none”, the characters are tricked into going to the island in different ways, all of them are lied to. Dr. Edward George Armstrong is told he is needed as a doctor, Vera Claythorne is told to work as a secretary to Mrs. Owen, none of the characters end up doing what they thought they were called there for. In Ware´s “In a dark dark wood”, the characters are going to the house in the deep woods of Kielder forest to attend Claire's hen party, yet it turns out that there was a more sinister reason for the selected people to attend the hen party. In both novels, what should have been a fun or interesting time takes an unexpected sinister

Agatha Christie, author of the murder mystery And Then There Were None, used foreshadowing and both external and internal conflict to portray the theme of her novel that justice can be served for the crimes that go unpunished. Christie used these elements because she enjoyed mystery and she liked to keep her readers engaged while reading. Agatha Christie is still considered one of the best, if not, the best murder mystery writer today because she wrote the first murder mystery novel and she wrote many more after that that was well loved by people.

“Women. They are a complete mystery,” said the revolutionary physicist Stephen Hawking. In the novel And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, it is apparent that the female characters are portrayed in a manner that is both derogatory and stereotypical. Whether the incidents include a fellow character or the author directly using offensive insults, portrayals of hysteria or weakness compared to the males, or downright treating the female protagonists like objects or things, they are sometimes cruel and unnecessary. Throughout And Then There Were None, the female characters are described through hurtful stereotypes, objectification, and psychotic behaviors that may not be appropriate for impressionable young minds to be reading about, despite others suggesting otherwise.

The author Agatha Christie who wrote the novel And Then There Were None set the theme of a powerful journey leading the main characters in a decision of survival and fate, the way the author Agatha Christie goes into different elements to show how this theme came about is irony. She uses this technique to get the audiences full attention on how the mystery in this novel bring about missing characters and will be the lost standing Agatha Christie is not one of your ordinary authors; she brings a point in the novel which is a very suspenseful view that will catch your attention.

When the police arrived the day after Vera committed suicide they couldn’t quite figure out how this all happened. Lets just say that the Judge Mr.Wargrave was very intelligent. He had not only all of the people on the island killed but he also had Mr. Isaac killed the guy who owned the house on the island. No one knew exactly what happened on the island or how it happened. I can say it’s safe to say that Mr. Wargrave actually did some thinking when he planned this event.

In her novels “Death on the Nile” and “And Then There Were None” Agatha Christie uses foreshadowing and both external and internal conflict to portray the theme of her novel, the idea that justice will always triumph. In "Death on the Nile" Poiret undertakes the position of bringing about what’s due to the guilty character. At the same time in “And Then There Were None" the protagonist is unclear because while Justice Wargrave is the one seeking justice, his methods are flawed. Agatha Christie uses mystery in both of her books to emphasize how the truth will come out in the end. This is clearly shown in “Death on The Nile” where the outcome is clear-cut while “And Then There Were None” is undefined and elusive. Although both books use morbid and unethical methods of showing their objective, both stress their point and Agatha Christie's opinion on

People’s personalities are not always what they seem. That is the case in Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Possibility of Evil.” The main character is an elderly woman who seems sweet and kind; however, she reveals that she is not sweet and kind. Miss Strangeworth’s character can be analyzed by considering what she does, what the narrator says about her, and how other characters interact with her.

Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None is considered a masterpiece. It is her best-selling novel and had sold more than 100 million copies since it was published in 1939. Our culture was likewise highly impacted by the book and it has been adapted into a play, and a video game, and 25 different movies/tv shows. This locked-door mystery has ten strangers lured to an unknown island by a mysterious individual and, one-by-one, murdered off according to a nursery rhyme. Created in 1945, the first movie was adapted by René Clair and quickly grew popular worldwide. Starring Barry Fitzgerald, Walter Huston, Louis Hayward, and June Duprez, who all did an exquisite job producing Agatha Christie's classic all over again. While René Clair made significant changes to the movie, his changes successfully stayed true to the book.

“Outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare, Agatha Christie is the best-selling novelist of all time. She is best known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, as well as the world’s longest-running play – The Mousetrap” (“Homepage”). The New Historicism Lens is a way for readers to speculate deeper understandings of texts by relating the text to the historical era in which it was set or written. Another aspect of this lens involves looking specifically at how the author’s life impacts their writing. Published in 1939, And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, continues to be one of Christie's most successful books, and with the use of this lens, readers can observe historical happenings at the time it was written and how events in Christie’s life influenced her writing of this text.