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False Impressions In And Then There Were None By Agatha Christie

Decent Essays

In today’s society, the act of deceiving someone by concealing or misrepresenting the truth has become easier, due to communications through social media. Consequently, people are becoming more aware of the importance of selective trusting. Deception is often the topic of many great mystery novels such as Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, originally published in 1939. This novel follows a group of 9 individuals, invited onto an island, being killed in turn by a fellow castaway. In fact, the main theme of this story is to be careful of who you trust, for it is easy to be deceived. For example, Justice Wargrave sets traps for all the other guests, he tricks Dr. Armstrong into helping him fake his death and Agatha Christie fools her readers by giving them false impressions.

Firstly, the other guests on the island are easily deceived by Justice Wargrave, because they fall for several of his traps. For instance, …show more content…

For instance, in And Then There Were None, she gives many possible identities for the killer by giving extensive details about different characters that are rather suspicious. Towards the middle of the novel, Justice Wargrave introduces a theory that Dr. Armstrong is the killer, saying “It’s Armstrong. I saw him looking at me sideways just then. His eyes are mad. Quite mad. Perhaps he isn’t a doctor at all. That’s it, of course he’s a lunatic, escaped from some doctor’s house, pretending to be a doctor.” Armstrong was not committing the murders. However, Christie makes it seem viable by giving the readers extensive details about his behaviour. She deceives her readers on purpose by delivering various possibilities for an ending, compelling them to continue reading. Authors of mystery novels constantly deceive their readers, showing the level to which deception is easily

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