In Agatha Christie’s mystery novel, And Then There Were None, the reader is taken on a journey in which eight strangers are all invited to Indian Island for various reasons, only to find out each will be confronted by a secret crime of their past which was dismissed by the law. However, unbeknownst to the guests, their stay on the island would not be long. One by one, each of the guests perish, with their death pattern in accordance with that of the poem on the wall, The Ten Little Indians. As days pass and guests pass away, the remaining visitors become more and more suspicious of one another being the murderer. Christie uses a technique of character development to submerge readers into the lives of her characters, so as to relate to them in different ways. The element of mystery is also achieved through the aspect of the unknown. At the very core of the plot, random strangers are gathered onto a eerie, unfamiliar island, all for various reasons. While the reader may be anticipating horror to dawn on the guests of this house, no one expects what is to come.
The audience is first introduced to Justice Wargrave, who appears to be a reasonable, moral, and upholding government employee, leading the reader to perceive Wargrave to be just as innocent, if not more law-abiding, than the rest. However, it is in the night time that his character develops. “Carefully, Mr. Justice Wargrave removed his false teeth and dropped them into a glass of water. The shrunken lips fell in. It was a cruel mouth now, cruel and predatory”(Christie 42). In the same way he is observed to transform, Wargrave has a switch which turns him into an evil, predatory egomaniac, perhaps one which would be capable for claiming responsibility of the deaths of the others on the island. He says of himself, “Oh, yes. I’ve no doubt in my own mind that we have been invited here by a madman—probably a dangerous homicidal lunatic”(Christie 48). Christie develops the character of Justice Wargrave as a God figure. One character accuses Wargrave of translating his power in the court into playing God on this island, appointing himself to gather all of these individuals, and meticulously plot their deaths. This concept is simply morbid and disturbing to readers. However, it captivates readers to rethink the plot from the beginning, and analyze clues which we simply paid no attention to. Wargrave is only one example of the character development which each guest undergoes. Upon introduction, nothing significant is thought of regarding these individuals. However, just as Wargrave develops to reveal his twisted intentions, the characters’ each has a past which unravels to reveal a morbid, horrifying act they’ve committed in their past.
The use of the unknown is magnified as the guests all arrive at the island. Each was called for various reasons, ranging from Justice Wargrave and others visiting old friends, Vera Claythorne, who is attending under the impression that she has been hired as a secretary, to Philip Lombard and William Blore who are ex-detectives, expecting to be responsible for keeping peace over the weekend. Each of these guests arrives on an island, which has been the talk of the town as of recent. The island was supposedly bought by a Mr. Owen, which none of the above mentioned have ever met before. All of the guests seem to simply dismiss the rumors, quick to believe the letters regarding their personal call to the island. In the moment, Christie has a persuasive manner of leading the reader to eagerly believe the letters. In hindsight, would this actually happen or is this reasonable? Perhaps not. But in context, this unrealistic situation seems fathomable and any doubts the reader has are supressed.
The poem “Ten Little Indian Boys,” is used as an underlying basis of the plot. This poem is an old children’s poem which reads:
“Ten little Indian boys went out to dine; One choked his little self and then there were nine.
Nine little Indian boys sat up very late; One overslept himself and then there were eight.
Eight little Indian boys travelling in Devon; One said he'd stay there and then there were seven.
Seven little Indian boys chopping up sticks; One chopped himself in halves and then there were six.
Six little Indian boys playing with a hive; A bumblebee stung one and then there were five.
Five little Indian boys going in for law; One got in Chancery and then there were four.
Four little Indian boys going out to sea; A red herring swallowed one and then there were three.
Three little Indian boys walking in the Zoo; A big bear hugged one and then there were two.
Two little Indian boys sitting in the sun; One got frizzled up and then there was one.
One little Indian boy left all alone; He went and hanged himself and then there were none.”
If a reader were to suspect this earlier on in the plot, they would be able to predict nearly the entire scheme of deaths, with exception to knowing who would be the next victim. Christie manipulates the plot by basing each and every individual’s death on the progression of this children’s poem. Furthermore, Justice Wargrave, in his God-like power, strategically plans each of the deaths, many relating to the crimes for which he brought them on this island. For example, Vera Claythorne is accused and guilty of intentionally abandoning the drowning young boy for whom she was a governess at the beach. Likewise, Wargrave left her a piece of seaweed on the ceiling as a noose, as a not-so-subtle reminder of her actions in the past.
Christie’s genius incorporation of mystery is further investigated and magnified by Frank Ardolino in, Journal of Evolutionary Psychology, specifically the chapter titled, “Deceptive and deadly numbers and letters in Christie's double versions of Ten Little Indians and Witness for the Prosecution.” Ardolino analyzes the subliminal underlying factors and patterns which lie in the fundamental structure of the novel. In his research, Ardolino successfully solves the numerical code to which And Then There Were None abides by. He explains the use of both numbers and alphabetical repetitiveness that Christie uses to signify death and warn the reader of what is to come, despite the expected oblivion of readers. He notes Christie’s use of numbers is an integral part of her emphasizing an overriding destiny of the plot. She uses the use of the number 8 and 0, as well as the letter “o” in her system. 8 is interpreted as two towering zeros to signify the nothingness of death. Eight people arrive on the eighth day of the eighth month, which upon their arrival, dinner is served at eight PM. A similar pattern is found in the last names of the characters themselves: Rodgers, Narcott, Claythorne, Lombarde, Blore, Marston, and Armstrong. These eight characters each have last names which contain the letter “o.” While this may seem like a stretch to find a pattern, it further solidifies Ardolino's legitimate discovery of Agatha Christie’s uncoincidental numerical and alphabetical death system.
Agatha Christie’s techniques to develop a realistic sense of mystery is one which continues to simply perplexes her audience for years. Each reader feels captivated in the plot, as if he or she was the designated detective on this case. The reader progresses through a maze in which they are equally befuddled as the characters themselves. While the characters are making accusations, the reader is following and seeing those accusations through until the point where a dead end is reached, and then onto the next theory. While the mystery lies in the complexity of this novel, it takes on a dual nature by also exposing itself in the simplicity of the work. The skeleton of the death scheme is introduced to us early on through the introduction of the poem, ‘Ten Little Indians.” The deaths of the visitors is synonymous with those of the ten little indian boys, until the point when none remained, just as the novel is titled And Then There Were None. However, the complexity lies in the ingenious number system which Frank Ardolino identifies in his analysis of Agatha Christie’s literary works. Christie’s masterful incorporation of this system is flawless and surpases the expectation of the bare human eye. Once identified, the not-so-coincide take on such blatant patterns which seem impossible to miss in hindsight, but is simply yet another key element used to entice the reader. In using these strategies and techniques, Agatha Christie, the queen of mystery, successfully entices the reader to come along with her character on the journey of a lifetime in this masterpiece.