Justice, what defines it, and who should it be served to? In Agatha Christie’s novel “And Then There Were None” which was published on the 6th of november 1939, Agatha Christie allows the reader to unfold and interpret the justice portrayed through the characters. She uses the characters to explore the concept of justice, and a few key events that portray the concept of justice is through General MaCarthur accepting his fate of dying, Wargrave killing the guests in order of the severity of their crimes and Justice Wargrave killing himself.
In Agatha Christie’s novel “And Then There Were None” she portrays the characters in a way to explore the concept of internal and external justice throughout the book. An event that stands out in the novel which explores the concept of justice within the characters is when General MaCarthur is sitting on the beach and he accepts that his death is coming and he is at peace with knowing that. “It’s not much good denying it now – not when were all going to die” ” you’ll be glad, too, when the end comes” – General MaCarthur. Through saying this General Macarthur is saying to Vera he is at peace with the idea of dying, and this is the moment where justice is revealed within himself as he has been feeling guilty for the death he caused purposefully of Officer Richmond. At the beginning of the novel, when the guests arrived to the island and the gramophone plays inditing all of the guests of all of their crimes. General MaCarthur makes a point to say that him killing Richmond was absolutely ludicrous and he would never send one of his own officers to their death. This shows that General MaCarthur’s mind was degenerating throughout the novel as Justice Wargrave was putting him through all of the emotional torture, because MaCarthur reveals that he is feeling the weight of the guilt after all of these years and he is at peace with the idea of dying which is showing an internal sense of justice within himself as he knows that he has to die to get his moral compass cleared. The purpose of Agatha Christie doing this is to show the readers that there are always equal consequences to your actions.
Another idea in which the characters are used to explore the concept of justice in Agatha Christie’s novel “And Then There Were None” is how Justice Wargrave murders the guests according to the severity of their crimes. This is a way of showing justice because the worse he deemed the crimes to be the later he killed them and this was a way of putting them through emotional torture and punishment for what they did as it gave them time to fully reflect on what they did which made all the guests begin to go insane, before he ultimately killed them which was inevitable because the only equal punishment murder is death as wrong doing must be balanced in some way. ” Those whose guilt was the lightest should, i decided, pass out first, and not suffer the prolonged mental strain and fear that the more cold blooded offenders were to suffer”- Justice Wargrave. Through saying this he is deciding who he feels crimes were more cold blooded and heartless and therefore who should be killed first and who should be killed last, which is why he decided to kill Anthony Marston first as he recognised that he wasn’t born will the ability to feel moral responsibility so it would make no difference keeping him alive and putting him through all of the emotional torture, and killed Vera Claythorne last as she purposefully allowed Cyril to swim to the rock knowing he would die, so that she could marry Hugo as she does feel moral responsibility. Killing the guests in order of the severity of there crimes is bringing justice to them evenly as they all end up dead but the road to death for all of them is different and the worse Justice Wargrave deemed the crimes the longer they had to suffer which is balancing out their crimes as they end up in the same place, dead, so Justice Wargrave uses the idea of justice to justify the murders he is committing throughout the time the guests are on the island.
Throughout the novel and then there were none, many characters were used to explore the concept of justice, but the most obvious character that portrayed the idea of justice was Justice Wargrave . Him killing himself at the end of the novel after he planned and conducted the murders of the other 9 guests on the island and Isaac Morris is not only showing justice for the rest of the guests that were killed but internal justice for himself as well, as he understood that although he thought the guests deserved to die after the horrible murders they all committed, he had to die as well as its the only fair punishment for taking 10 other lives on his terms and not on theirs. “I wanted to kill… yes, i wanted to kill… but- incongruous as it may seem to some – i was restrained and hampered by my innate sense of justice. the innocent must not suffer.” In Justice Wargrave saying this it shows that he had had the feeling of wanting to kill his entire life, which is why he chose the judge profession as he was able to sentence people to death and as he didnt want to kill the innocent this was perfect. As he didn’t kill anyone who was innocent on soldier island this fulfilled his craving to kill but after all of the murders were committed and he had served justice to all of the guests it was time for himself as he recognised he was no different from them as he had committed 10 murders. Through Agatha Christie making Justice Wargrave kill himself at the end of the novel, she is portraying the concept of justice clearly. “The principle of justice could be described as the moral obligation to act on the basis of fair adjudication between competing claims. As such, it is linked to fairness, entitlement and equality ” and as he killed himself he is clearing his moral compass death was the only fair punishment.
Agatha Christie portrays the concept of justice throughout the book and then there were none, she uses many key events and ideas to get her message across and communicate the idea of it, General MaCarthur accepting his fate, Justice Wargrave killing the guests off in order and Justice Wargrave killing himself at the end are all significant to the understanding the concept of justice throughout the novel. Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None” has shown me that every action has an equal consequence no matter how long it goes forgotten as someone will always find out and serve justice to you. in the guests of Soldier Islands case including Justice Wargrave they committed all of their horrible acts and murders and they went forgotten for many years but Justice Wargrave found out about them and served them justice and gave them an equal punishment to their crimes which was death, including himself.
