Comparing The Sociopath In And Then There Were None By Agatha Christie

Mental illness is a topic that has been touched upon in numerous books and movies, including Agatha Christie's’ And Then There Were None. This murder mystery set on an island off the coast of Devon, England involves the possibility of the murderer, Judge Wargrave, being a sociopath. Throughout the book, clues are left showing Wargrave displaying numerous signs of sociopathy throughout his life. The confession found in the bottle at the end recounts the events leading up to the murders. The confession also describes how Wargrave did not consider what he was doing murder, but a type of justice that made his actions logical. Many sociopaths exhibit signs of the disease from an early age and as stated by Wargrave in the confession, “I remember experiments with wasps-- with various garden pests...” (Christie, 1966, p. 261). This quote implies that Wargrave, even as a child, had a fascination with death and took pleasure with torturing and killing living creatures. One of the main attributes of a sociopath is a lack of guilt, shame or remorse when they have done something wrong, such as tortured a living organism. The quote also shows another symptom of sociopathy which is abnormal behaviour as a child, which can include harming animals. Another segment of the

Wargrave states that, “On at least two occasions I stopped cases where to my mind the accused was palpably innocent, directing the jury that there was no case” (Christie, 1966, p. 262). Two prominent traits that are found in sociopaths are that they are charming and manipulative as well as they believe that what they think is always correct. The quote from the story shows that Wargrave manipulated the jury into believing that there was no case by using his authority as well as his intelligence. He closed the two cases because he thought that they were innocent, not because of a lack of