Justice In And Then There Were None

Abby Toth

Sra. Pallesen

Humanities

20 March 2023

And Then There Were None

Justice is built up by opinions and those who hold it. In the Novel, “And Then There Were None,” justice heavily influences the story of ten strangers who are each invited to Indian Island by a mysterious host. It can be seen throughout the novel that one of the guests, Justice Wargrave causes the justice system to be untrustworthy with the decisions he has made. This leads him to take the law into his own matter, causing people to suffer. Additionally, he did not consider how it would affect others and whether they would feel unsafe in society. From that, poor administration of Justice causes a lack of trust which leads individuals to take the law into their own hands.

The desire to commit illegal actions around the law is because they feel that the law is undependable. In the book, “And Then There Were None,” Wargrave felt that, “there were many cases of similar nature going on all the time - cases of deliberate murder - and all quite untouchable by the law.” (Christie 263) As mentioned, he committed the crime himself because he did not trust the laws that the justice system had in place. He wanted to make sure that the guests got what they deserved and that their unconscious killings were punishable. This leads to people not only wanting to give them to get what they deserve but also to do something that satisfies them. Furthermore, the desire to commit a crime happens when people take the law into their own hands beyond the poor administration of justice. Wargrave has a feeling of an unaware change within himself. For instance, he felt that, “I have wanted - let me admit frankly- to commit a minder myself.” (Christie 263) Wargrave had the desire to kill people who had committed a crime and who were punishable under the law. This satisfied both his want to murder and to prove the justice system for its wrongdoing. He also had a one-sided view of the world, whether an individual is guilty or innocent. Wargrave had no leeway for others to change his point of view and that is why he had the desire to commit a crime. Many times,

These feelings lead to how the guest does not know who people truly are, making that no one is trustworthy. Four guests remained on the island, they went to bed frightened and barricaded themselves there until morning. Vera Claythorne expressed her thoughts, “you’re all right until morning. Nothing happened last night. Nothing will happen tonight, (…) you’re locked and bolted in. No one can come near you.” (Christie 208) As demonstrated, the guests had many feelings of being anxious and stress. They were never sure of whether they would live the next day or even the minute. This made them feel very unsafe and unaware of who to trust and who could come behind their back. Moreover, feeling unsafe in society causes past guilt or trauma to be brought back to realization. In the novel, Vera made many thoughts that made her feel uncomfortable. For instance, “she shivered as she remembered that cold clammy touch on her neck.” (Christie 209) This shows how emotionally unstable Vera is. She is strongly affected by her last guilt from Cyril’s death. Vera is also so heavily connected to the past event that even something as little as the smell of the sea triggered her, worrying someone might find out about her past crime. This happens in the daily world when individuals try to hide something and constantly worry that they will be exposed. Finally, when exposed to manslaughter it causes individuals to