In the text, “And Then There Were None” by Agatha Christie, the author uses justice as a main theme in the plot. In the text, an unknown person invites ten people who have committed unpunishable but still terrible crimes. One by one, each of the ten people are picked off in parallel with a poem that is hung on each of the guest’s rooms. It is revealed at the closing of the story that the guests were killed in order of guilt they felt for the committing of their crimes. Christie uses characters to present and explore the idea that people’s perception of reasonable justice are very subject to bias which can come from religious bias, like Emily Brent, who through her religious beliefs believed it was reasonable to throw a young, pregnant lady out just because of the fact she was pregnant before marriage, leading to the woman’s suicide, or Mr. Justice Wargrave, who believes all eventualities of a loss of life should be punished in the same way. He disregards any other factors of the killing, such as intent, or actual coldbloodedness of the killing, such as Vera Claythorne and Dr. Armstrong. Their crimes were very different, one being an accident, and the other was a cold-blooded killing of a young boy, and yet, they receive the same punishment. Another character Christie uses to present this idea is General MacArthur. General Mac Arthur is used to present the idea that as well as religious or workplace beliefs, emotion can also impair one’s view of justice- when he discovers his friend is having an affair with his wife, he sends his friend to die on the battlefield during the war.
The first character Christie explores the idea of the changeable perception of justice using the character Miss Emily Brent. Brent is an older lady who is very religious and set in her ways. She is proper and condescending towards those who don’t act in a similar manner such as Beatrice Taylor, a young woman who lived with and worked for her. When Beatrice, got pregnant, Brent fired her and kicked her out of her house. In despair, Beatrice committed suicide, killing herself and the unborn baby. Emily Brent is used to show how drastically religion can affect someone’s perception of what is right and just. When Mrs Claythorne asks Brent if she blamed herself for the young woman’s suicide, Brent “Drew herself up”, saying she believed she had nothing to do with it. This shows how much Brent’s religious beliefs had blinded her from any sight of what she had caused, her righteous, religious sense of justice essentially stopped her from having any conscience following the suicide. Christie, through the use of Brent, showed how much religion can have a part in someone’s sense of justice.
The following character in Agatha Christie’s murder mystery, “And Then There Were None” that she used to present the idea that one’s sense of justice can be significantly manipulated by their beliefs or background is Mr. Justice Wargrave. Justice Wargrave is revealed at the final stages of the text to be the murderer, the person who lured the people onto the island to be killed. Wargrave says in his confession letter that he chose each and everyone on the island because of a crime they had each committed but was untouchable by the law. Wargrave was a judge for most of his life, from which he had gained a reputation as a “hanging judge” he, through his career, had gained a perspective on justice that essentially revolves around the idea of retributive justice, or “an eye for an eye” each of the people he chose had done something that had ended in another person’s unjust death, and the way Wargrave saw it, they all deserved to pay with their lives for what they had done, regardless of intent, or how many people they had actually killed. Christie uses Wargrave in the story to show that even someone’s career can greatly affect their perception of justice.
Another character in “And then there were none” that the author uses to explore the idea of the changeable nature of someone’s perception of justice can be largely impacted by their surroundings is Vera Claythorne. Vera is used to show that although justice should be looked at impartially, emotions can often cloud a person’s vision of what is right. Vera was a nanny for a family, who had a young child. Whilst caring for the child, Vera met and fell in love with the boy’s uncle, and they wanted to be married, and even though her lover was from a wealthy family, all the money was to go to the young boy, however, Claythorne killed the young boy by essentially drowning him, meaning her lover would become the heir to the fortune, but, she was suspected by the man, and so they were never married. Using Claythorne, Christie shows how twisted and distorted someone’s idea of justice can become when they allow their perception of what is just to be controlled by emotions. In Vera’s case, she believed, out of essentially love, that the young boy should be killed because he was going to receive the money. Although he did nothing wrong, he was punished greatly for no good reason other than hate and a hysterical view of justice. Claythorne is also a great example of how, too often, money can also become an all too powerful factor in one’s judicial instincts.
In the written text, “And Then There Were None’, written by Agatha Christie, characters are used to present the idea that people’s views and perceptions of justice can be largely affected by many external factors, such as in the case of the character Emily Brent, religion, in the case of Vera Claythorne, emotion and money, and for Mr. Justice Wargrave, his workplace. The text shows its’ readers that people’s ideas of what is just and right can be affected greatly by a great many different factors and that remaining impartial to someone who has committed a crime can be incredibly challenging and often doesn’t happen, and the people on the wrong end of the poor judgment can pay dearly for something that sometimes isn’t actually that bad.
