Analyse how characters were used to explore the concept of justice.

And then there were none

Agatha christie

During this essay I will be talking about the theme justice, and why Wargrave chose to kill the people on the island. The theme of justice is explored is because of the specific characters on the island didn’t receive the punishment they deserved. Justice was explored by Wargrave who killed all the people on the island, he did this because he wanted justice for the families of those innocent people who got killed.

In the text and then there were none, Agatha Christie uses Justice throughout the story to explore the theme, specific characters were targeted and explored this theme more than others. Some of those characters were Vera Claythorne, Anthony Marston and Mrs Justice Wargrave. Agatha Christie reveals justice to use throughout the text, she uses vera as an example as retributive justice.

Wargrave starts off by killing the people with the not so bad crimes and leaves the people who committed the worse crimes to suffer on the island. He did this so justice would definitely be served to the people who committed crimes. Wargrave specifically says “those who guilt was the lightest should I decide to pass out first, and not suffer the prolonged mental strain that the more cold-blooded offenders were to suffer”. this shows what wargraves intentions really were. An example of this is Wargrave killing Anthony Marston first, Anthony committed a crime by recklessly driving and hitting two young kids and killing them. His license was suspended for 2 months before he got it back again and couldn’t care less about the crime he did. Wargrave found about this and wanted to serve justice to him. He did this by killing him first, he put cyanide in his whiskey which caused him to collapse to the ground and die. Marston was the first of the 10 victims.

The second character Wargrave is deeply Interested in killing and justice. He explores the theme of justice with all these characters as he knows they have committed the vilest crime and not been punished for it. Wargaves desire to instil justice leads him to kill the characters in the most gruesome way, he is serving justice to the people who have escaped the punishment of the law. He watches Vera claythorne try to kill herself, as she is so scared and depressed. He stands there and watches with happiness as he knows she is finally being punished for the crime that she committed to be with Cyril. Wargrave is obsessed with killing and death. Wargrave put together this whole plan to kill these people.

The last character is Vera Claythorne, Vera is a young woman who you would think would never commit such a bad crime. Vera committed the crime for love, for Cyril. Wargrave leaves her to last because he knows she felt the most guilt. Wargrave stated “those who guilt was the lightest should I decide to pass out first, and not suffer the prolonged mental strain that the more cold-blooded offenders were to suffer” and he followed through with this and he enjoyed it.

In conclusion, these deaths were planned for a reason, that being getting justice. Wargrave loved getting justice that’s why he was the one behind everything.