And Then There Were None Theme Essay

As the death toll grew, guilt and sorrow reminded characters of their dark pasts. In the story, “And Then There Were None” by Agatha Christie, Vera Claythorne and Emily Brent were both a big part of the theme. “And Then There Were None” is about 10 characters who are invited to an island by an anonymous person. Each is guilty of being connected to a murder. As each of them begin to be murdered, everyone scrambles to find the murderer. One of the strongest themes is “Guilt will always come back to haunt people”. It is shown through the Conflict, Description, and Inner-Thinking.
From the beginning of the book, the characters show their dark but hidden pasts. Claythorne immediately thinks of Cyril and Hugo and her very dark secret. All of the characters are hurting on the inside but are trying to move on. During the story Christie describes this with Claythorne, “And then, as she stood there, listening, a cold, clammy hand touched her throat-a wet hand, smelling of the sea…Vera screamed”(pg. 217-218). This description shows that Vera tries to escape her dark past, but when it comes

back to haunt her she can’t do anything but scream and cry. It shows that she has a dark past with water and the smell of the sea. Another detail that shows the pain of the characters dark past is when Brent is writing in her notebook, “The murderer’s name is BEATRICE TAYLOR”(pg. 175). This description from the text shows Brent, who goes mad and her guilt takes over her. As it takes over her, she remembers her time with Taylor and begins to feel regret.
The pain in character’s minds and hearts grows throughout the story. Christie describes this with Brent, “Did I write that? Did I? I must be going mad.”(pg. 175). This text shows Brent being possessed by her guilt and worrying she is going mad. She is being tormented by her guilt making her remember her sins. Another detail by Christie about Brent shows her pain killing her, “She heard footsteps, soft dragging footsteps coming from behind her. The stumbling footsteps of a drowned girl.”(pg. 199). This evidence shows how even in her last moments she was thinking of her darkest pain. She would never forget about what happened with Taylor and in the end knows her guilt will stop haunting her if she gets what she deserves.
Vera’s pain increases over the whole story.

Through inner-thinking, Christie described her pain, “do they keep bees on this island? Isn’t it funny? Isn’t it damned funny? She began to wildly laugh again”(pg. 186). This detail from the text shows how Vera went mad from guilt and started to go mentally insane. Her guilt is driving her to the limits to keep reminding herself of her ex-fiancé and Cyril the boy she let drown. Another piece of evidence Christie uses is when she again describes Vera, “Vera moved forward. This was the end, here where the cold, wet hand of Cyril touched her throat...A rope and a noose all ready?...it was what Hugo wanted”(pg. 268). This detail from Christie shows Vera is going so insane from guilt. The guilt took Vera and it tormented her and made her crazy. In the end it wasn’t Vera’s regrets or Hugo that drove her to death, it was her

guilt.
In the end, all of the characters, got what they deserved. They all had made mistakes and the guilt never went away. The way to stay clear might just be to always be nice to others. The text structures used in the book including Inner-Thinking, Conflict, and Description, all help the theme show. They all share this theme because they all have inner-thinking, description, and conflict in them. They all work together in every sentence to make it very easy to see Christie’s theme of “people will never be able to escape their guilt and dark pasts”.