How Does Vera Claythorne Present The Theme Of Guilt

Justice Wargrave uses his judgements of the guests to devise an order in which he will murder his victims. His criteria for the murders are the severity of the crime, the criminal’s level of responsibility for the crime, and the level of guilt that the criminal feels about their wrongdoing. Wargrave plans his murders to align with who he believes deserves to suffer the most. This is evident in the murders of Mrs. Rogers, Emily Brent, and Vera Claythorne.

Wargrave murders Mrs. Rogers early in the novel because he believes that she should not suffer as much as the others. She already suffers from enough guilt over her crime that Wargrave thinks she should not suffer from fear of death on the island. When the guests arrive at the house, Vera’s

first impression of Mrs. Rogers is that “she looked like a woman who walked in mortal fear” (Christie 31). Mrs. Rogers lives in constant fear that someone will discover her involvement in her employer’s death. In his letter, Wargrave states, “Mrs. Rogers, I had no doubt, had acted very largely under the influence of her husband” (Christie 293). Although she is not entirely responsible for the crime because her husband coerced her into it, she still feels guilty about her involvement. Emily Brent claims that Mrs. Rogers “literally died of fear” (Christie 98), which is true because Wargrave kills her early to relieve her from her fear and guilt.
Emily Brent, one the other hand, feels no guilt because she believes that she played no part in Beatrice Taylor’s suicide.

When the gramophone announces the list of murders, “Emily Brent sat upright, her head held high” (Christie 49), because she feels no remorse over the girl’s death. In Brent’s defense, she states, “The abandoned creature, not content with having one sin on her conscious, committed a still graver sin. She took her own life” (Christie 111). Although Brent did not directly tell Beatrice to kill herself, she drove the girl to it, despite her belief that “her own action-her own sin-that was what drove her to it” (Christie 111). As the novel progresses, Brent begins to express her guilt internally. She has dreams and hallucinations that Beatrice Taylor is with her, and right before her death, Brent states, “There was somebody in the room… somebody all wet and dripping… Beatrice Taylor came from the river” (Christie 199). Wargrave chooses this moment to kill Emily Brent because she is beginning to suffer from the guilt of her

sins.
Wargrave leaves Vera Claythorne to die last because he believes she is the worst of the murderers.

It is her fault that Cyril died and she feels very guilty about it, despite not expressing her guilt to the other characters. On the outside, Vera looks innocent, and Lombard states, “I don’t fancy there’s anything insane about you, Vera. You strike me as being one of the sanest and most levelheaded girls I’ve come across” (Christie 168). Internally, however, Vera expresses her guilt through dreams and hallucinations. In the beginning of the novel, Christie writes, “A picture rose clearly in her mind. Cyril’s head, bobbing up and down, swimming to the rock… and herself, swimming in easy practised strokes after him… but knowing, only too surely, that she wouldn’t be in time” (Christie 5). Wargrave believes that she is at fault even more because she lets Cyril die out of greed and lust. Vera thinks to herself, “Horrid whiney spoilt little brat! If it weren’t for him, Hugo would be rich… able to marry the girl he loved” (Christie 217). Wargrave leaves her to be the last victim, not only because she is the most guilt, but because he knows that guilt will lead her to suicide. For Wargrave, it was “an interesting psychological experiment. Would the conscious of her own guilt… be sufficient… to cause her to take her own life?” (Christie 298). In the end, she fulfills his expectations and kills herself like the poem

predicts.
Wargrave commits his murders to follow his criteria and to fit in with the “Ten Little Solider Boys” poem. He plans his murders to range from those who feel guilt but do not deserve to suffer, to those who subconsciously feel guilt but deserve to suffer the most. This is evident when he kills Mrs. Rogers early to relieve her from her sufferings, and saves Vera Claythorne for last to make her suffer the longest. In the case of Emily Brent, he saves her for the middle because although she did not murder Beatrice Taylor, her judgement of the girl led to the girl’s death. He believes that no one other than him should possess enough power of judgement to lead to someone’s death. These three cases reveal Wargrave’s criteria for the arrangement of murders on Soldier Island.