Monday, March 6, 2017

Memorable Passages

"There was a silence—a comfortable replete silence. Into that silence came The Voice. Without warning, inhuman, penetrating . . . “Ladies and gentlemen! Silence, please! . . . You are charged with the following indictments.”


"Edward George Armstrong,t hat you did upon the 14th day of March, 1925, cause the death of Louisa Mary Clees."

"Emily Caroline Brent, that upon the 5th of November, 1931, you were responsible for the death of Beatrice Taylor"

"William Henry Blore, that you brought about the death of James Stephen Landor on October 10th, 1928."

"Vera Elizabeth Claythorne, that on the 11th dat of August, 1935, you killed Cryil Oglivie Hamilton."

"Phillip Lambard, that upon a date in February, 1932, you were guilty of the death of twenty-one men, members of an East African tribe."

"John Gordon Macarthur, that on the 4th of January, 1917, you deliberately sent your wife's lover, Arthur Richmond, to his death.

"Anthony James Martson, that upon the 14th day of November last, you were guilty of the murder of John and Lucy Combes."

"Thomas Rogers and Ethel Rogers, that on the 6th of May, 1929, you brought about the death of Jennifer Brady."

"Lawrence John Wargrave, that upon the 10th day of June, 1930, you were guilty of the murder of Edward Seton."

"Prisoners at the bar, have you anything to say in your defence?"

What this looks like to me so far, is that the majority of these were accidents, not on purpose, but this "voice" made them sound so bad. I guess to the point where someone wanted to start killing people."



This is a really tense scene for And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. Essentially, a voice is telling them of their past crimes, all of which resulted in one or more person(s) dying prematurely. Just imagining the looks of horror of the clan of murders having their crimes spoken aloud so when not a soul should have been able to report them for their injustices. It's kind of the turning point for everyone. At first, they thought that they were all on the same side, but in that moment, they realized that at least one person is their foe. The glazes of suspicions between nine "innocents" and one traitor, the fact that this record was the thing that flipped the switch that this trip was going on. They realized that they were invited to this island for a more malicious reason than I remember this so vividly because it was so out of nowhere. A lot of writers fall into the trap of making a perfect character among the others when making a set of diverse characters. Not only did this make every character have some very apparent flaws, but it made each one that much more memorable. Everyone knew that this is is the turning point where things get a lot more messy, which is why this passage is so memorable.







Image result for and then there were none poem

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