Many people use the word suspense, but what is suspense, and what makes something suspenseful? According to Oxford dictionary suspense is defined by “a state or feeling of excitement of anxious uncertainty about what may happen.” Three items that create suspense throughout the book are Philip Lombard’s revolver, the china soldier figures, and the nursery rhyme poem. All of these items make people curious, scared, or confused at some point in the book. If you follow that definition, Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None has a lot of suspense.
One item that creates or adds to the suspense in the book is Philip Lombard’s revolver. When it goes missing, all of the guests wonder where it went, and if U.N. Owen will kill anyone with it. The reader wonders who will be next, and if/when U.N. Owen will use the gun. On page 207, after Lombard discovers the revolver is missing, everyone undergoes a search, because it will help them find where it got to, or didn’t get to. ‘“Satisfied?” asked Lombard. He had stripped to the skin and he and his room had been …show more content…
Once the guests made the connection that the deaths correspond to the poem, all anyone could do was think about who was going to die, and how they would die so that it would match the poem. On page 186, after Mr. Rogers had died, Miss Claythorne was hysterical talking about bees, as the next line of the poem read: ‘A bumble bee stung one and then there were Five.’ “It’s sane enough what I’m asking. Bees, hives, bees! Oh, don’t you understand? Haven’t you read that idiotic rhyme? It’s up in all your bedrooms-put there for you to study! We might have come here straightaway if we’d had sense. Seven little soldier boys chopping up sticks And the next verse. I know the whole thing by hear, I tell you! Six little soldier boys playing with a hive.” The suspense is quite literally driving Vera crazy, waiting for the next
One item that creates or adds to the suspense in the book is Philip Lombard’s revolver. When it goes missing, all of the guests wonder where it went, and if U.N. Owen will kill anyone with it. The reader wonders who will be next, and if/when U.N. Owen will use the gun. On page 207, after Lombard discovers the revolver is missing, everyone undergoes a search, because it will help them find where it got to, or didn’t get to. ‘“Satisfied?” asked Lombard. He had stripped to the skin and he and his room had been …show more content…
Once the guests made the connection that the deaths correspond to the poem, all anyone could do was think about who was going to die, and how they would die so that it would match the poem. On page 186, after Mr. Rogers had died, Miss Claythorne was hysterical talking about bees, as the next line of the poem read: ‘A bumble bee stung one and then there were Five.’ “It’s sane enough what I’m asking. Bees, hives, bees! Oh, don’t you understand? Haven’t you read that idiotic rhyme? It’s up in all your bedrooms-put there for you to study! We might have come here straightaway if we’d had sense. Seven little soldier boys chopping up sticks And the next verse. I know the whole thing by hear, I tell you! Six little soldier boys playing with a hive.” The suspense is quite literally driving Vera crazy, waiting for the next