And Then There Were None Suspense Essay

Suspense can be defined in many different ways. Either it is a buildup of tension, a moment with high anxiety for what will happen next, or some other way you may define it yourself. Agatha Christie knew the definition of suspense very well, and used it all the time in her many, many mystery novels, including And Then There Were None. One way Christie was able to incorporate suspense in And Then There Were None was with a process of elimination of the characters. Since the first two deaths, of Anthony Marston and Mrs.Rogers it became apparent that some mischief was happening, and that one of the characters, whether on the island or ‘Mr.Owen’, the reader begins to make assumptions on to who will die next, how they might exactly die next, and …show more content…
The poem was called Ten Little Soldiers. It started with ten little soldier boys, and each dying due to some unique reason, and ending with, “One little Soldier Boy left all alone; He went and hanged himself and then there were none” (Christie). Once the deaths of Anthony Marston and Mrs.Rogers fit into the poem, “Ten little Soldier boys went out to dine; One choked his little self and then there were nine. Nine little Soldier boys sat up very late; One overslept himself and then there were eight…” (Christie). It became obvious that anyone who was to die would die according to the poem. As earlier it was stated that suspense was made with the not knowing of how the next victim would die, now knowing it both added and removed some tension. Lets sat the reader has x amount of anxiety. Even if you remove one factor, the anxiety stays the same. Basically, when the reader finds out how, the questions of who, when, where, and why only become even more tense. This is very effective in the reader. If the reader was flat out told the answers to all the questions except one, and had to read through to figure out the last answer, their anxiety would be all focused on the one