Theme Of Insanity In And Then There Were None

Improved Essays
Have you ever wondered where becoming insane can lead someone? The book, And Then There Were None and the short story, “Most Dangerous Game” show different possibilities that insanity can drive a person towards. They show that people can become insane over time and grow an obsession that can be destructive. Insanity has the capability to drive someone to their death. And Then There Were None and “Most Dangerous Game” are similar since they both show the results of insanity. The insanity is shown in both stories through the conflicts that occur between the characters. In the book, And Then There Were None, insanity begins because Justice Wargrave felt so strongly about a murder trial that he did not stop until that man was found guilty. He became so obsessed with the trial that he wanted to create an unsolvable murder mystery. This insanity created a killer. Similarly, General Zaroff, in “Most Dangerous Game” wanted to create the most dangerous hunt possible. Even though he had almost been killed by bison, lions, and elephants, he desired to hunt something even more dangerous. The more he thought about the abilities of the various animals that he had hunted, the more he realized that another human would be the ultimate game. He thought about how cobras could spit venom, a lion could rip you apart, a bison …show more content…
These characteristics can also intensify into even worse situations than the ones told in the two novels. The two characters were normal until events occurred that changed them mentally. Wargrave was perfectly stable, until he ended up killing his first victim. Then, he developed a thirst for blood. The General was stable until his lust for a more dangerous hunt got the best of him. Both of these show that human nature can be built willingly and unwillingly. Humans create their own nature, not somebody else. Depending on the path they choose, someone’s sanity may be at

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell and “Hunters in the Snow” by Tobias Wolff are completely different short stories, but their characters and imagery are very similar. From a cold, winter forest to a humid, sticky forest, the stories’ settings are as polar opposite as possible. These stories may have very different settings, but they have startling comparisons between the protagonists, the antagonists, and the plots. In the story “The Most Dangerous Game,” there are two main characters.…

    • 587 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Narcissistic sociopathy is a mental disease where a person lacks empathy for others, while also viewing them self as superior in every way. These traits, separately, are becoming more commonly recognized in our society today, but together are a very rare occurrence. The antagonist of Richard Connell’s story The Most Dangerous Game, is a narcissistic sociopath. Zaroff is a textbook definition of a narcissistic sociopath. Connell divulges the theme of fear, and competition throughout the story with the use of several types of conflict, foreshadowing, and imagery.…

    • 952 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Quote #1 In the murder mystery, Mr.Justice Wargrave is guilty of killing not one, but nine people and himself. The author does such an excellent job in keeping the reader wondering who the killer is until the end of the book. Even though she gives us a really big clue, the author makes sure it is not too obvious. And this is the clue; “Given the scheme in question which is neither more nor less than the execution of justice upon certain individuals for offenses which the law cannot touch, there is only one way in which that scheme could be accomplished. Mr. Owen could only come to the island in one way.…

    • 511 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Cuckoo's Nest

    • 738 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Sometimes the right path is not the easiest one however, there are times in our lives when we are forced to weigh the consequences and decide whether the risk is worth the reward. In Ken Kesey’s novel about a psychiatric hospital titled, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, we can see how people react to this dilemma. Kesey’s characters range from those who simply complain about their condition or situation to those actually do something about it. People would complain about things when they want to be notice or to start a conversation with others. Pete Bancini is one of the patients who wants attention from others.…

    • 738 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    We see examples of this in both Lord of the Flies and “The Stanford Prison Experiment”. As the boys physical appearance changed so did their identities, grasp of reality, and sense of right and wrong. Similar to the subjects in the “Stanford Prison Experiment”, who when separated into two groups, physically identical within one another, began to blur the lines between sadism and…

    • 811 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Insanity- a perfectly rational adjustment to an insane world” R.D. Laing. An individual in a chaotic world presents an ill state of mind, behavior and social interaction. In Timothy Findley’s The Wars, Mrs. Ross depicts lunacy as a result of her insane world, and in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Hamlet and Ophelia portray a corrupt state mind as their surroundings are hectic. Characters sanity can easily diminish in an insane environment.…

    • 809 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “The world is made up of two classes- the hunters and the hunted.” This famous quote can be found in Richard Connell’s short story The Most Dangerous Game. This quote is also mentioned in the film version of this short story. This is one of the similarities between these two versions. However, there are also differences between the two, including characters besides the two main, Robert Rainsford, and General Zaroff, plot events, setting, and resolution.…

    • 711 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Insanity Defense History

    • 959 Words
    • 4 Pages

    For centuries, criminals have been categorized as insane, but does that justify their crime? The majority of higher profile criminals file for the insanity plea which then affects their punishment and life, causing us to consider if ours is safe. The insanity defense should not be admissible in court because of the interest for the public, increases in legal costs, and manipulation of the legal system. The insanity defense’s history plays into our everyday legal actions and in order to understand the problem, you need to understand the defense.…

    • 959 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Pete Earley Crazy Summary

    • 895 Words
    • 4 Pages

    I chose the book Crazy: A Father’s Search through America’s Mental Health Madness by Pete Earley. Earley had been an award-winning journalist for thirty years and written about America’s criminal justice system but always from the “outside looking in” (p. 1). That all changed, however, when his son Mike was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. The central theme of Crazy is chronicling Earley’s year-long investigation into the de-institutionalization and ensuing criminalization of the mentally ill in America along with his son’s and others’ stories weaved throughout. Starting with Mike’s first psychotic breakdown, it is his story that becomes the genesis and nexus for this book.…

    • 895 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    He had to push himself to come up with ways to defeat General Zaroff. He had to have the strength to swim back to shore. He also had to have the guts to kill people so he could save his life. To conclude, this amazing short story, The Most Dangerous Game, is a story that keeps you on the edge of your seat because you do not know what is going to happen next. The conflict in this story goes perfect with this short story.…

    • 454 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    McMurphy’s apparent madness or irrational behavior in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest plays the important role in the novel of being the devil’s advocate highlighting the ills of the mental institutions of the 1960s. His eccentric behavior was despised by the Big Nurse and other authority figures at the mental institution, but McMurphy’s behavior might be judged reasonable if one considers the dehumanizing, sterile, hostage-like situation that the institute’s patients were subjected to on a daily basis. Furthermore, McMurphy 's “madness” not only drives the plot of this novel, but serves the purpose of showing how poorly equipped the institution was to assess and treat individuals suffering any type of distinguished mental disorder…

    • 1326 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    1.There are multiple mental illnesses portrayed in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest as the setting for the story is a mental institution. The narrator is a large Native American who feigns deaf and dumbness. This character is an excellent study in the evolution of a mentally ill individual along the path of finding a semblance of normalcy, although the phenomenon is the result of interactions with a decidedly psychopathic or sociopathic man, McMurphy, played by Jack Nicholson. Nicholson connives to be placed in a mental institution to avoid jail and throughout his antics we are offered an internal view of a form of mental illness more difficult to diagnose - psycho &/or sociopathy. The terms have been used interchangeably and even experts disagree…

    • 1500 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Psychosis In Hamlet

    • 939 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Consider Hamlet’s ascent into madness a roller coaster climbing up its first hill, gaining energy that is just waiting to unleash itself. Once the last car reaches its peak, the entire coaster speeds through the tracks with a whirlwind of kinetic energy and will not stop until outside forces cause it to do so. Confident within his mind, thrill-seeking Hamlet enjoys his ride with manifestation while still experiencing immense strife. Psychosis appears in Hamlet due to brief psychotic disorder, bringing with it intense hallucinations, delusions of perception and grandeur, and hyper mania through deranged speech and actions. Mental illnesses may be present for years without awareness, and life-changing experiences can cause symptoms to become…

    • 939 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Death and Revenge: A Comparison Death, revenge, “accidents”… What causes silent insanity? “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe is a story about Montresor and Fortunado. Montresor and Fortunado are acquaintances, but one night Montresor asks Fortunado to sample his new cask of Amontillado.…

    • 1067 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    One central theme seen throughout this story is that madness can derive from one’s environment, including not only physical surroundings but the surrounding people as…

    • 996 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays