Vera Armstrong Guilt

In And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, the different characters respond realistically to guilt in many different ways. The characters on Soldier Island were all pledged guilty for some degree of murder and they all knew that. Although, the way some of them responded to their own grief and guilt is varied. As the characters were talking about their accusations, Dr. Armstrong thought to himself, “Drunk, that’s what it was—drunk… And I operated! Nerves all to pieces—hands shaking. I killed her all right. Poor devil—elderly woman—simple job if I’d been sober” (Christie 71-72). This proves that Dr. Armstrong felt guilty about killing a woman named Louisa Mary Clees many years ago on the operating table. Although Armstrong denied that it

When Vera Claythorne finally realizes she is the last person left on the island, her feelings are very unsettling. As she thought about her crime she became very paranoid, Vera was thinking to herself, “What was that—hanging from the hook in the ceiling? A rope with a noose all ready? And a chair to stand upon—a chair that could be kicked away… That was what Hugo wanted…” (Christie 268). This proves that Vera was so guilty for letting Cyril die, she gave her own life. As she was the only person left on the island, her guilt began to take over. She began hallucinating that Hugo, her lover, was upstairs waiting for her. Vera began thinking about Cyril and how she let him drown while swimming out to the rock. She thought about Hugo and how she had let him down and how much she missed him. As she walked into her bedroom, there was a rope already attached to the ceiling and a chair under it. She was under all the pressure of her guilt when she stood up the char and adjusted the noose around her neck. The amount of guilt that Vera felt made her physically ill to the point that she couldn’t deal with the guilt any longer, and she ended her life over