a MLA FORMAT| Me Aikman 1 fe Teapebet of eral fl i the thesis 2. Direct quotes A integrated correctly 10 3. Correct in-text citations Uho 4, MLA Format 4 iif -\ ‘ Double snced fn, margins te, end, tying . Wa? “10 Ieart d£Véra Claythorne “a6 cre is a higher court than courts of justice and that 2. = murderer at heart but untouched by the law, was sterized through her filtered interactions with | \ | ( CL z other characters and the secrets she holds close to her, leaving a lesson on not just people = rgrave’s last death sentence in Agatha Christie’s Vy themselves, but what defines someone's true identity. ‘Throughout the book, Vera is careful to keep her past buried, even from herself. It is as she rides the train to the rendezvous point where she will be picked up to go to Soldier Island that memories begin to bubble up of Cyril “...and herself, swimming easy practiced strokes after hhim — cleaving her way through the water but knowing, only too surely, that she wouldn't be in time” (Christie 5). She represses her thoughts, and when confronted by the other guests, sweeps it under the rug and says she was distracted and he swam too far; she went after him but was too late. She conceals the true depths of her crime — that in order to marry Cyril’s uncle Hugo she felt she had to Kill the child fo ensure Hugo would get the inheritance money. On Soldier Island, it is clear that Vera is a character strongly in denial, maintaining her innocence amongst the group with the implied belief that if they can believe she’s innocent, maybe she can believe it too.Aikman 1 Chloe-Amelie Aikman Ms teary “i English 9 Honors .f 15 September 2015 a A Glimpse into the Heart of'Vera Claythorne In Mahatma Gandhi’s own words, “There is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience.” Vera Claythome, a murderer at heart but untouched by the law, was the final victim of retired Justice Lawrence Wargrave’s last death sentence in Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. Vera is best characterized through her filtered interactions with / | | ( O_ other characters and the secrets she holds close to her, leaving a lesson on not just people themselves, but what defines someone's true identity. ‘Throughout the book, Vera is careful to keep her past buried, even from herself. It is as she rides the train to the rendezvous point where she will be picked up to go to Soldier Island that memories begin to bubble up of Cyril “...and herself, swimming easy practiced strokes after him — cleaving her way through the water but knowing, only too surely, that she wouldn’t be in time” (Christie 5). She represses her thoughts, and when confronted by the other guests, sweeps it under the rug and says she was distracted and he swam too far; she went after him but was too late. She conceals the true depths of her crime — that in order to marry Cyril’s uncle Hugo she felt she had to kill the child to ensure Hugo would get the inheritance money. On Soldier Island, it is clear that Vera is a character strongly in denial, maintaining her innocence amongst the group with the implied belief that if they can believe she’s innocent, maybe she can believe it too.Aikman 2 Secrets aside, Vera is analytical by nature as well as conniving and intelligent. Her wits and cool calculation of the facts show themselves while she confers with Philip Lombard, theorizing that Dr. Armstrong is behind the strange deaths occurring on the island because “he’s the only person here with medical knowledge. He can swear the body’s been dead at least an hour and who’s to know the difference?”(Christie 171), She also possesses a strong sense of self preservation, wrapped in a suspicion of others. A prime example of this point is when she was frightened in her room by seaweed strands hanging from the ceiling, but afterwards still refused the brandy offered to her by Mr. Blore in her terrified state because she hadn’t seen him open the bottle, Not to mention that when she and Lombard were the last two living souls on the island, she stole his revolver and shot him dead without batting an eyelash, A lesson that can be pulled away from the character that is Vera Claythome is that a person may be smart, a person may be pretty, and a person can have a decent job ~ but it's hisvher actions that truly define that person’s identity. Vera was all of the aforementioned, but her fatal mistake was she let the passion of the moment get the best of her. She Iet a young boy die at her hands for love, yet died herself with nothing in the end. Summed up in her last thoughts before hanging herself, “That was what murder was ~ as easy as that! But afterwards you went on remembering...” (Christie 269). ‘Vera Claythorne, a character now fertilizing flower beds, hid the truth from the group of murderers on Soldier Island and only exposed what she had to. Her identity had become tainted — no, blackened — by the horrors of her past, leaving the reader with a final lesson to digest as she “kicked away the chair” (Christie 269)./ Aikman 3 y Works Cited J Christie, Agatha. And Then There Were None. New York: Harper Collins Publisher, 1940. Print.