“And Then There Were None” by Agatha Christie: Confession of murderer inadvertently reflects author’s multiple personality

To read past posts on the author’s multiple personality, search “Agatha Christie” in this blog. But I have often made the general point that persons with multiple personality tend to be “self-contradictory,” like the murderer in this novel. An excerpt from the murderer’s confession follows:

“From my earliest youth I realized that my nature was a mass of contradictions…I have a definite sadistic delight in seeing or causing death…But side by side with this went a contradictory trait—a strong sense of justice…Crime and its punishment has always fascinated me. I enjoy reading every kind of detective story and thriller. I have devised for my own private amusement the most ingenious ways of carrying out a murder…I have wanted—let me admit it frankly—to commit murder myself. I recognized this as the desire of the artist to express himself! I was, or could be, an artist of crime! My imagination, sternly checked by the exigencies of my profession, waxed secretly to colossal force. I must—I must—I must commit murder! It must be a fantastical crime—something stupendous—out of the common! In that one respect, I have still, I think, an adolescent’s imagination. I wanted something theatrical, impossible!

“A childish rhyme of my infancy came back into my mind—the rhyme of ten little soldier boys [and then there were none] had fascinated me as a child of two…(1, pp. 285-288).

Comment: Multiple personality usually starts in childhood. And the confession of the murderer in this novel, which suggests multiple personality, appears to reflect the author’s multiple personality trait.

1. Agatha Christie. And Then There Were None. New York, William Morrow/HarperCollins, 1939/2019.