JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE
Vol 7, No 2: November 2025 (In Progress)

PSYCHOLOGICAL SELF-JUSTIFICATION OF CRUEL ACTS IN AGATHA CHRISTIE’S NOVEL AND THEN THERE WERE NONE

Nasution, Cherry Adistya (Unknown)
Wulan, Sri (Unknown)



Article Info

Publish Date
07 Nov 2025

Abstract

The study analyzes Judge Wargrave’s psychological mechanisms of self-justification in Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. Using a descriptive qualitative approach, the analysis identifies Wargrave’s self-justification, defense mechanisms, and manipulative behaviors as strategies to rationalize his cruelty. His sadistic obsession and obsessive ambition reveal the complexity of moral reasoning behind his actions. The study contributes to understanding human rationalization of unethical behavior through a literary-psychological lens.The analysis was carried out by categorizing some information into two themes of diccussion. The first theme is the protagonist’s three actions to justify his cruel act: self-justification, self-defense mechanisms, and manipulation. Then, the second theme is the protagonist’s two reasons to do cruel act: sadistic obsession and insane ambition. The results of this study indicate that Judge Wargrave uses various psychological mechanisms to justify his cruel actions. By looking at the psychological and literary context, this research provides an understanding of human nature and behavior, which shows the psychological complexity of the protagonist to uphold justice in an unethical way.

Copyrights © 2025






Journal Info

Abbrev

journaloflanguage

Publisher

Subject

Humanities Education Languange, Linguistic, Communication & Media Social Sciences

Description

Journal of Language (JoL) is an open access and a peer reviewed scientific journal covering research reports in linguistics, literature or language teaching, and critical evaluations of books on the related areas published by Faculty of Literature, Islamic University of North Sumatra (UISU), Medan, ...