International Journal For Multidisciplinary Research

E-ISSN: 2582-2160   •   Impact Factor: 9.24

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Volume 8 Issue 4
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Ten Little Soldiers: Nursery Rhyme as a Narrative Device in Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None

Author(s) Ajay Kumar, Deepika ...
Country India
Abstract Agatha Christie’s 1939 novel And Then There Were None is considered her greatest work and hold the record as the best-selling mystery story. Unlike her conventional detective fiction featuring Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple, this novel eliminates the central detective figure and structures the entire plot around the English nursery rhyme “Ten Little Soldiers”. This study examines how Christie transforms a children’s rhyme into a complex narrative device that drives plot progression, builds suspense, and enforces thematic unity. Through close textual analysis, the paper explores three key functions of the rhyme: 1) as a structural framework where each stanza predicts and mirrors a murder, 2) as a psychological tool that manipulates reader expectation and creates dramatic irony, and 3) as a moral commentary on justice, guilt, and collective punishment in post-war Britain. The study argues that by embedding the rhyme within the setting of Soldier Island, Christie subverts the traditional ‘whodunit’ formula and turns the victims themselves into both executioner and executed. This subversion challenges reader expectations of the Golden Age detective genre and redefines the boundaries of suspense fiction. The findings highlight Christie’s innovation in using folklore to craft a self-contained, closed-circle mystery with no survivors, no detective and no escape.
Keywords Agatha Christie, Narrative Device, Nursery Rhyme, Detective Fiction, Suspense
Field Arts
Published In Volume 8, Issue 4, July-August 2026
Published On 2026-07-19
DOI https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2026.v08i04.83994
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CrossRef DOI prefix of IJFMR is 10.36948/ijfmr

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