Student Question
In chapter 12 of And Then There Were None, what does Miss Brent's hallucination signify?
Quick answer:
Miss Emily Brent's hallucination in chapter 12 of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None reflects Emily's guilt over the suicide of Beatrice Taylor, who Emily dismissed from service when she found out that Beatrice was pregnant. Jobless, despondent, and with nowhere to go, Beatrice drowned herself.
In chapter 12 of Agatha Christie's murder mystery And Then There Were None, Miss Emily Brent is sitting at breakfast with the six survivors. Emily had cooked the eggs while Vera Claythorne did her best to burn the bacon:
Breakfast was a curious meal. Every one was very polite. (Chap. 11, VI)
Emily has just finished her cup of coffee, lost in her own thoughts, as was everyone else at the dining room table.
Within a few minutes, Emily wasn't feeling quite right:
Emily Brent, rising to her feet; sat down again. She said: “Oh, dear.”
The judge said: “Anything the matter, Miss Brent?”
Emily said apologetically: “I’m sorry. I’d like to help Miss Claythorne, but I don’t know how it is. I feel just a little giddy.” (Chap. 12, I)
Vera cleared breakfast to the kitchen, and the others left the dining room, leaving Emily alone at...
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the table. She wasn't feeling giddy now, but she was feeling drowsy, "as though she could easily go to sleep" (Chap. 12, I).
She thought she heard buzzing in her ears, like a bee. Then she saw the bee on the window pane, and remembered that Vera was talking about bees and honey earlier that very morning, after they found the body of the butler, Rogers, in the wash-room across the yard from the house:
Six little Indian boys playing with a hive;
A bumblebee stung one and then there were five. (Chap. 2, VI)
Emily felt someone else in the room, "somebody all wet and dripping... Beatrice Taylor came from the river..." (Chap. 12, I)
Emily tried to turn her head to see Beatrice, and she tried to call out, but she couldn't. She couldn't move.
Emily heard the soft, dragging footsteps, and she smelled the wet, dank smell of Beatrice's clothes. She saw the bee on the window, then she felt the bee sting on the side of her neck.
They found Emily Brent sitting in the chair in which they had left her:
Blore said: “My God, she’s dead!” (Chap. 12, II)
Dr. Armstrong's attention was focused on the mark on the right side of Emily's neck:
“That’s the mark of a hypodermic syringe.” (Chap. 12, III)
It was no bee sting.
There was also no Beatrice Taylor on Indian Island. Beatrice died nearly eight years ago, and Emily had been responsible for her death. As Emily told the story in Chapter 7, Emily dismissed Beatrice from service when she found out that Beatrice was pregnant, and Beatrice drowned herself in despair. (Chap. 7, I).
While Emily was helping to cook breakfast that morning, she was thinking about a dream she had the night before:
Beatrice Taylor … Last night she had dreamed of Beatrice—dreamt that she was outside pressing her face against the window and moaning, asking to be let in. But Emily Brent hadn’t wanted to let her in. Because, if she did, something terrible would happen. (Chap. 11, V)