Candles

Candles appear as a practical necessity after the island's electrical generator ceases to function, but they quickly become a central element in the atmosphere of dread that pervades the final stages of the story. When Philip Lombard switches on the lights in the drawing-room and they do not come on, he remarks that the engine has not been run since Rogers was killed. Mr. Justice Wargrave, recalling that he saw packets of candles in the larder, suggests using them instead. Lombard fetches a box of candles and a pile of saucers, and five candles are lit and placed about the room. This moment, at a quarter to six on the evening of August 10th, marks the house's descent into a primitive, candlelit existence that mirrors the unraveling of order among the survivors.

The Candle as a Source of Light and Fear

With the electric lights dead, candles become the only defense against total darkness, yet they also create new dangers. The flickering, uncertain light they provide makes every shadow a potential hiding place and every movement a threat. When Vera Claythorne, unable to bear the tension in the drawing-room, decides to go to her room to bathe her aching head, she lights a candle from the box, lets a little wax pour into a saucer, and sticks the candle firmly to it before leaving. The candle's flame, however, is vulnerable to drafts. As she opens her bedroom door, a draught from the window catches the flame and extinguishes it, plunging her into darkness. In that moment of blackness, she is overwhelmed by terror, and the seaweed that has been hung from the ceiling—a cold, clammy strand that sways against her throat in the dark—drives her to scream hysterically. The candle's failure, caused by a simple gust of air, transforms a mundane object into an instrument of psychological torture, as the murderer has exploited the very weakness of candlelight to stage his trap.

Candles and the Staging of the Judge's Fake Death

Candles also play a crucial role in the elaborate deception of Mr. Justice Wargrave's apparent murder. When the survivors rush upstairs after Vera's screams, they return to find the judge seated in his high-backed chair at the end of the drawing-room, with two candles burning on either side of him. The flickering, uncertain light of these candles is essential to the illusion: as Dr. Armstrong later notes, the lights were very flickering and uncertain, and the only person who would examine him closely was Armstrong himself, who was in on the plan. The candles create an atmosphere of solemn, theatrical death, and the red curtain and grey wool that have been used to costume the judge are rendered more convincing by the dim, wavering illumination. The candles thus become props in a macabre performance, their light both revealing and concealing the truth.

The Candle's Final Role in Vera's Room

In Vera Claythorne's bedroom, a candle burns beside her as she lies in bed, unable to summon the courage to put it out because she is afraid of the dark. The candle represents her last fragile hold on safety and sanity. Yet even this small comfort is tainted by the knowledge that the murderer has already used the darkness—and the failure of a candle—to terrorize her. The candle's flame, which she keeps burning through the night, is a silent witness to her final, desperate hours. When she eventually rises and mounts the stairs, the house is lit only by the dying light of evening, and she carries a little china figure in her hand, the candle now extinguished or forgotten. The absence of light in her final moments, as she enters her room and sees the rope with a noose hanging from the hook in the ceiling, underscores the complete victory of darkness over the fragile illumination that candles had provided.