Three's A Lucky Number Theme

Analyze: “Three’s a Lucky Number”

Margery Allingham’s short story “Three’s a Lucky Number” is a tale of a man by the name of Ronald Torbay planning, attempting and ultimately failing his third murder of his wife Edyth. Throughout the story the theme develops into one almost anyone can attest to. Tone in the chilling tale help accentuate this theme but most importantly bring out the story and the alarming elements. Lastly the unexpected ending of the work leaves us wondering what happened next, all of which Margery Allingham intended to do, forcing readers to question and reflect. Allingham’s changing theme, tone and ambiguous ending are the pieces of author’s craft making this story into the compelling tale it is.

The theme of “Three’s a Lucky Number” is bad things will catch up to you, which, to some degree, almost anyone can agree with. However, this theme is not revealed until the end of the story. In the beginning of the story, the author starts out very bold with the statement: “At five o 'clock on a September afternoon Ronald Torbay was making preparations for his third murder. He was being very careful. He realized that murdering people becomes more dangerous if you do it often.” From this line alone the theme could develop into many things such as, practice makes perfect or the more you do something the more often you want to do it like an addiction. Seeing as these are not the overall theme, other pieces of Allingham’s story showcase and prove the original theme.