Daniel Leigh 11Saul English Coursework
His motive to kill is of greed (for money). He planned the murder by requesting Helen’s sister (the victim) to move into the spare room (which had the phony ventilator and bell rope in) when he intended to refurbish her room. Mary did not have a motive, as it the ‘murder’ was completely unplanned, therefore it was a ‘crime of passion’.
Mary acts as she usually would as the few first paragraphs of LS shows clear signs of a routine, but Dr.Roylott is isolated,
“…he shut himself up in his house”
occasionally, his behaviour is objectionable,
“…quarrels with whoever might cross his path”
and people are afraid of him,
“the folks would fly at his approach”
so he is the typical murderer for the story of LS.
In SB, everybody who initially came in contact with Helen’s sister (the victim) was a suspect whereas, in LS, the police were certain that the murderer was male, therefore the audience do not suspect Mary at the start but maybe the audience suspected Patrick, but absolutely not Mary.
Throughout SB the murderer does not succeed in ‘getting away’ with the crime because Dr.Roylott permits a load of clues as the story goes whereas Mary covers her tracks by creating an alibi and destroying the evidence.
Also, in LS the murderer gets away with the misdemeanor for the reason that she knew the investigators (police) personally so she knew exactly how to divert their thoughts. Another reason why Mary ‘got away with it’ might be was that the investigators (police) knew Patrick (the victim) personally as well (Patrick worked with them as a policeman).
Dr.Roylott is the most stereotypical murderer because he is physically powerful, starts fights with no purposes, isolated, feared by the public and is depressed. These are all the typical characteristics of the murderer in the murder mystery genre. In the end, both the murderer from SB and LS are evil so they are analogous.
Mary controls people around her by being in a state, but not such as Dr.Roylott does, which is in the way of violence.
The fact that Noonan accepts an alcoholic drink and eats food on duty shows the reader that Mary has a precise aspect of management over the people around her.
At the start of SB, the audience do not know who the murderer is, nut in LS the audience know who the murderer is halfway through the story.
Daniel Leigh 11Saul English Coursework
So the audience’s attitude towards the slaughterer stays the same. Whereas in LS Mary commits a ‘crime of passion’ so, what she did would not have been as unscrupulous as a murder, which was premeditated. And which went smoothly for example: the murder of Helen’s sister in SB.
Dahl allows the reader into the private thoughts of Mary (murderer of LS) but Doyle does not allow the reader to enter the private thoughts of Dr.Roylott (murderer of SB). Some people possess the opinion that Dahl allows the readers into the private thoughts of the murderer so the audience sympathises with Mary later on in the story.
Most of the time, in murder novels, the murderers are usually male, so the very fact that Dahl places a female murderer in the story makes the reader more anxious to read on. If there was a female murderer in SB the audience would be enormously stunned, the women might have started to fight against the sexist attitudes of men in those times as some form of a feminist society and the author would be banned from writing anything else.
In SB, Holmes is the detective of who investigates who carried out the murder. He is mysterious, yet thoroughly professional. He examines every single minute clue and trace of evidence there is to offer.
In LS, Noonan is the ‘detective’ who scarcely murders his workmate and personal friend, Patrick Maloney. Noonan is has a straightforward approach towards the murder and jumps to conclusions,
“…killed by…a heavy blunt instrument”
He jumps to quite a few conclusions including the fact that the murderer was male and that ‘he’ left straight after carrying out the crime,
“the murderer may have taken it with him”.
Noonan is unprofessional in the way that he eats and drinks on duty and that he was
“exceptionally nice to her”
therefore he did not do his investigation properly and so he did not solve the crime.
Holmes is reserved until the end and believed in the concept of ‘everyone is guilty until proven innocent’ including Dr.Roylott, the gypsies and Dr.Roylott’s strange animals.
Holmes is emotionally detached from the victim/next of kin (of the victim), so he did not know them, whereas Noonan knew Mary, so he was too trustworthy and too personally involved therefore he was portrayed as unprofessional in the sense that he did not even suspect Mary at all.
Daniel Leigh 11Saul English Coursework
Also, when Noonan and the rest of the detectives sit down, had a drink and ate the evidence, they were sucked into the unprofessional handling of the case and so during which, did not think to take an official statement.
Noonan is consequently an atypical detective whereas Holmes has all the characteristics of a typical detective.
Doyle portrayed Holmes to the audience as a mysterious, thorough and of course professional detective in SB. Noonan is portrayed by Dahl to be slack, lackluste, unfocussed, too personally involved and above all, unprofessional.
In LS, the audience perceive an aspect of humour in the way how Noonan jumps to conclusions way too much and how he does not even consider other alternative angles or evidence.
The audience of SB admire Holmes because he is the traditional detective and Noonan is the slacker. Holmes dominates the story because he is the first character introduced and the story follows him.
The audience that lived in the times of Doyle acted in a very formal way. The audience at the time when Dahl released LS had a lesser amount of a formal attitude than the audience would have at the time of SB.
The venue of a big, old and remote house or mansion in SB is typical of the genre of murder mysteries. The murder takes place in the
“dead of the night”, amplifying the fact that SB is typical murder mystery.
The murder of LS was committed in a
“room…warm and clean and by Mary Maloney who was rested and peaceful. This murder or ‘crime of passion’ was committed just before dinnertime and after hearing obviously shocking news (divorce, and that Mary was six months pregnant). In both stories, the characters are mirrored by the settings which are portrayed at the beginning(s).
For SB, the general settings at the start are: rapidness, mourning and steepness, therefore the characters are portrayed to the audience as rapid, mournful and steep.
The settings at the beginning of LS set the personality of the characters, but when the tone changes completely,
“So I’ve killed him.”
The personality of Mary changes from warm, rested and peaceful
mother-to-be into an evil and ruthless murderer.
Daniel Leigh 11Saul English Coursework
The Maloney household is an unexpected place for a murder scene because when the reader is introduced to the normal, middle-class and cosy household, the reader does not even think about a murder, therefore the homely atmosphere helps to secure her alibi.
Doyle uses Pathetic Falacy in SB to portray how, in typical murder mystery genre based stories, stormy and violent weather is connected with a murder scene. This concept generally represents a more traditional style of writing- used in the 19th century.
In SB these are the order of events:
- Helen tells Holmes about her sister’s untimely and mysterious death (the reader is exposed to the murder at the beginning)
- Holmes investigates
- Holmes solves the ‘whodunnit?’ mystery.
In LS, these are the order of events:
- The reader is introduced to a cosy, rested and loving housewife (Mary) who is waiting for her husband to come home from work
- Patrick (her husband) tells Mary (his wife) shocking news, probably divorce
- Mary falls into shock
- Mary kills Patrick (reader is exposed to murder in the middle of the story, or in chronological order)
- Noonan investigates murder (poorly)
- Mary ‘gets away with murder’.
In LS, there are a few main points at which the tone changes or Mary’s personality changes, for example when she turns from a loving wife into an evil murderer,
“So I’ve killed him.”
The crucial points in SB is when the audience is introduced to the story of the murder and the mystery of it. Also, the reader is not surprised that the murderer is Helen’s step-father, Dr.Roylott and that the motive is one of greed.
The story of LS is quite short compared to SB which is at least ten pages long because the language is more formally structured and so drawn out a lot further than LS which is only a few pages long.
Daniel Leigh 11Saul English Coursework
