Compare ‘The Speckled band’ and the ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ referring to the structure, language and characterisation. In what ways are the stories typical or not typical of the murder mystery genre?

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Matthew Lane.    

Compare ‘The Speckled band’ and the ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’
referring to the structure, language and characterisation.
In what ways are the stories typical or not typical of the

Murder mystery genre?

In this essay I will be showing in what ways the stories are typical or not of the murder mystery genre. I will be doing this by stating, a typical villain, victim, detective, setting, tone and language. I will then go on to say weather or not the stories are typical of the murder mystery genre  

Arthur Conan Doyle wrote The Speckled Band, and Roald Dahl wrote The Lamb to the Slaughter. The Speckled Band was written in the 1880’s during the Victorian times. This was a time when crime and prostitution was rife on the streets. Big cities like London where very dirty and filed with pollution from the big factories overlooking the city. The Lamb to the Slaughter was written in the 1950’s, this was a time when women where viewed as house wives and did not play a main role in society.

In The Lamb to the Slaughter the victim is Mr Patrick Maloney we don’t learn of his death until about half way through the story. But right from the point of his death it is apparent how he dies. It is his unsuspected wife Mary Maloney, who kills him by striking on the back of the head with a frozen leg of lamb. Mary is also pregnant at this time. Patrick Maloney is a kind caring man towards his wife. Until we learn that he is leaving her. We do not know why he is leaving her he only talks about it. This is when Mary’s character changes from being warm hearted towards he husband, to being a cold-blooded murderer.

In The Speckled Band the victim is clear from the beginning of the story we are told about the victim’s death and the suspicious circumstances surrounding the death.

In the story it is Helen Stoner who is telling Sherlock Homes about her sisters death. As she tells him her about the death he notices small things about her and what she is wearing “ The left arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less then places. The makes are perfectly fresh.” This also leads us to believe that he is a very observant and smart man.

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The tow murderers in both The Speckled Band and The Lamb to the Slaughter are very different people. In The Speckled Band we don’t learn who the murderer is until late in the story. But suspicions about who the murderer is are quite clear from about half way through the story. The murderer is Dr Roylott. He is an evil cold-hearted man who is possessed by the power of money. He is strong in body but weak of mind. “…man of immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger.” He also has a strange side, after spending time ...

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