Compare and Contrast Roald Dahl's Lamb to the Slaughter with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Adventure of the Speckled Band

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Compare and Contrast Roald Dahl ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ with Sir Arthur Conandoyle’s ‘Adventure of the Speckled Band’

     These stories are both murder novels but are told in different ways. In ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ we are informed early on in the story who the murderer is and the mystery of the story is to figure out how she manages to outwit and fool the police whereas in ‘Adventure of the Speckled Band’ we are left to discover the identity of the murderer and how Sherlock Holmes works it out by ourselves.

     The writer in ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ is omniscient, a person that sees all the action, and the story is based on the character, Mrs Maloney, not the writer. This is quite different compared to the ‘Adventure of the Speckled Band’ because this is written as someone’s prospective (Watson’s) and so this story is based on the writer. The sentences and paragraphs in ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ are long and not very detailed or complex “The room was warm and clean” and “she took his coat and hung it in the closet” are quotes that prove my statement. The sentences in ‘Adventure of the Speckled Band’ are very short and complex “It was early in April in the year ’83 that I woke one morning” and “I had no keener pleasure” also back up my statement. The speech and description in ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ is occasionally reported, shortened, but not in ‘Adventure of the Speckled Band’ where Watson does not sum up what Sherlock Holmes has just said or described.

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     The setting in ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ is described as warm and cosy by the writer to make it seem that this is not a murder story at the first read of the initial paragraph “The room was warm and clean, the curtains drawn, the two table lamps alight”. This sets an immediate image of what the room looked like in your head. In ‘Adventure of the Speckled Band’ it starts off with Watson describing the cold and dark times he had encounted he has had with Sherlock Holmes “On glancing over my notes of the seventy ...

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