The atmosphere at the beginning of the Tony Kytes-The Arch Deceiver story is a settled one and also this is written in form of description as we know because Hardy describes the appearance of Tony Kytes face being serious looking “So very serious looking,” this points out to the reader that he is a very serious man but this serious look must attract the women as we find out later in this essay and also Hardy makes the reader want to read on as the reader is finding out about a person they don’t know and want to know more about them. Similarly the atmosphere at the beginning of Lamb to the slaughter is settled and pleasant but this time a room is being written about in a very detailed manner as Roald Dahl writes “ The room was warm and clean, the curtains drawn, the two table lamps alight,” this tells the reader that the room is well looked after possibly as someone is at home all day looking after the house.
Both of these stories have their crisis points where the tension is at its greatest. In Tony Kytes-The Arch Deceiver, the comedy crisis point is funny because there are three women in the cart with Tony and they all discover themselves and Tony is in a real mess as Hardy writes “when lo and behold she came face to face with Unity.” This is a comedy crisis point and a funny one because all three women discover each other and then look at Tony. This makes the reader feel cheerful and they think its funny, which makes them want to read on. On the other hand, in the Lamb to the slaughter the murderous crisis point is tense because Mary Maloney has just killed her husband Patrick Maloney and stands there in shock “She came out feeling cold and surprised, and she stood for a while blinking at the body, still holding the ridiculous piece of meat tight with both hands.” This informs the reader that the tension was at its greatest at this murderous crisis point when Mary Maloney realises she has killed her husband and stands looking at him on the floor. This moment is the crisis point and the tensest point in this story.
The readers of Tony Kytes-The Arch Deceiver find the comedy crisis point farcical because Tony is in a situation where he has made three women believe he likes them and also Hannah reckons she is the only one in the cart while there is Unity and Milly bidding in the back also as Hardy writes “Well, if this isn’t disgraceful!” Each woman is disgusted at Tony as he has lied to each woman and so this is why the reader thinks this point is farcical.
Dahl’s style of writing in Lamb to the slaughter reflects the rage of Mrs Maloney because he writes the situation quite short as when someone is angry they don’t wait to do something its just a quick reaction and that’s the way Dahl has written this part of the story about Mrs Maloney killing her husband. An example of Dahl’s writing is “At this point, Mary Maloney simply walked up behind him and without any pause she swung the big frozen lamb high in the air and brought it down as hard as she could on the back of his head.” This tells the reader that she was so angry she didn’t think and just went up and hit him.
Each story has a twist in it, which is reflected by the writer’s style in the last few lines of the story. In Tony Kytes-The Arch Deceiver the twist is when Tony gets rejected by two of the women. The writer’s style in the last few lines is that he writes about that Tony still has original woman Milly at the end. So what Hardy is trying to say is that Tony still got who he had at the beginning of the story after playing around with the two other women as Hardy writes “And then he kissed her,” this tells us that the writers style in the last lines of the story is that he relates back to the twist and shows that Tony still ended the day with the same woman he started the day with. Compared to Lamb to the slaughter story where the twist is when the policemen eat the evidence and Dahl’s style of writing in the last lines of the story is relating back to the twist as Dhal writes “Personally, I think its right here on the premises,” this tells us that the policemen are thinking that the evidence is in the house but they are eating it.
Both stories have unexpected ending which may not of been morally right to end each story this way. Readers of Tony Kytes-The Arch Deceiver may of thought it was a bizarre ending as Milly was immature enough to go back to Tony as he had been tying to get with two other women on the other hand contemporary readers may think that the ending was funny but would of wanted Tony Kytes to have no woman at the end as he deserved it. Above all, in the Lamb to the slaughter story as we know cliff hanger means the reader is left to decide if Mrs M. gets away with it so Dahl is letting the reader have there own opinion of the ending as he writes “ And in the other room, Mary Maloney began to giggle.” This tells us that Mrs Maloney is giggling as she knows the policemen are eating the evidence and so Dahl lets us use our own imagination on what we think will happen to Mrs Maloney. In both of these stoires the unanswered questions grip the reader beyond the text. This makes them want to read on and discover these hidden answers.
Both stories leave their reader with unanswered questions. In Tony Kytes-The Arch Deceiver the answered questions if Tony Kytes learns from his mistakes with playing with women and so if he lives a good successful marriage with Milly in the future in addition to Lamb to the slaughter book which the unanswered questions are if Mrs Maloney actually gets caught and punished for the killing of her husband and the other unanswered question is when Patrick Maloney her husband tells her some bad news which we don’t find out what it was but afterwards Dahl just writes “And he told her. It didn’t take long.”
Readers with traditional values might think these stories should of ended differently. In Tony Kytes-The Arch Deceiver readers in Tony Kytes time might of thought that Tony shouldn’t of ended up with any women in the end and also they would of thought that the women which asked for a ride were loose. One may consider that in the lamb to slaughter the readers with traditional values would of wanted Mrs Maloney to get caught and punished for the killing of her husband as they would of then back in the time of writing because the women were meant to obey there husbands decisions as at this time women didn’t have many rights.
In Tony Kytes-The Arch Deceiver I impressions I got of Tony Kytes were that he is a deceitful man as Hardy writes, “I was talking to such a deceiver,” This tells us what Hannah thinks of Tony. I think Tony did get what he deserved as he was refused by two women but he still got back with Milly which I thought was farcical as he should have been turned down by her as well. So he did get what he deserved but he should have been punished even more, similarly to Patrick Maloney in lamb to the slaughter. I think he is quite a grumpy man as Dahl writes “For God’s sake,” he easily gets angry at his wife as we can see. I think he got what he didn’t deserve as all he was saying to his wife Is that he didn’t want to eat supper and she persisted on asking and all he was doing was refusing and he told her some bad news between them two, but again he got what he didn’t deserve.
The women in Tony Kytes-The Arch Deceiver all contribute to the story as being funny as Milly is quite immature and makes the story funny when she accepts Tony back after the mess he was in as Hardy writes “If you like. You didn’t really mean what you said to them?” This tells us that she is very immature. Unity and Hannah both also contribute to the story being funny as they both turn Tony down at the end. So overall the women in this story contribute to the story being funny compared to Lamb to slaughter story which the women character is Mary Maloney who contributes to the story as being tragic as she kills her husband for a small reason as he just doesn’t want to eat supper.
The reactions of readers may be different depending if they are modern or contemporary readers. In Tony Kytes-The Arch Deceiver a readership who read the story during the time it was written might think women were loose as they flirted with Tony and asked him for a ride on his cart. They would think that the women were a disgrace at this time and would have been shocked and outraged and as it was against traditional values. Modern readers might think these women are just trying to win a man over by flirting which they would think is normal as that is that way of life nowadays. In contrast to modern readers reading Lamb to the slaughter as they may think that Mrs Maloney was right to kill her husband because women nowadays have much more rights and more of a voice in public and they wouldn’t agree with Patrick being so rude for no reason and women readers nowadays would think this is not acceptable and want revenge but not by killing him in another form of way.
Overall I think that Lamb to the slaughter would keep the readers more interested as it is more of a modern book and people in this day and age would think it was exciting compared to Tony Kytes-The Arch Deceiver which doesn’t have a good ending as it is boring in contrast to the tension point just before the end. With Lamb to the slaughter it is an exciting book with a good cliffhanger ending. So I recommend Lamb to the slaughter over Tony Kytes-The Arch Deceiver.
