The story, ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’, begins by describing Mary Maloney’s personality and attitude towards her husband. It tells us how ‘obsessed’ she is with him and how she longs for him to return from work, it says;
‘…merely to please herself with the thought that each minute
gone by made it nearer the time when he would come…’
This shows that she cares for him, loves him and revolves her own life around him. I think it begins like this so Roald Dahl can give you a perception of the woman that will completely change nearer the end.
I think this is the point of view of someone who feels quite sorry, and interested in what Mary Maloney does and acts like,
‘There was a slow smiling air about her, and about everything she did’.
This shows that the point of view is from someone that thinks this kind of behaviour is unusual, this description and behaviour makes Mary a very interesting character to read about.
I think the most dramatic point of the story is when Mary Maloney strikes her husband about the head with the leg of lamb, it says;
‘…Mary Maloney simply walked up behind him and without any
pause, she swung the big frozen leg of lamb high in the air and
brought it down as hard as she could on the back of his head.’
‘The violence of the crash, the noise, the small table overturning.’
This use of language is effective because of the amount of detail and attention it pays to the incident. It gives a sense of seriousness to a rather funny murder situation!
Roald Dahl keeps us reading after the murderer is discovered, by leaving us in suspense as to what the police will find on the man’s murder. No-one suspects that the police will destroy the murder weapon themselves!
The story ends as the police arrive to investigate the murder and try to find the murder weapon, but they can’t seem to find any clues. Mary Maloney, cleverly, offers the lamb, which was used to kill her husband, to the police…and the police are actually eating the murder weapon!
‘Why don’t you eat up that lamb that’s in the oven? It’ll be
cooked just right now.’
This story is not a typical detective story, it is more of a comedy or a ‘spoof’ story. In typical detective stories there are usually wrongly accused suspects and mis-leading clues or murder weapons. Detective stories are usually more sophisticated and very difficult to solve before all is told. There is one element that relates ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ with a typical detective story, and that is an unpredictable murder suspect and weapon.
‘The Speckled Band’ has a substantial amount of writing for according to the period it was written in. The paragraphs in the story are considerably larger than the paragraphs in ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’. This is because of the period in which each story was written, ‘The Speckled Band’ was written in 1892, an old fashioned period and therefore we expect the story to be written in old fashioned type language and substantially longer. ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ was written in 1954 which is quite recent, because of it’s time, we expect the story to have a modern structure and not to ‘drag on’. When a dramatic point is reached in ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’, paragraphs and sentences are short, sharp and to the point. This is effective in order to keep a reader interested.
The vocabulary in ‘The Speckled Band’ seems sophisticated and quite hard to understand for a modern person who is not familiar with the language of this period. An example of the complicated language in this story is as follows;
‘…and in admiring the rapid deductions, as swift as intuitions,
and yet always founded on a logical basis, with which we unravelled which were submitted to him’.
Leaving the discovery of the culprit until the very end is a very effective form of creating suspense, and Conan Doyle does this very well as he keeps mis-leading the reader.
‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ has a modern structure and because it has been written in a more later time, it uses modern language in comparison to ‘The Speckled Band’. An example of the kind of modern language Dahl uses is as follows;
‘For god’s sake, he said, leaving her, but not turning round, don’t
make supper for me, I’m going out’.
This shows that the modern use of language is very, very difficult to the language used in ‘The Speckled Band’. This is useful because of the time in which the story will be read. A modern story with old fashioned language use, is not interesting and will begin to bore the reader. This is also useful to make a story more exciting, if a story is written using the same style of language that people use to talk, people can then relate to the story and understand it easier than if it were in an old fashioned type of writing.
Roald Dahl can change the length of the sentences in accordance to the pace of the story at a particular point. At the point in which Mary Maloney loses her temper and kills her husband, the sentences are short, which helps add to the excitement of the situation. For example;
‘It was extraordinary, now, how clear her mind became all of
a sudden’,
‘That was fine. It made no difference to her.’
These short, sharp sentences are very effective and give interest to the reader. If sentences if sentences are changed at the rate of the story, the reader can get an idea of how important each part of the story is and how exciting it is mean to be. This is typical of it’s time because story writing has developed and new skills have been discovered since the time of Sherlock Holmes’ mysteries. These skills and further development are very helpful in keeping a reader interested.
Conan Doyle describes Holmes as a laid back’ character as he says;
‘He was a late riser as a rule, and, as the clock on the
mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter past seven…’
This shows that he can get work done easily and is never in a rush, otherwise he would not be known as a late riser. He also shows Sherlock Holmes as a polite man and a man that shows his feelings for other people. As he says;
‘Very sorry to knock you up Watson’
He is showing that he is polite, even when he is waking his partner up for an important business matter. He also shows his feelings by getting up and working as an upset client comes before him,
‘What is it then ,a fire?
No, a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a
Considerable state of excitement, who insists on seeing me’.
This shows that he has a considerable amount of care and a need to satisfy his clients.
He describes Watson as a keen partner and very eager to help Holmes in whatever he does, Dr. Watson says to himself;
‘My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything. I had no
pleasure than in following Holmes in his professional
investigations’.
This shows that he obviously admires Holmes’ work and success in solving crime.
He makes the reader think that Holmes and Watson are dedicated to solving crime and helping people in distress.
Both, Holmes and Watson are similar in attitude towards their profession, this gives the whole story a push onto their jobs as no-one is going to astray from the case involved.
The main characters are stereotypical of Victorian heroines and villains because the heroines are very smart and work things out cleverly without the aid of modern technology.
