Comparing "Lamb to the Slaughter" and "The Speckled Band" How far do these stories reflect the era within they were written?

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Comparing “Lamb to the Slaughter”

and

“The Speckled Band”

How far do these stories reflect the era

within they were written?

        I am going to compare two short stories which both belong to the same genre of murder mystery. ”Lamb to the Slaughter” was written by Roald Dahl and was written in the 1950’s.”Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote the Speckled Band in 1864.

        In the “Speckled Band” the female character is Helen Stoner. Helen is a passive victim, as she hasn’t done anything wrong to warrant being murdered by Dr Ryolott, Just as Julia her sister who was murdered. The Description of Helen Stoner is “…Her face all drawn and grey, with restless frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was short with premature grey and her expression was weary and haggard.” Her description shows that she has had a lot of hardship in her life as she has lost her mother, her sister and her step father beats her up you can tell this from later on in the story when she has bruises.

        Helen’s relationship with her stepfather started off good but changed soon after her mother died, he became very violent towards her, he brought her back to England to live in an isolated house. Helens sister died after hearing a whistling noise. Several years later Helen has been forced to moved into

her sister’s room due to building work. After a few days of staying in there she has heard the same whistling and has become scared, as it is the same situation as before when her sister died. Helen fears for her life and this is when she needs Sherlock Holmes to help her find out what the noise is before something happens to her. Mary Maloney is the main Character in “Lamb to the Slaughter” Mary is more modern than Helen Stoner is, as she has control over her own life whereas Helen was controlled by her Stepfather.

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At the opening of the story Mary behaves very normal and ordinary towards her husband, this makes you think that there isn’t anything going to happen. It doesn’t seem like a murder story at the beginning but it could almost be a love story as Mary was making her husband dinner and getting him drinks. But when her husband turned around and said he was leaving her and was going out for a meal this then turned the story round. After he said this Mary carried on as if nothing had happened, she got the lamb out of the freezer ...

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