In this wide-reading piece I will compare two murder mystery stories: 'The Speckled Band' by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and 'Lamb to the Slaughter' by Roald Dahl. My first objective will be to offer a definition of a murder mystery.

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Adeel Ahmed     11.1                

 Comparing ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ and ‘The Speckled Band’

In this wide-reading piece I will compare two murder mystery stories: ‘The Speckled Band’ by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ by Roald Dahl. My first objective will be to offer a definition of a murder mystery.

A murder mystery is a story in which a murder has occurred and detective try to solve who committed the crime. People sometimes identify murder mysteries by the famous phrase ‘who dunnit’. The three most important things in my opinion that need to be in a murder mystery are; a murderer, victim and a detective. Without these three things it cannot be a murder mystery. Usually the murderer carries his/her attack with are murder weapon. There is normally a motive behind the attack and clues and information are given to the reader throughout the story, sometimes via a sidekick of the lead detective. The reader has opportunities to guess and suspect the murderer. The setting of a murder mystery is usually a typical murder house gothic mansion with broken windows and set alone on a hill top. There are many twists and turns in the investigation and all is revealed at the end of the story.

‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ is a murder mystery written by Roald Dahl in 1954. The story is written in third person narrative. Dahl is particularly famous for his children’s novels but he also wrote many adult thrillers including ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’. ‘The Speckled Band’ was written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1892. It is written in third person narrative through Dr Watson’s point of view. The two stories were written in a completely different age, ‘The Speckled Band’ was written in Victorian times whereas ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ was written in the modern age - post World War 2. The writing and the style of language clearly reflects this age difference between the two stories.

‘The Speckled Band’ is a murder mystery in which a very suspicious murder has taken place and Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson are called upon to try and crack the case. Holmes is quick to cast his suspicions about how the victim, Julia Stoner died through many clues and information but isn’t completely certain until he comes face to face with the murderer, Dr Grimesby Roylott and the murder weapon. Holmes discovers that Dr Grimesby Roylott used an Indian Swamp Adder to carry out his attack and was planning to carry out another attack before Holmes backfired his plan and caused the death of Roylott.

‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ is a murder mystery in which a woman, Mary Maloney kills her husband, Patrick Maloney because of emotional reasons not named in the story. Whatever the reason, Mary Maloney is very upset and hits her husband over the head with a frozen leg of lamb and as a result Patrick Maloney dies. Detectives try to solve how the victim died, and are forced by Mary to eat the evidence, and therefore ruining the chances of solving the case.

‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ begins in the Maloney household. The mood that is given to the audience at the beginning is of a nice homely atmosphere, like any other normal household;

            “The room was warm and clean.”

This quote gives a nice homely atmosphere and shows no signs of what is about to follow. Nothing about the opening of the story suggests the murderer, Mary Maloney would carry out a murder. However there does seem to be something suspicious going on, especially about the murderer;

        “There was a slow smiling air about her, and everything she did. The drop

          of the head as she bent over her sewing was curiously tranquil.”

The reader becomes witness to the criminal straight away, as opposed to ‘The Speckled Band’ and many other stereotypical murder mysteries where the reader first meets the detective.

        ‘The Speckled Band’ starts off in a completely different way to ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’. In the ‘The Speckled Band’ the reader is first introduced to Sherlock Holmes and the many cases in which he has been involved in. It then goes on to introduce the main case of the story involving “The Roylotts of Stoke Moran”. The mood of the case is described as very suspicious and mysterious, as the narrator quotes;

        “But a promise of secrecy was made at the time”.

A mood of atmosphere and suspense is also created in the opening of the story;

        “To make the matter even more terrible than the truth”.

This quote gives an atmosphere of real suspense to the reader and makes them want to read on and find out what this suspicion and suspense leads to.

I think ‘The Speckled Band’ sounds more appealing at the start as Conan Doyle creates an effective atmosphere of suspense and urges the reader to carry on, whereas ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ starts of much calmer and sets the scene for what is about to follow even though no sign is give of murder.

The murderers in ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ and ‘The Speckled Band’ contrast in many ways. The main difference between the murderers is their gender. In ‘The Speckled Band’ the villain, Dr Grimesby Roylott, is a very tall, powerful man with huge strength;

        “He is a hard man, and perhaps he hardly knows his own strength”.

He is the stereotypical villain we expect from murder stories, whereas in ‘Lamb to the Slaughter” Dahl turns the stereotypical villain appearance on its heel and decides to make the murderer a woman. In Dahl’s age most people related villains and murderers as being male, but Dahl flipped the murder mystery genre on its tail by having a female murderer. Doyle’s audience would have been very shocked and surprised to see a female killer as in those days women were scarcely featured in films and stories to have a major role, never mind mad villains.

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As the murderer in ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ is female, Mary Maloney easily controls the detectives around her as they don’t really suspect her of the murder because of her gender. Mary uses this to her advantage and makes the detectives feel sympathetic for her. She tempts them into having a drink and eventually eating the evidence away, ruining any chances of solving the case. Dahl also allows the reader into the private thoughts of the murderer before and after the murder. He may have done this to make the reader change their feelings about the villain after she carries ...

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