The stories are set in different places and therefor have a lot of differences. The Roald Dahl story is set in America and features Police where as the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s story is set in England and featured detectives this shows that there may be a deeper investigation into the murder. In “Lamb to The Slaughter” the police show a certain amount of unprofessional behaviour this is shown in several ways for instance the policemen drink on the job also they don’t look at the possibilities they just stick to one idea and they don’t really consider that Mary Maloney could have been the killer. Whereas Sherlock Holmes the detective in the Speckled Band reviews every possibility and changes his thoughts with every new piece of evidence.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle goes into a lot more detail about the characters and includes allot more about setting and events. When describing the main female character in the story he talks of her face being all drawn and grey with restless frightened eyes. It goes on to say about her premature grey it says her age is thirty. In LS it is the opposite she is described as a very calm tranquil woman with a slow smiling air about her also because she is six months pregnant she had acquired a wonderful translucent quality it goes on to say her mouth was soft and her eyes looked larger and darker with a more placid look. This is a nice piece of description and gives you a good feel of what she looks like.
The narration of the stories is also done differently. In the Speckled band the narrator is Watson Sherlock Holmes’s fellow detective and good friend. Roald as the writer tells the story himself. The Roald Dahl story is slightly comical the conclusion that the police themselves ate the evidence this is irony, which makes it funny. Also the fact that the murder weapon is a piece of frozen lamb, which is unusual. This is not the case in The Speckled band although the method of murder is unusual being a snake it is not funny because we do not expect this murder to be normal and there are clues throughout the story to suggest this. Also the fact we already know who the murderer might be and that he keeps allot of unusual animals takes some of the surprise of the ending away.
There is a lot of identification with characters in both stories strangely enough in Lamb to The Slaughter you identify with the murder because the impression you get is that she has had her heart broken by the man she loves more than anything. She also is pregnant which make her husband seem heartless at the beginning of the story it shows just how much she cares for this man and you know she doesn’t deserve to be left, In the other story you identify more with Watson because he is telling the story but you mostly you just take a general neutral view.
The language is a lot older fashioned in the speckled band this is due to the fact it was written at a much earlier date. And set in 1883. He uses word that are no longer really used such as, burst forth and fain. Whereas Lamb to the slaughter was written in the mid 20th century and had more modern language I find it a lot easier to read because of the way is was written it is a lot more informal e.g. wouldn’t instead of would not. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle uses phraseology that is quite complicated and has word that I do not understand e.g. I have really some scruples as to taking you tonight.
I think The Speckled Band will be more heard of and be around longer than Lamb to The Slaughter because the story has perhaps more depth and detail also the Stories of Sherlock Holmes are world famous although Roald Dahl has written allot of popular books and stories this is not really one of them. The characters are very strong in the speckled band and you feel more compelled to read on with this story. When looking closely they are both very different from each other although in the same genre.
