The murderers in the stories are very different. Dr. Roylott, for example, is a strong and violent man and this is proved when the story says ‘In a fit of anger, however, caused by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he beat his native butler to death, and narrowly escaped a capital sentence.’ This tells us that the doctor was an extremely violent man because he has murdered before. Two things shown about the doctor are he has murdered before and also that he doesn’t fear the law because he knows he can pay off the police or intimidate them with his power. Whereas in ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ Mary Maloney sounds as if she never has or ever will harm a soul let alone kill someone because the story does not mention any history of violence and anger, another reason why the reader would not suspect her. An example of her gentleness is given when Dahl says ‘The drop of the head as she bent over her sewing was curiously tranquil’ this shows that she is quiet, peaceful and happy with her traditional role in the family. Both villains are very different from each other in different ways. As I have already mentioned, their moods and behaviour are opposite to each other. The doctor is the most stereotypical villain of the two as he is violent, bad tempered and has committed murder before. My attitude towards Maloney changes during the story, as I don’t still see her as a quiet calm lady I now see her as a cruel heartless murderess. The Victorian reader would not have been happy at all with the female murderer as at that time men looked down on women so if a woman had the main role the male readers would detest it. However after the war women were recognised by society.
Holmes is a more typical detective as he weighs up all the clues and logically thinks about all the facts and pieces together all the evidence in his head, as opposed to Noonan who simply takes a few notes and doesn’t do any further investigation. We know this because the story tells the reader that after returning from the grocers the detectives ruled out the possibility of Mary being the murderess because he had a stereotypical image in his mind. The detectives also believe the murderer was a man when they say ’Must have been a big club the guy used.’ Holmes solved the mystery because he did detective work in contrast to Noonan who didn’t focus on the job in hand although he may have been fooled by Mary’s quiet disposition and manner. Dahl wants us to see that Noonan isn’t focused and doesn’t exactly care about his job where as Doyle wants his audience to see how superior Holmes was to everyone else in the story. Holmes dominates Doyle’s story because he is very clever and wants to make Holmes some sort of idol, for people to look up to and copy, by not committing crimes. He sends out the idea that every police officer will be as clever as Holmes and will catch every criminal. Conan Doyle uses Holmes to show attitudes of the time, which were that crime was very wrong and the community shunned criminals. In the story it says that the client travelled by train, which shows that she was in a rush because she could have taken the slow way, by cart, but she obviously felt that she could be the next victim.
The structure of the ‘The Speckled Band’ is that Watson’s memories come first thereby setting the mood. The narrator who tells the story comes next, followed by the clues and evidence and finally the outcome or conclusion. In contrast to this Dahl’s story starts with the building up of the fake atmosphere, then you get the motive and the murder which is finally followed up by the arrival of the detectives who are colleagues of the victim. ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ is not the classic ‘whodunit’ murder mystery because the detectives don’t take as much care suspects whereas Holmes, from the moment he heard the story, had a main suspect. ‘The Speckled Band’ is a much longer story than ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ and neither story gives the audience chance to solve the mystery. Doyle creates tension by describing the weather and surroundings as dull and miserable, which leads the reader to think of a nasty place. He also describes Roylott’s attitude, physicality and behaviour in enough detail to make him add to the tension. The stories differ because of the times they were written so the audience for Doyle would only have been interested in the investigation whereas Dahl’s audience would rather focus on the crime that has occurred. I believe the attitude towards crime in Doyle’s time is that it is really bad to commit crime and Doyle is trying to frighten criminals into not committing crime and to uphold the strict code of value and justice. The expectations of the two sets of readers are similar because both expect the villain to get what he/she gets what they deserve.
The use of flashback in ‘Speckled Band’ is a very powerful narrative device. ‘Speckled Band’ follows a simple plot structure, presented first is the situation followed by the problem, which is succeeded by the solution and finally the outcome. This is used in ‘Speckled Band’ because it allows Holmes to emerge as the hero who fulfils the readers expectations. This is the only real reason I can find for the enormous popularity of Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock Holmes was serialised into a television program and when he was killed off he had to return by popular demand because the expectations of the modern reader is that he will emerge as the hero and the antagonist will be punished.
‘The Speckled Band’ is typical for the time it was written because it shows how money and power could stop someone falling foul of the law and that in British eyes foreign people (natives to poor countries) were seen inferior. Dahl’s story is typical for the era it was written because the wife is looking after the husband and staying at home because at the time it was written the Second World War had been over for less than ten years so the lady wouldn’t have a job. Both stories are similar in the way in which they are written because they both start with the building up of the mood and atmosphere. The two stories vary in length Doyle’s story is very descriptive whereas Dahl’s story uses colloquial language. Dahl’s story was written in a light hearted joking way and was not meant to be taken seriously which in contrast to ‘The Speckled Band’ which seems to have been written in a serious tone and I do believe it was meant to be taken seriously.
‘The Lamb to the Slaughter’ is a classic or typical ‘whodunit’ murder mystery. There are examples of the idea that ‘The Lamb to the Slaughter’ was a serious affair but to make it a typical ‘whodunit’ there are clues at the start, which you have to pick up on. There are a lot of things which tell you that ‘The Speckled Band’ is a serious affair such as when Holmes said ‘The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may depend upon your compliance.’ The example tells us that Holmes took the case very seriously. Dahl adds humour into his story is when Noonan and his fellow police men sit down to eat the lamb when one of them says ‘Probably right under our noses. What you think Jack?’ The reader or audience may laugh because of the ignorance of the detectives but also shows how cunning and devious Mary is. Dahl makes us have this reaction because the audience knows the story isn’t serious in any way at all in fact it is almost a comedy.
The speech in both stories differs mainly to do with the times each story was written. Holmes comes across as an upper class, intelligent person. An example of this is when Holmes deduces that his client came by train ‘No, but I observe the second half of your return ticket in the palm of your left glove.’ This shows that he is very observant and clever. Not once in the story is Holmes not polite to any one and keeps his state of calm all the way through the story. Mary Maloney’s character is the complete opposite to Holmes because she uses conversation in a different way. In ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ Mary manipulates the detectives by using conversation as her ally. The example of scared conversation ‘Is he dead? She cried.’ This shows that as she acted surprised and scared she threw the detectives and made them not suspect her. She then used a friendly, soft voice to persuade Noonan to have a drink. This is shown when it is written in the story ‘Why don’t you have one yourself, you must be awfully tired.’ She also helps herself if she was accused as she could tell their bosses that they were drinking on the job. Holmes’ last words ‘I cannot say that it is likely to weigh very heavily upon my conscience.’ Which shows he was serious and glad Dr. Roylott got what he deserved where as Mary knows she has gotten away with the murder and the police were eating all the evidence there was.
‘The Speckled Band’ does not have a twist in the tale because the story ends with Holmes baffling everyone with his deductions and the criminal gets what he deserves. In contrast to this, Dahl’s story finishes with a twist because you expect the murderess to get what she deserves but instead she gets away with it and ends up laughing at the detective’s arrogance. The title of Dahl’s story is better than Doyle’s story title because you have ambiguity in the title, the title tells us that the lamb was the murder weapon but also gives us the fact that the lamb itself was slaughtered. Although ‘The Speckled Band’ title gives nothing away as to the occurrences in the story at first after reading on you find out that it has a very big part to play. Doyle’s story is by far the most intriguing title.
The main differences between the two stories are that the villains have different fates, one gets away with the murder, but even if she had been caught she would have been let off lightly as it was a crime of passion so the court would be lenient on her sentence, where as the other murderer ends up being killed by the same thing he used to kill his daughter. Also one villain did not actually commit the murder with his own hands whereas Mary Maloney killed her husband by hitting him over the head with a frozen joint of meat. Murder stories have changed from Victorian times because of the changing attitudes to women’s places in society and also because of the more lax way of looking at crime. Also criminals aren’t always being found out and some authors write their stories in a light-hearted way.
I think that to a younger child Dahl’s story would be more appealing because it has the element of comedy in it and also that it is based in a time where modern people can almost relate to it but personally I find Doyle’s story more appealing. I found it more appealing to collect the clues and evidence in my head and try and solve the mystery than to just read a funny murder mystery story. I found Doyle’s story more compelling because the title does not give anything away to start off with and the whole story is a complete mystery and nothing is obvious.
