Sherlock Holmes and Mary Maloney are quite similar although different. Sherlock Holmes is a detective while Mary is a villain but they are both observant. ‘…for I observe that you are shivering’, says Sherlock Holmes. Similarly, Mary Maloney ‘noticed that the new drink was dark amber with the quantity of whiskey in it.’
Conan Doyle talks about Sherlock Holmes in the first few pages of the story. We are given information about Sherlock Holmes’ talents, ‘the rapid deductions’, ‘swift as intuition’, ‘professional’, ‘observant’, ‘logical’. We are told these things so that we know what is expected of him and to show him off. Likewise, we find out that Mary Maloney is ‘observant’ from the first few pages. She is also described as ‘soft’ and ‘placid’. She is thought of as harmless. When she murders Patrick it comes to us a shock.
Both writers attribute complex roles to their characters. There is a victim, a villain, and detectives in both of them and both stories involve a change of role. In ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’, Patrick, the detective turns into a villain, when he tells Mary that he is going to leave her. He then turns into a victim when he is killed by Mary, who was the victim but turns into the villain when she kills Patrick with the leg of lamb. In The Speckled Band’, Dr Grimesby Roylott, who is the villain switches into the victim when Sherlock accidentally provokes the snake to kill him and in turn the detective turns into the villain. Detective Sherlock Holmes and Detective Patrick Maloney are similar because they both turn from detectives to villains. This is a comparison.
Dr Grimesby Roylott is a different kind of villain compared to Sherlock Holmes and Patrick Maloney. He actually kills Julia, and he ahs been in other situations like this. He is presented as a stereotypical baddie. He ‘hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a stream’ and indulges ‘in ferocious quarrels with whoever might cross his path…A series of disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended in the police-court until at least he became the terror of the village…’ while Patrick doesn’t do anything violent, he is just mean and thoughtless. She says ‘Hullo, darling’ lovingly, but he just says ‘Hullo.’ And then after that, he shouts at her, ‘Sit down!’ Sherlock Holmes doesn’t plan to kill Dr Grimesby Roylott; it is an accident. ‘‘I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr Grimesby Roylott’s death…’’ says Sherlock Holmes. Mary Maloney, the victim turned villain, however is different to the other villains. She is a calm and cunning villain, and it wouldn’t have entered our heads that she would kill. Although, she is similar to Dr Grimesby Roylott in the way she carefully covers her tracks. After she kills Patrick she calmly and cunningly plans out her way to the greengrocers and makes up that ‘‘Patrick’s decided he’s tired and doesn’t want to eat out…’cheesecake?’…’Perfect,’ she said, ‘he loves it’’ That’s her alibi taken care of. At one point, we think that she’s mentally ill because she makes herself think that she’s innocent, ‘she was returning home to her husband and he was waiting for his supper; and she must make it good, and make it as tasty as possible because the poor man was tired; and if’ when she entered the house, she happened to find anything unusual, or tragic, or terrible, then naturally it would be a shock and she’d become frantic with grief and horror, mind you, she wasn’t expecting to find anything…’ She carefully plans out, just as he carefully planned the murder of Julia.
Dr Grimesby Roylott and Patrick Maloney are quite similar victims because they start of as villains and end up being killed. Mary, on the other hand starts of as a victim but then turns into a villain, but we don’t really hate her, because she is a nice person. We feel sorry for Julia because she is murdered before her wedding day, and our feelings are similar towards Helen too because she doesn’t know what to do and seeks help, unlike Mary.
The women are different in both stories; possibly because both stories were written in different times. As ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ was written about a century after ‘The Speckled Band’, the role of women in society had obviously changed. Mary Maloney is more cunning and bright and devious while Helen is reliant, weak, and dominated. ‘(Mary) certainly wasn’t going to take a chance.’ ‘That’s the way, she told herself. Do everything right and natural…’(Lamb to the Slaughter) ‘‘It is not cold which makes me shiver…it is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror’’ ‘‘Oh, sir do you not think that you could help me too, and at least throw a little light, through the dense darkness that still surrounds me…I shall be married, with the control of my income…’(The Speckled Band)
Sherlock Holmes and Detective Jack Noonan aren’t similar at all because Detective Jack Noonan doesn’t turn change roles but Sherlock turns from detective to villain. Also, Sherlock Holmes didn’t have the aid of forensics and tests. ‘‘The idea of using a form of poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical test…’’ says Sherlock Holmes whilst in ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ Detective Jack Noonan brought in a ‘photographer’, a ‘doctor’ and a ‘fingerprint man’ and they didn’t solve it, which brings us to the fact that Sherlock Holmes is the best detective.
Crime stories build up suspense and tension. On the night when Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson were at the estate trying to solve the mystery, Sherlock warns Watson and explains what to do, ‘‘Do not go to sleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your pistol ready incase we should need it…’ Conan Doyle describes how both of them felt, ‘…same state of nervous tension…’ The mentioning of ‘pistol’ and ‘tension’ builds up tension. Pathetic fallacy is included. ‘The wind was howling’, ‘crash of the gate’. This pathetic fallacy indicates that something is going to happen. This agitates the reader. Holmes and Watson go to Stoke Moran at night and wait for the killer. It’s a ‘night with a chill wind’. This is similar to the conditions on the night Julia was murdered because it’s the same weather the night that Julia died. Conan Doyle adds this to familiarize and notice that something is going to happen. Just as they cross the lawn, Dr Roylott’s baboon pops out and gives them a fright. The baboon is described with personification, ‘hideous and distorted child.’ Conan Doyle includes this appearance to surprise the reader and catch them off guard. The reader thinks that the killer has come out to kill them, here. As they wait in the room, Conan Doyle exploits the senses. ‘Strong smell of burning oil and heated metal’. This makes us aware that something is going to happen because it is not normal to smell ‘burning oil and heated metal’.
However, Roald Dahl chooses to build up tension after a calm, relaxed opening. Patrick does something unusual and this is emphasized by the use of repetition. ‘There was half of it, at least half of it, left.’ This use of repetition makes us aware that something isn’t right. Conan Doyle doesn’t do this, however he does exploit the senses like Roald Dahl. In ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ Mary knows that Patrick had finished his drink by what she hears, ‘she heard the ice-cubes falling back against the bottom of the empty glass. Another technique that Conan Doyle doesn’t use is imperative. ‘‘Sit down!’’ Patrick shocks Mary. He shocks us too. Roald Dahl repeats the sound sense, which has been used more than once before, in order to emphasize its importance to us and build up tension. ‘The clinking of the glass.’ A separate technique I noticed, is that the character, Mary Maloney, is feeling tension too, when Patrick starts shouting. ‘It wasn’t until then she began to get frightened,’ she feels tension, and the reader fells tension with her.
In counterpart to the tension, both stories contain aspects of humor. We laugh at Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson when they get frightened of the baboon in the garden. ‘‘My God!’ I whispered, ‘did you see it?’ Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like a vice on my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low laugh, and put his lips to my ears. ‘It’s a nice house-hold, ‘he murmured, ‘that is the baboon!’ This creates tension. We also laugh at the conversation that Sherlock Holmes and Dr Grimesby Roylott have earlier. Dr Grimesby Roylott warns Sherlock Holmes to keep away from his niece Helen and bends the crow bar to show that he is dangerous. ‘‘Don’t you dare meddle with my affairs…I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here!’ He swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with his huge brown hands.’ What we chuckle at is when Sherlock Holmes says ‘‘m not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him that my grip was not much more feeble than his own.’ As he spoke, he picked up the steel poker…straightened it out again.’ In ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ what we find funny and ironic and what Mary finds funny also, is how she invites the detectives to eat the leg of lamb that she used to kill Patrick with, and while they were discussing the murder weapon, one detective says, ‘‘Probably right under our very noses”, and it actually, literally is underneath their noses because they are eating it. This breaks the tension a bit, so much that Mary Maloney giggles.
Conan Doyle gives us clues to help us solve the crime. We find through Sherlock Holmes that Helen hears whistling throughout the night. A coincidence is that Helen’s twin sister, Julia, heard this whistling too. Another coincidence is that Julia died two weeks before her wedding day and now that its two weeks before Helens wedding day, Dr Grimesby wants to fix Helens room so that she has to sleep in Julia’s room, where there is no ventilation and the bell pull doesn’t work and the bed is stuck to the floor as well as the other clues such as the dog strap and the saucer of milk that’s a bit too small for his tiger. Conan Doyle also tries to mislead us when he mentions the gypsies that Dr Grimesby Roylott befriends. These clues are mysterious and they all link up. Roald Dahl gives us clues too. When Mary goes to get the leg of lamb out of the freezer, she held it in the most peculiar way. ‘She carried it upstairs, holding the thin bone-end of it with both her hands.’ The leg of lamb can’t be that heavy. This makes us think that she’s up to something.
There is a contrast in both endings of the story. ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ leaves you thinking about what’s going to happen next. Will she get caught, or will she get away? ‘The Speckled Band’ didn’t leave us wondering. A comparison would be that neither character showed remorse. ‘And in the other room, Mary Maloney began to giggle.’ (Lamb to the Slaughter) ‘‘In this way, I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr Grimesby Roylott’s death and I cannot say that it is likely to weigh heavily upon my conscience.’’ concludes Sherlock Holmes after killing Dr Grimesby Roylott. I think that both characters think that both the murdered characters deserved to die. Both writers promote that it is fine to kill. The writers position us to side with the villains. Dr Grimesby Roylott deserved it and so did Patrick. We actually want the murderers to get away with it.
‘The Speckled Band’ is typical to its genre because it is spooky and dark while ‘Lamb to the Slaughter isn’t typical to its genre because it is a nice clean and calm house that the murder takes place in.
I think that both stories have different types of effects that make it hard to choose which is the better crime story. Conan Doyle wrote the first ever, detective crime story whereas Roald Dahl wrote the first subverted crime story.
