In “Lamb to the Slaughter” the detective is a police officer called “Jack Noonan” he was a close friends of Patrick as they used to work together. A doctor tells “Jack Noonan” that being hit over the head with a metal object killed him. The readers know this isn’t true as we were already told that she’d hit over the head with a frozen leg of lamb.
The writers put misleading evidence into the stories to keep the reader interested in the story. This is called a red herring.
Both of the stories contain a victim, which is another simple but important similarity. In “Lamb to the Slaughter” Patrick is the victim, but although he was murdered the readers feel that he deserved it slightly, as he was about to leave his caring six-month pregnant wife. In fact Mary is portrayed as a victim as the reader is not given any evidence that her husband should treat her like this.
In “ The Speckled Band” the victim was Dr. Roylotts stepdaughter, Julia. Julia was 30 years old and engaged. Julia died two weeks before the marriage was due to take place. Now a year or so later Julia’s younger sister Helen is also engaged, but she’s worried that she may also die. So from this we learn that one of the sisters had died and the living sister, Helen is living in fear of her own life.
In both of the stories the murders/deaths were unexpected and suspicious, they are also similar in that both of the murder weapons in each story were strange; In “ The Speckled Band” Dr. Roylott uses a snake. In “Lamb to the Slaughter” Mary uses a frozen leg of lamb, which seems like an extremely strange murder weapon to use.
In Both stories there are lots of differences. The first one is the murderer. Although Dr. Roylott is portrayed as an irritable, fickle and well travelled doctor. He was the last living member of the Roylott family. The Roylott family dated back to Saxon times that had a lot of money and land. Dr. Roylott inherited a 200-year-old house and lots of money. Dr. Roylott may seem to be a very rich and respected gentleman but he had an awful temper. Helen Stoner, Dr. Roylotts' stepdaughter tells Holmes’ of Dr. Roylotts' criminal past. The first occasion was while he was in India, he murdered his butler. He then went to prison for it. Dr. Roylott returned to his estate back in England a married man. He’d married Helens mother who was rich. She then died. When Dr. Roylott returned to England he was described as a “Morose” man meaning he was bad tempered and depressed. The second criminal offence was towards a local blacksmith. This tells the reader that he’s short tempered, unpredictable and capable of a very violent murder.
Then we move onto “Lamb to the Slaughter” from the evidence you wouldn’t think Mary Maloney was capable of murdering anybody, especially not her husband in her house which is described as “Warm and Clean” home which makes the reader think of her as a tidy woman who’d do anything for her beloved husband. We know that she loves him to bits as when she talks to him she calls him “Darling” which is a way of her expressing her love for him. When Mary murders Patrick she’s six months pregnant “with child” which is away of describing her affection and love for the unborn child. You’d think that Mary and Patrick are very happy together due to the fact that they were expecting their first child.
By describing the characters they seem totally different a “bad tempered man” and a “Gentle, loving wife”. You wouldn’t expect Mary to murder somebody, but you wouldn’t be shocked to hear that Dr. Roylott had.
The second difference is in the content. One of the murders is deliberate whereas the other wasn’t deliberate. In “The Speckled Band” we don’t find out who the murderer is until the end of the story, although the readers do get given clues towards who did it e.g. The saucer of milk, The phoney bell pull and the ventilation shaft that had no useful purpose.
Another difference between the two stories is the motives behind the murder. In “The Speckled Band” Dr. Roylott planned murder so he wouldn’t loose any of his inheritance from his wife. His motive was that in his wife’s will it said that when her daughters marry they should receive 200 pounds, which was left with Dr. Roylott. Of course Dr. Roylott didn’t want to loose any of his money and so the only way to stop them from marrying and receiving £200 was to kill them.
In “Lamb to the Slaughter” the crime was a “crime of passion”. It was perpetrated on impulse. After Patrick told Mary something. The writer doesn’t tell us what he’s going to do instead he leaves it up to the reader to imagine what he’s planning. The reader then thinks he’s going to leave her and so they feel sorry for Mary. Mary’s emotions obviously begin to build up as she starts to call him darling even more and tries to show her true feelings for him. The readers then want to know what her reaction will be to this news and so they read onwards. Her delayed reaction is hitting him over the head with a frozen leg of lamb hence the name “ Lamb to the Slaughter”. The reader then won’t want to stop reading the book, as they’ll want to know what happens top Mary.
I’m now going to comment on the writers’ use of language and the structure of the two detective stories.
Firstly I’m going to comment on the structure of the two stories. In “Lamb to the Slaughter” Roald Dahl is very clever. He uses a much more unorthodox method of writing a detective story. From the beginning you expect to find that something bad and mysterious will happen and then a big investigation will take place. But the murder takes place in the middle of the story and we know who murdered Patrick and why she murdered him. Readers who prefer a more traditional story line may not like this story due to the unanswered questions still remaining at the end of the story such as will Mary ever get found out? Or what did Patrick tell Mary?
In “The Speckled Band” we don’t know why or how Julia Stoner was murdered until the end of the story in a conclusion. Watson the narrator tells the story of how Julia was murdered and who by at the end of the story. He tells the readers that the crime took place using the “deadliest snake in India” and a “rope” so the snake could go through the vent and down the rope so it can land comfortably on Julia’s bed.
Roald Dahl bends the rules of a traditional detective story but yet he still manages to keep the readers interested in the story, as they want to know what will happen to Mary Maloney. “The Speckled Band” is a much more conventional story and therefore innovative readers probably will prefer this story to the second as it as a much more concise ending.
I will now look at the language used in the stories. I’m firstly going to look at “The Speckled Band”. In “The Speckled Band” the language used is pre- twentieth century. The language is vividly descriptive. When Helen gets described she’s portrayed as being fearful or even scared of a person. The reader gets this message because she’s described as a “Hunted animal”. When these clues are put together with the description of Dr. Roylott, which is “Bird of Pray” which is telling the readers that Helen could be afraid of him as she is likened to his “ Pray”. The readers then start to think that Dr. Roylott could be planning to hurt her or even kill her. “The Speckled Band” also contains onomatopoeia. It’s used in the beginning of the story. Words such as “ Wild scream”, “Clanging” and “Shrieked” these all show the reader that the story is burdened with descriptions. By doing this the author is making the reader think that the whole story will be full of descriptive writing and hopefully they’ll want to carry on reading.
The punctuation used in “The Speckled Band” plays a big part in how the reader becomes opinionated about the story. Exclamation marks show the intensity of specific parts of the story. Phrases such as “Oh, my God!” draw the reader in, as they are thrilled by the story and want to read on to reach the climax.
The story appeals to the senses. Smells are described as “Strong”. The writer uses adjectives to describe the words so the reader feels included in the story itself. If the senses are described in detail for the reader, they can imagine what is happening in the story as though they are part of it. This is yet another way to keep the reader interested.
I’m now going to look at “Lamb to the Slaughter”. It was written in the twentieth century. It isn’t as descriptive as “Lamb to the Slaughter”. People aren’t described in as much detail. In “ The Speckled Band” the characters personalities are described briefly but the author mainly focuses on their bad points rather than their good points i.e. “premature grey”. Roald Dahl writes about the good sides of people and so “Lamb to the Slaughter” is a much more uplifting story. “Lamb to the Slaughter” doesn’t contain many onomatopoeic words. However sound words like “Tyres on gravel” and “Key…in the lock” are used in the beginning of “Lamb to the Slaughter” to grab the readers attention. Other senses are used more; sight for example. When Patrick drinks his whisky the beverage is described as “oily swirls”, this shows that the author must have believed that sight was more important to the reader then any other sense. This is probably because readers will want to imagine what’s happening using visual aids to help them.
Now I’m going to look at the structure in the two stories. I already know that “ The Speckled Band” is a more conventional story. I know this because of the way the story is set out. The narrator begins the story by selecting a case from Sherlock Holmes past. He then goes on to talk about he victim. He then talks about the crime scene. He talks about the investigation. The layout is easy to understand and very common in pre twentieth century stories. The story ends in the predictable way the crime gets solved and everybody lives happily ever after. The whole story is formatted in this way to provide the reader with a story, which is simple in structure but complex in language.
I’m now going to move on to “Lamb to the Slaughter”. It’s more uncharacteristic than “The Spackled Band”. Its structure is inconsistent and the language it contains could be thought of as more up to date. In “Lamb to the Slaughter” Roald Dahl starts off the exact opposite way in which Sherlocks sidekick did. In Roald Dahls story the readers get a comprehensive account of the murder. Its set out his way to fascinate the reader early on in the story. This will also captivate the reader as they will want to know what happens as the stories ending isn’t as predictable as conventional mystery stories. There aren’t a lot of answers in “Lamb to the Slaughter” and so the conclusion is quite sardonic. As we already know whom the murderer is.
In conclusion to this essay I believe that “Lamb to the Slaughter is a much more successful story as it has much more individualism and illustrious technique in it compared to “The Speckled Band”. Although I prefer “Lamb to the Slaughter” some people may find the pre twentieth century story better, as it definitely is a more simplistic and predictable story line, although its language is more exquisite.
I think that “Lamb to the Slaughter” is more successful as a detective story as it isn’t as predictable as “The Speckled Band” and I think that it has better story line as it is a much more inventive story.
