‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ by Roald Dahl, is a story about a very loving women, of whom, loved her husband to death. After waiting patiently, same as every other night, for her husband to come home from work, he tells her he wants to leave her. The text does not say this directly but we know this to be true from evidence such as, “ill give you money and see you’re looked after” along with other phrases with strongly suggests he’s leaving her. She then continues on with her duty of cooking supper as if nothing happened, she didn’t want it to be real. She then goes back into the room where her husband was and hits him across the head with a leg of frozen lamb out of distress and an outburst of anger. She killed him. She then creates an alibi by going to the grocers to buy some vegetables so she wouldn’t get caught. Then once the police arrive she makes them eat the lamb, which she used to kill her husband. “get the weapon, and you’ve got the man” she cleverly persuades them to eat the evidence to help prevent her getting caught and sent to prison with her unborn baby.
The murder takes place in the front room of their house, where they may of shared many happy memories together as a married couple. There are again, only two main characters in the story, Mary and Patrick Maloney, husband and wife. The story is told in 3rd person narrative and the atmosphere created is empathy and despair as at first all that is mentioned is how Mary’s life is revolved around Patrick and how much she lives him, so when he tells her he’s leaving, we understand why she burst out and kills him.
‘The Tell Tale Heart,’ focuses on the murderer, and his sanity. All the way through the story, the narrator who is the murderer, tries to prove that he’s sane. He automatically thinks you as a reader, think he’s mad, “but why will you say that I am mad?” would a sane person think that others claim them to be mad? No. There is a thin line that separates sanity, and those who are lacking it, but to those few who are insane, do they consider themselves so? In this story, the murderer is so desperate to prove him self sane that, in the process he is doing the opposite; for example, he spends an hour just to poke his head round through the door then states, “Ha! – would a madman be as wise as this?” a normal, sane person would not spend an hour just to poke their head around a door, yet the murderer believes it be normal and wise, thus further suggesting his madness. He has no motive to kill his victim, even after the crime is committed he is still unsure about his motive, searching for it, “I think it was his eye! Yes, it was this!” after stating, “I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire.” He says he loves the old man, yet kills him for his evil eye. This speaks for its self, the murderer is a madman. He spends hours getting into the old mans room, being extremely careful. Then attacks the old man in an act of distress and anxiety. “with a loud yell, I threw open the lantern and leaped into the room.” All his slow, and careful build up was relatively pointless, his stealthy actions and careful movements may have suggested that he was not mad, but wise, but what wise man would go through all that preparation and then just leap into an attack? Only a madman would do this.
