Comparing Two Short Stories
Comparing the Build up of Suspense in “Lamb to the Slaughter” and “The Speckled Band”
“Lamb to the Slaughter”, written by Roald Dahl in the mid 20th century and “The Speckled Band”, written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the late 19th century, both use techniques to build up suspense found common among crime stories. However, whereas “The Speckled Band” has all of the elements of a classic crime story, clues, detectives, murder, mystery, resolution and victims “Lamb to the Slaughter” does not, “Lamb to the Slaughter” is without the element of resolution, although this does not dramatically effect the build up suspense as the murderer is almost caught.
To analyse suspense first we must understand what it is. A definition of suspense: state of uncertainty, especially while awaiting news, an event etc.; anxiety, worry. Within all crime stories a crime must take place, hence the name of the genre. When there is a suspicious situation, the reader’s mind automatically thinks of the most negative possible outcome of the situation, this is human nature. Human nature in conjunction with the fact that a crime must take place creates anxiety and worry in a situation where the outcome is uncertain this causes the reader to read out of curiosity, which builds up suspense.
Dahl uses particular techniques to create suspense in “Lamb to the Slaughter”, to keep the reader on the edge of their seat and keep them guessing what shall happen next.
In the first section of “Lamb to the Slaughter”, until the immediate aftermath of the murder of Mr. Maloney, almost immediately Dahl steadily builds up suspense. The scene is described, “The room was warm and clean, the curtains drawn…” The witty reader would have already noticed that the curtains were drawn, it does not take a great deal of imagination to think someone is about to do something intended to be kept away from prying eyes. We are told “Mary Maloney was waiting for her husband to come home from work.’ Is she waiting for his company? Waiting to kill him? We are not told, suspense is steadily increasing. To the reader it is still unclear why Mary Maloney is waiting for her husband. When the reader is told “She heard the tyres on the gravel outside, the reader is waiting for what will happen next, as the answer may be close. This further builds up tension and suspense. Suspense decreases when Mary Maloney and Mr. Maloney meet and nothing comes of it, our minds relax, until “He lifted his glass and drained it”, we are told that this was an unusual thing for Mr. Maloney to do. The reader’s mind now suspects Mr. Maloney, as his actions may be of someone trying to steady their nerves in preparation of saying, doing or even committing something. Suspense now begins to rise sharply. Mr. Maloney gets another drink but this time with more alcohol content. This justifies the reader’s suspicions that Mr. Maloney is about to say, do or even commit something, but the question is what? Suspense now rises sharply. “Her eyes waited on him for an answer”; his silence shows a man deep in thought, thinking about ‘How might I break the news to Mary?’ Or maybe ‘How might I kill Mary?’ the reader is kept guessing, curiosity drives the reader on. Suspense rises further. When Mr. Maloney said, “Sit down”, the reader assumes Mr. Maloney is about to do what he had been preparing himself to do, the suspense build up has almost reached its climax. When “He had become absolutely motionless” to the reader this may seem to be something someone would do just before they might say, do or even commit something. The readers chance to replace their assumptions with what eventually takes place keep him or her reading. When Mr. Maloney said, “This is going to be a bit of a shock to you, I’m afraid.” The reader knows how close he or she is to what Mr. Maloney is about to say, suspense built up has now reached its climax. There is a lot of text explaining how Mr. Maloney said what he said, however, the reader is not told what is actually said. Judging on Mary Maloney’s reactions, “Her first instinct was not to believe any of it, to reject it all.” The reader assumes Mr. Maloney has asked for a divorce. As the event has happened and the aftermath told, the readers mind rests rid of anxiety and worry therefore suspense begins to reduce and carries on doing so until, Mary Maloney with the froze piece of Lamb “Walked up behind him”, suspense peaks, easily exceeding the previous climax. When the reader is told “She swung the big frozen leg of lamb high in the air and brought it as hard as she could on the back of his head.” The state of uncertainty has been removed along with the anxiety and worry. The reader knows what has happened therefore the suspense reduces, however, suspense remains at low levels waiting for the aftermath of the murder.
