In this essay, I'm going to compare two short stories and these stories are

Nathi Thwala

English Essay

19/12/02

The Speckled Band and Lamb to the Slaughter

In this essay, I’m going to compare two short stories and these stories are “The Speckled Band” by Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle, and “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl. I’m also going to be looking at the similarities and differences of the stories.

The victim in ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ is Patrick Maloney. He was married to Mary Maloney. He was killed when Mary Maloney hit him over the head with a leg of lamb. I started to suspect that there was something wrong when I read the following quote “on the evening of his death Patrick Maloney did an unusual thing. He finished his drink very quickly and then poured himself out another very strong one.” Another clue that may suggest that there was really something wrong is that he takes a long time to reply to his wife “he didn’t answer”, “Her eyes waited on him for an answer, a smile, a little nod, but he made no sign.” “He had finished the second drink and was staring down into the glass, frowning.”

In the ‘Speckled Band’ the victim is Miss Helen Stoner. We first see Miss Helene Stoner in the story wearing black, veiled and she has gray hair. She was shivering and terrified “we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable state of agitation, her face all drawn and gray, with a restless frightened eyes, like of those of some hunted animal”, “the lady gave a violent start”, “It is fear, Mr. Holmes, It is terror.”

Both “The Speckled Band” and “Lamb to the Slaughter” are detective stories, e.g. they both have a murderer. On the other hand, they are presented to ...

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Both “The Speckled Band” and “Lamb to the Slaughter” are detective stories, e.g. they both have a murderer. On the other hand, they are presented to us very differently, making one story very typical of its genre, and making the other very untypical of the murder mystery genre.

Both Conan-Doyle and Dahl use various approaches to make their stories more interesting; for example, in “Lamb to the Slaughter” the story is more about the character of Mrs. Mary Maloney, who is a loving housewife and killer. Whereas many stories concentrate on the detective or sometimes the victim. This story concentrates on the character of the murderer. This angle helps with the telling of the murder, making it more unexpected. The story includes two major plot twists; the first being the murder itself, made unexpected by what we have seen of Mary Maloney’s character, the setting, and the form the murder weapon takes among other things. The second plot twist is at the end, where the detectives eat the murder weapon.

Conan-Doyle used manner in writing “The Speckled Band”. His story is more about the character of the detective, Sherlock Holmes, which is a preferred approach of many mystery novelists, probably because it leaves a place for sequels. The story though is more centered on Holmes, is told as seen through the eyes of his companion, Dr Watson, providing a good example of writing in the first person and “The Speckled Band” has a lot of suspense.

Although both the stories have some similarities of a detective story, they are presented differently, differing noticeably in the setting, the characters and of course the plot.