Both stories come from different periods of time there is a difference of 38 years, and this is shown in the two different styles of writing.
The mood at the start of “Lamb to the Slaughter” is tranquil and content, with a warm feeling in the room, but in “The Speckled Band” there is completely different sense of mood and feeling. Another thing is that “The Speckled Band” is written in the 1st person and “Lamb to the Slaughter is written in the 3rd person. The opening of “The Speckled Band” is completely different to “Lamb to the Slaughter” because there is a murder, so that may entice the audience a lot more. The audience in the modern story is the main witness to the murder so they no exactly what happened and can judge the story, and how Mary Maloney covers it up. “The Speckled Band is the traditional detective story with Sherlock Homes leading them on and the audience will know that he will find the answer to the mystery.
The villains or murderers in “Lamb to the Slaughter” is not a stereotypical murderer because she didn’t actually plan to kill her husband it was really just on the spare of a moment thing, but in “The Speckled Band” Dr Roylott actually planned the murder. At the start of the story in “Lamb to the Slaughter” you wouldn’t imagine Mary Maloney to actually be capable of the murder. In “The Speckled Band” Dr Roylott’s plan had backfired on him because he ended up dead by being killed by the snake that had been trained to go in and kill. The physical appearance of Dr Roylott is much more scary than the fragile pregnant figure of Mary Maloney, also there behaviour before the crime is completely different, Mary is trying to block out what her husband has told her, but Dr Roylott seams to be quite nasty to Helen. Again Dr Roylott is the complex character. Mary does try to control the people around her, like her husband, but sometimes it doesn’t seem to help, she probably does this because she wants to have a good relationship with him and because she does not want to lose her husband but sometimes she might try to hard on the other hand Dr Roylott keeps control because he is the oldest and the head of the house, in that story.
It is not surprising to see a female villain in “Lamb to the Slaughter” it is a sign of the times that women do kill people and it is not just men. If it had happened in Conan Doyle’s story the audience may have reacted different because of the changing of the times.
In “Lamb to the Slaughter” there is a lot of irony in the other story there is hardly any this could be the two different messages that each of the stories is trying to put across. Mary Maloney is successful at her murder because she thinks quickly and makes a convincing and successful alibi. On the contrary Dr Roylott was found out and was not successful. Dr Roylott is a stereotypical villain because he has a nasty temper and is horrible to all the other characters all the way through the story. Compared to Dr Roylott, Mary is the more believable villain, and they are not similar at all.
The detective or detectives in the “Speckled Band” are Sherlock Homes and Dr Watson and in “Lamb to the Slaughter” it is Jack Noonan the head of police. On what we read and know, Sherlock Homes is more of the typical detective because he searches for the clues and makes a broader view on everything on the case, but he can be unrealistic at some points. He also doesn’t say to much about what he thinks at the time he refers back to it. The police do not solve the crime in “Lamb to the Slaughter” because Mary is to bright for them and they don’t seem to be fully aware of all the clues that are in front of them like when they are discussing the murder weapon while eating it, Mary at that point is just sitting in the other room giggling to herself, this does show irony. Roald Dahl tries to make the police quite thick to the audience’s point of view although the audience does really no what has happened.
The settings of the two books are completely different places and at different times. “Lamb to the Slaughter” is set in America and you can tell this by the language that they use like they say “larder” and “basement”. However it is clear that the “Speckled Band” is set in Britain. You can also tell this because of the picture that you can get in your head about the clothing that Sherlock Homes actually wears and that they go around in a horse and carriage. The settings in the “Speckled Band” do fit the requirements of a murder story in the way that they describe the surrounding to the house of Dr Roylott. The Maloney household could be an unusual setting for a murder but a lot of stories do have murders in a simple house, and the homely atmosphere in the house does make Mary’s alibi sound realistic. As it says at the start of “Lamb to the Slaughter”- “ the room was warm and clean, the curtains drawn, the two table lamps alight- hers and the one by the empty chair opposite. On the sideboard behind her, two tall glasses, soda water, whiskey. Fresh ice cubes in the thermos bucket”.
The structure of “The Speckled Band” is completely different because it more closely follows a whodunit theme and “Lamb to the Slaughter” go for the cover up story. Also “Lamb to the Slaughter” is a much shorter story and there is more excitement in knowing will she or wont she get caught. The key point in “Lamb to the Slaughter” is when Patrick tells Mary the secret and that changes Mary and she goes into a daze and then murders him when she is in state of shock after what he has said. In “Lamb to the Slaughter” there is a narrator a they seem to no everything except the secret that Patrick tells Mary.
The ending of “Lamb to the Slaughter” has a bit of a twist because the audience could think that she may be caught like most villains do in stories, but we don’t find out whether she does in this one. The names of both stories both have means, “The Speckled Band” is a swamp adder snake which is one of the most deadly in India, and that is the murder weapon in the story. “Lamb to the Slaughter” is a good title for the story because it is a lamb that does kill and another word for kill could be slaughter.
This can be intriguing for the audience, as the story has developed.
I think “Lamb to the Slaughter is more appealing because it is interesting how Mary covers up the murder of her husband Patrick, “The Speckled Band” is interesting but does not have what I like in a crime mystery it was also to long, I think for a short story. In “Lamb to the Slaughter” the writing was easier to understand and it was set at a later time. I did marvel at how the modern murderess attempted to outwit the police in Roald Dahl’s story.
To conclude I think that the main difference in the stories are that they are both set in completely different times, and that they are two completely different stories one where the villain is found out and the other where she isn’t, because of the different era’s that both stories are set in it is hard to compare, and this shown where the police are involved, in the “Speckled Band” it is Sherlock Holmes who is so smart and never fails, where as in the “Lamb to the Slaughter” story the police seem to be portrayed as a bit thick as they eat the murder weapon.
