Both villains are not alike very much because the way it describes Dr Roylott is very different from the way they describe Mary Maloney. They describe Dr Roylott by using words that relate to animals and words that describe big and old, for example huge man, large face, wrinkles, evil passion and bile-shot eyes. On the other hand they describe Mary Maloney as a quite women for example “Her skin for this was her sixth month with child had acquired a wonderful translucent quality, the mouth was soft.”
Mary Maloney’s behavior was very different from Dr Roylott’s as the way they describe Mary Maloney as she is a normal house wife who doesn’t work and wouldn’t hurt a fly. Whereas Dr Roylott behavior was one of a killers by the way he acts, looks and talks to people. I don’t really think Mary Maloney was planning to kill her husband, I think that it was a spare of the moment thing.
I don’t think anyone would think that Mary was capable of murdering her husband, especially considering her husband is a detective. However Dr Roylott is capable of killing people as he is a big man. I think that Dr Roylott is a typical stereotype of a villain as he looks like one and acts like one. Dr Roylott and Mary Maloney are definitely not similar. By the descriptions I think that Mary Maloney is more complex.
During Lamb to the Slaughter I think that our attitude changes towards Mary Maloney because we know what she is capable of. I don’t think our attitude changes towards Dr Roylott until right at the end. In both stories the writers don’t really allow us to see the private thoughts of the villains.
For many people I think it would be surprising to have a female killer but it shows that times are changing, it shows that Lamb to the Slaughter is a modern story, especially compared to The Speckled Band.
I think that Holmes if more of a typical stereotype example of a detective because in Lamb to the Slaughter it doesn’t say much about Jack Noonan but in The Speckled Band it says a lot about Holmes and the way he acts and looks. I think that Holmes acts a lot like the stereotype of a detective especially because The Speckled Band is an older story, but because Lamb to the Slaughter is a more modern story, Jack Noonan doesn’t fit the stereotype of a detective as much as Holmes.
I think that the writers want us to admire the detectives, but Jack Noonan is despised because him and the rest of the detectives were stupid enough to eat the only bit of evidence.
Holmes and Noonan are very different because Holmes was right about the murders whereas Noonan got it all wrong because he thought someone had hit Patrick Maloney round the head with a large piece of metal.
I think that Holmes dominates the story because he got it all right he knew what was going on and how to find it out.
In The Speckled Band the story was set in a big, old, empty house where not many people lived. Lamb to the Slaughter was set in a house as well but it doesn’t describe the house much. I think in The Speckled Band the big house that it was set in made it more of a typical detective story because the house was big and a lot of the rooms were empty. The Maloney house was an unusual and unexpected place for a murder to take place because by the beginning of the story it describes a normal household so you wouldn’t expect a murder to take place.
The homely atmosphere helps secure her alibi because she is the wife of a detective, so she wouldn’t be suspected of killing her husband Patrick Maloney.
