‘He beat his butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital sentence’
This quote explained that Dr Roylott was in such a bad temper that he killed his butler.
Dr Roylott has a passion for Indian animals he lets them roam freely in his room. Dr Roylott is a very rude and aggressive man, and is always willing to get his way.
‘Last week he hurled the local black smith over a parapet into a stream and it was only by paying over all the money which I could gather together that I was able to avert another public exposure’
We also know that Dr Roylott is very aggressive and bad tempered as the writer tells us this when, Dr Roylott storms into the room of which Holmes and his companion were seated and bent a steel poker as he was very angry that Holmes had spoken to Helen Stoner.
At this point we know that he is getting worried that Helen has been Sherlock Holmes. The quote below describes this.
‘My step daughter has been here, I have traced her’
Dr Roylotts physical appearance matches with his personality; he is a very huge man, he is very tall and broad and quite strong. Dr Roylott looks like an old bird of prey he has yellow burnt skin with a lot of wrinkles, his eyes look like they or full of bile and they have an alcoholic look. He wears a long frock, and a black top hat, which makes him look even taller.
In contrast Mary Maloney, Rhald Dahl’s villain, unlike Dr Roylott, she is not a traditional murderer, especially as Dr Roylott was blazed with every ‘evil passion’, Mary Maloney is completely different and the exact opposite to Dr Roylott. When Mary Maloney murdered Patrick Maloney, her fellow husband, it was not planned she had not in any way wanted to kill her husband. The murder was a crime of passion.
Mary Maloney was shocked and confused she was not quite sure what she was doing. After she murders, she sits in front of a mirror and practices to speak, she tries to speak without sounding nervous, at first her voice cranky she keeps on trying till she gets it right, as soon as she has the right tone of voice she leaves. She goes to a shop were she buys some food, she acts normal and cheerful to the shopkeeper and then leaves back to her house, with the bleeding corpse Patrick Maloney on the floor.
‘I want some potatoes please Sam, and I think a can of peas.’
Mary had large clear eyes, she had translucent skin, a soft mouth, she at them time of the murder is pregnant. Mary Maloney is very clever as when the officers are investigating the murder of Patrick Maloney, she offers the officers alcohol, which will lead them to slow down she also feeds the officers the actual weapon used for the murder. She adores her husband very much; she does almost everything for him, she is helpless without him.
‘She loved to luxuriate in the presence of this man’
This quote explains how much she loved her husband, that she deeply loved him.
I am now going to compare the three victims, Julia and Helen Stoner and Patrick Maloney. Julia Stoner was the first victim that was killed in the house of Dr Roylott. This case was never sold. Helen Stoner was the age of about 30, but looked older; she wears a black dress, which was heavily veiled that cased an air of mystery. She had premature grey hair from stress and shock of the death of her sister. She speaks in a low tone of voice and always seems worried, she has no money but will be getting some when she marries her fiancé as she mentions this to Sherlock Holmes, she also mentions that her fiancé has tried to solve the mystery of her sisters murder, but did not succeed. She has flowery (elaborate) language, she is very shocked.
‘I could not sleep at night’
In contrast Patrick Maloney was the complete opposite to Helen Stoner. Patrick Maloney is strong and in control, he orders everyone around, and every body respects him. Patrick Maloney sounded like a nice and kind person, but he could also be very sad and cold hearted, as of the way he told his wife that he is leaving her. Patrick Maloney is very demanding; he only speaks when needs to.
‘Sit down’ he said.
This quotation explains how demanding and how he orders everyone around and they obey him.
When Patrick Maloney first comes back from work he has an alcoholic drink, quickly without hesitating, this shows the amount of stress on his mind and that he might even be nervous.
In this part of my essay I will be writing about the detectives, the detectives from ‘Lamb To The Slaughter’ are very emotional and have no motive at all, the main detective here is Jack Noonan he believes everything Mary Maloney, and thinks that it is impossible that she could have committed the murder, Mary Maloney then offers the detectives alcohol to slow them down and the detectives are stupid enough to actually take it.
‘But I might take a drop just to keep me going’
Whereas there are a bunch of detectives in ‘The Lamb To The Slaughter’ there is just one main detective, Sherlock Holmes in ‘The Speckled Band’. Sherlock Holmes is completely different to the other detectives he is very thorough and observant; he has plenty of motive, unlike the other detectives. Sherlock Holmes used a completely different way of solving the case as Jack Noonan and his officers were looking for a obvious weapon or an object that had been left behind, whereas Sherlock Holmes first of all found out what, how and where the murder happened.
Jack Noonan and the other detectives have pathetic characteristics, at the end of the story they eat the actual evidence.
‘Listing to them through the open door, and she good hear them speaking among themselves, their voices thick and sloppy because there mouth were full of meat.’
In this part of my essay I will be looking at the atmosphere and surroundings. In ‘Lamb To The Slaughter’ I am going to look at Mary Maloney’s house before and after the murder. Before the murder takes place, the house is nice, warm and cosy and a place were you could relax. The house was well kept and was clean and tidy, the house was mainly silent.
As soon as the murder has been committed the atmosphere has been changed completely, even though it was the same house it was cold, dim, and unwelcoming because there had been a murder the same day.
In ‘The Speckled Band’ Sherlock Holmes bactuler flat. This flat is very calm, warm and cosy it is some were where you can just sit down and relax all day, like Mary Maloney's house it is well kept and looked after, but in Stoke Maron Dr Roylotts mansion it is scary and not comfortable, it is more or less empty as only Dr Roylott and Helen Stoner live there. The house is like an horror film it looks like a haunted house over a hill top it is chilling.
I have read the two stories ‘Lamb To The Slaughter’ and ‘The Speckled Band’ I have compared both of the stories and found out that they both have different endings. In ‘The Speckled Band’ the ending is a closed ending as Dr Roylott is killed and we are aware that he is the murderer, that the case has been solved.
In ‘Lamb To The Slaughter’ the ending is left open as we never get to find out if the clever Mary Maloney gets away with the murder, whether or not she gets to support the unborn child.
