Comparative Stories Essay
By Owen Convey
What are the similarities and differences in the two stories? (Roald Dahl-Lamb to the slaughter, The Speckled band-Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Theses two stories have many similarities and differences at the same time. First off we start with Lamb to the slaughter by Roald Dahl. This is a story about a housewife who finds out that her husband is cheating on her and plans to leave her even though she is pregnant. Mary Maloney is a normal woman who has everything timed to perfection she knows when everything will happen. She is in the last few months of pregnancy and is at peace with the world. When her husband comes in and tells her he’s leaving her she is shocked. “This is going to be a bit of a shock to you, I’m afraid, he said. “But I’ve thought about it a good deal and I’ve decided the only thing to do is tell you right away. I hope you don’t blame me too much” And he told her. It didn’t take very long, four or five minutes at most, and she sat very still through it all, watching him with a kind of dazed horror as he went further and further away from her with each word. “So there it is,” he added. “And I know it’s kind of a bad time to be telling you but there simply wasn’t any other word. Of course I’ll give you money and see you’re looked after. But there needn’t really be any fuss. I hope not anyway. It wouldn’t be very good for my job”. She is totally stunned by what her husband has just told her in a daze she goes to prepare tea. She gets a leg of frozen lamb out of the fridge and her husband tells her that he’s going out and without thinking Mrs Maloney smashes Mr Maloney round the head with the lamb killing him instantly. She calls the police pretending to have found him dead and she feeds the policemen the lamb that was used to kill Mr Maloney thus destroying all evidence of the crime.
