With reference to the genre of murder mysteries, what are the similarities and differences between Dahl’s “Lamb to the Slaughter” and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Adventure of the Speckled Band”?

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G.C.S.E English Literature Coursework Essay

With reference to the genre of murder mysteries, what are the similarities and differences between Dahl’s “Lamb to the Slaughter” and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Adventure of the Speckled Band”?

Murder mysteries are, and have been for some time, one of the most popular genres in the world. Whether they are on television, at the cinema or simply in a book they have been and still are enjoyed by millions of people worldwide. Murder mysteries usually follow a set of typical storylines and conventions. These usually consist of a typical, evil looking murderer/prime suspect, a very intelligent and observant detective, a helpless and/or innocent victim, a dark and gloomy setting like a big mansion or old castle. Other key features are that they are usually set amongst the higher class. A twist in the tale usually comes near the end and last but by no means least suspense, this is usually created by the author not revealing who the murderer is until the end of the story. Not all murder mysteries follow these conventions completely, but most of them include at least a few of them.

In Roald Dahl’s “Lamb to the Slaughter” the story opens with us meeting the murderer, then we meet the victim, we then find out the motive and the murder happens. The murderer then creates an alibi and the police investigation begins. After that the murderer distracts the police and manipulates them into destroying the only piece of evidence.

In “ The Adventure of the Speckled Band” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Watson is recalling the story. It starts with the victim telling Holmes about her sister’s murder and about fearing for her own life, the murderer the threatens Holmes to keep out of his business. Holmes then investigates the scene, he finds a motive and devises a plan. He puts the plan into operation and stops the murder/foils the murderer’s plan, then we get the twist in the tale and the murderer is killed by his own murder weapon.

“Lamb to the Slaughter” does not follow the typical narrative of a murder mystery. This is mainly because we know who the murderer is from the beginning of the story so the thing that keeps us reading is not to find out who the murderer is but to see if she gets away with it. I think that Roald Dahl had no intention from the outset of writing this story of making it follow the conventions of a normal murder mystery. It is my view that he did this to add his own style to the text. I also think that he did it to add a breath of fresh air to the murder mystery genre so that it might make people want to read it more. An example of this is

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Mary Maloney simply walked up behind him and without any pause she swung the big frozen leg of lamb high in the air and brought it down as hard as she could on the back of his head” which is not typical of a murder mystery at all. On the other hand “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” by Conan Doyle does follow the basic storyline and conventions of most other stories in the murder mystery genre.

I think that the setting of any story is very important but especially in a murder mystery because if you have a ...

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