Lamb to the Slaughter

Comparing Stories

Over the passed six weeks we have been reading two detective stories: ‘The Speckled Band’ by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ by Roald Dahl. Both stories are diverse and decisive but, are very different. The stories contain basic detective ingredients such as, the evil villain, the cunning detective and most importantly an action packed ending.

‘The Speckled Band’ is a fairly long story which is filled with information. The text is stretched out into many complex sentences, this gives you time to scrutinise the harder parts of the story. The storyline was very well thought upon and contains intricate details which at times leave you mesmerised at the true beauty of Doyle’s writing. Roald Dahl, traditionally known for the serious of children’s books he once wrote, would surprise you to know that he once wrote a detective story also. ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ is fast paced and contains many twists and turns. At times you feel lost as the story subverts from time to time. The beginning of the story is long and slow but it soon picks up pace and begins to draw you ever closer to the controversial ending. Sometimes the seriousness of detective stories make you feel lost and dare I say bored, but Roald Dahl’s comical theme soon breaks the tension and leaves you sniggering to yourself at a monumentally hilarious ending.

‘The Speckled Band’ is narrated in first person and contains many complex sentences and is almost fully speech. As the story starts it explains about Dr Watson’s past cases, it then goes on to tell you about this one case. As things seem to change from past to present you find that there is something happening. Sentence structure changes to an appropriate speed, speech is consistently common and a general sense of anxiety is felt as Helen abruptly awakens Holmes and his colleagues. The story then returns to its slow pace. As I mentioned earlier, the pace changes for you to scrutinise the intricate details. Many suspects and plans are revealed as Sherlock and Helen discuss the mysterious death of her sister. Then, tension is again built as the team examines the Crime scene on unofficial business. The way Doyle uses short sentences and detailed information on the evil Dr Roylott can sometimes leave you anticipating the unexpected ending. As Sherlock explores the house he notices strange things which again leave you anticipating the ending. But as the climax draws to a close all the clues become evidently clear, and then, the controversial ending occurs as Roylott’s own tool is used against him. Overall the story keeps you guessing throughout and, in return keeps the climax a surprise.

‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ is fun, diverse and full of surprises. ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ starts with the narrator describing the setting. It creates a picture in the readers mind, this is done extremely well as you can picture the theme of the story also. It also becomes apparent that Mary adores her husband as the narrator informs you on how Mary loves to luxuriate her husband and that she enjoyed his male glow, this furthermore explains Mary’s unconditional love for her husband. The couple awkwardly argue as Mr Maloney disregards every attempt his wife makes to comfort him. There are lots of compound and complex sentences in this part of the story; it slows down the text which emphasizes the awkwardness the couple are undergoing. As the story begins to become a real drag, a sudden event occurs. The text slows town and has a lot of speech, simple sentences are ever present to make you breath faster thus increasing you heart beat and adding much needed tension. The couple sit down and chat about something the reader is unaware of; anxiety is felt by the reader. As the paragraph starts, you are dubious to what the argument is about, clues hint to what it might be, the husband then talks,’This is going to be a bit of a shock to you’ the word ‘shock’ instantly tells you that something spontaneous has happened, he continues,’ I hope you won’t blame me too much’ he uses ‘blame’ and ‘me’, this tells you that whatever has gone wrong it’s partially his fault. The narrator now explains that Mary ‘stood there with a kind of dazed horror’, that sentence sums up the fact that something has deeply upset Mary. That paragraph informs you something bad has happened, the reader is bewildered as to what might have happened and the overall effect is to keep you guessing because what follows is completely unexpected. As Mary, the caring person she is heads down to the cellar to find something for diner is still in a heavy state of shock. She picks up a heavy frozen leg a lamb and heads upstairs, where her husband is located. The husband continues to be obnoxious and tells Mary that he ‘does not want diner’. Mary has no hesitation; she gets the leg of lamb and with an almighty swipe hits her husband on the back of the head, irony is used as it informs you that her husband swayed for a few seconds before crashing to the ground. Later detectives come round to investigate the murder; irony is common and is used more than enough, jokes are also made to the reader personally as the reader knows who killed her husband whilst the Police stand there clueless. ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ is full of irony and completely side tracts from a normal detective story.

In ‘The Speckled Band’ the detective Sherlock Holmes is the stereotype for detectives far and wide. His vast vocabulary, compendious knowledge and hawk-like stare give him the authority of a detective mastermind. Earlier in the story Holmes talks to Helen about her sister’s death and concludes that he will investigate the case further, ‘There are a thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide upon our course of action’ the number a thousand is a big number, and the way Holmes states that he would need such a preposterous amount of details merely emphasises the archaic language used by Doyle to portray the pure genius Holmes really is. Holmes is a traditional detective with untraditional methods; his knowledge and understanding are far greater than that of a normal detective. ‘I observed the second half of a return ticket in the palm of your left glove’ the word ‘observed’ does not mean he saw it but instead exploited the ticket with frighten accuracy, something only a man of superior knowledge would be capable of.

‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ has more than one detective. As its official business all sorts of the authority arrive. The authorities that arrive at the crime scene work as individuals rather than a team, which was a controversial decision because none of the Police had no apparent clue of what happened. ‘It’s probably right under are very noses’ although irony is very heavily used in this speech because the weapon is in fact under their very noses, the word ‘probably’ indicates that there is no formal decision but half heated accusations which in this case catastrophically failed.

‘The Speckled Band’ hosts a notorious villain, Dr Roylott. This is unusual as most doctors are thought to be caring however; this doctor isn’t the caring kind. His tall statuesque figure, brute strength and sinister mind conclude to one thing, trouble. Dr Roylott is easily recognised as an evil character,’ I am a dangerous man to fall foul of!’ this tells you with relative easiness that when Roylott uses ‘dangerous’ he means it, his volatile temper and uncontrollable tongue makes him indeed a very dangerous man to fall foul of . ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ hosts a very unlikely murderer. Mrs Maloney, a caring house wife, which would be the last person you would think to have committed a murder. ‘Tired, darling?’ this shows that Mrs Maloney cares and moreover the word ‘darling’ shows that she’s a loving person.

Julia Stoner a woman with great anxiety due to her upcoming wedding would be a most likely murder victim. Her subtle ways and delicate personality mean that Julia would be not make even a weak adversary, moreover with a good reason to kill her there would be no stopping an evil Dr Roylott. Mr Maloney, a former detective, newly promoted senior Policeman and now a victim of murder. Only a fool would be clever enough to attempt such a thing due to his professional qualification justice, but it wasn’t a fool that attempted this but Mary Maloney his wife.

‘The Speckled Band’ uses a narrative device (Dr Watson). The narrative device builds tension in an appropriate way and as its in first person it builds in a realistic way.’Holmes with his lens observed the hinge’ Dr Watson tells you what Holmes is doing, instead of observing the hinge he could of done many other things, but, as Dr Watson is a good friend he knows Holmes well enough to give a good description of what his doing. Because it’s narrated in first person, that person will have his own thoughts, feelings, prospective and so on. Dr Watson describes how Holmes thinks and this is done because, if you knew what Holmes was thinking the case would be over far to quickly, so its therefore used to create more depth and diversity. ’Lamb to the Slaughter’ uses a third person narrative and this was done in a very clever way. ’Her first instinct was to not believe any of it’ it doesn’t tell you what she was believing because it creates a better climax if the reader is left to guess without any knowledge. If a first person narrative was used, you would immediately know why Mrs Maloney killed her husband. So the narrator describes the story with very little knowledge of what has happened, this effect keeps you thinking and has a good effect on the reader.

My overall view on ‘The Speckled Band’ is that it’s a very traditional detective story. It has the evil villain, helpless victim and a shockingly clever detective. The story line is filled with information. The climax is spectacular, as you strangely remember everything that’s happened, and then, in a flash the case is busted open and Dr Roylott is dead. This is the highlight of ‘The Speckled Band’ for me. ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ a fully unorthodox detective story. All the characters are completely unlikely and the storyline is surreal itself. And, for these reasons alone, is why I think it’s the better book. Roald Dahl has decided to make an untraditional detective story with lots of twist, and at times makes you question if it’s the wright book your reading as it subverts regularly. The way the storyline is quick, witty and full of irony makes it funny whilst maintain a hint of seriousness, is truly remarkable. Even now I snigger to myself about the lamb leg being used as a weapon, hence the name ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’.

By George Brooks