Atmosphere and Tension in The Speckled Band by Air Arthur Conan Doyle and Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl
Both the stories I am analysing are murder mysteries and they are set
in very different time periods.
Summary of stories "lamb to the slaughter"
The lamb to the slaughter was a murder mystery story based on a
troubled couple. Mary Malone is a keen housewife who is deeply in love
with her husband and will do nearly anything to please him. Her
husband is a police detective and a man of real authority.
The story begins with Mary's husband coming home from work, she is
fussing around her husband but he is unusually quiet. After a while he
breaks news to his wife that he is leaving her. Mary tries to ignore
the situation and asks her husband what he would like for supper, he
doesn't reply. She gets up and gets some lamb out of the freezer and
without thinking runs up and hits her husband over the head.
After this Mary begins to think of a cover up plan, she touches up her
make up and makes an appearance at her local grocery acting as natural
as possible. On her return home she makes out that she has only just
found her husband dead and phones the police, she sobs to make out
that it was a brutal murder and to defend her innocence.
The police arrived and began searching the house for clues and a
possible murder weapon. (They didn't suspect Mary was the murderer.)
Mary knew she had to get rid of the murder weapon and so offered the
investigation team the lamb at which she killed her husband with. The
inspectors ate the lamb and the murder weapon had gone.
Summary of stories "The speckled band"
The speckled band wa...
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This was a very popular pre 20th century style of living and you would
find that in the mid 20th century this style of living was mostly done
by the top end of society.
The two narratives do have a similarity. The writing styles in which
the two authors have undertaken are similar. Atmosphere, tension,
clues to the ending and suspending disbelief are prominent features in
both narratives. This is the case as those four aspects are the best
way of making a narrative fit into the murder mystery genre.
Overall I found the Speckled band a more interesting narrative, Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle was brilliant in the way he gave us clues to the
ending and used intelligent styles to keep us on edge throughout. I
also enjoyed the way the author made me believe things that didn't
quite fit within the context of the narrative.
The thought of even having to touch the aides disgust Mary because they are a physical representation of the reality she is denying. When she is told that she may have to kill her daughter, she reacts poorly, as most would expect a mother to, however she has gone to extremes. She accuses her husband of having never loved their daughter and that the only thing keeping them married was the daughter and that without Jennifer, Peter would have left Mary (156-158). This intense outburst from a woman who is usually so calm when tragedy affects those outside of her narcissistic bubble only goes to show further the indifferent attitude of denial. When made to recognize the oncoming death, she cannot fathom it, and tries to find other reasons for Peter trying to get her to come to terms with “murdering” her daughter.
Mary struggles to get the pillow off, but Bigger overpowers her. He ends up accidentally killing her. The thoughts of him being caught and fired, or even being arrested under suspicion, overcame his mind. This is evident when Wright explains, “He knew that Mrs. Dalton could not see him; but he knew that if Mary spoke she would come to the side of
Having to take your anger out on someone isn’t fair or good, especially if you’re being killed with frozen lamb. Based on everyone’s understanding, when you kill someone you’ll have to pay the price and consequences. Apparently this lady didn’t. But are we sure she’s going to marry another man and kill him too? In “Lamb to the slaughter”, I’m going to be talking about Mary Maloney and how madly crazy she is.
“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek to find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”
As said in the story Mary started touching and shooting a gun. Mary then started to explore
This essay will examine both "The Speckled Band" by Conan Doyle and "Visitors" by Brian Moon and will look at how each one conforms to or diverges from the conventions of the detective story and also how each story is representative of the century it was written in by how it presents the woman, the hero and the villain.
Shirley Jackson, The Veldt by Ray Bradbury, and The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allen Poe,
Comparing a traditional murder story with an unconventional one The Speckled Band by Sir Arthur Doyle Lamb To The Slaughter by Roald Dahl The speckled band is written in a very genre, this genre is murder mystery. The speckled band was one of the first in a long line of fantastic short stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In my essay I will be looking closely at the events and their layout in the story very closely. I will also be explaining why certain events are expected to happen, and on top of all of this I will explain the characteristics of the characters.
“The only Mary story we talked about was the wedding story-the time she persuaded her son, practically against his will, to manufacture wine in the kitchen out of plain water.”
Mary arrived at the room where she was to be hung, and all preparations for her execution were taken care of. Queen Elizabeth soon arrived in a rather casual manner. As the final steps were carried out, the various people around her offered her many options, such as ministers to offer her comfort, all of which Mary refused. Just before her death, Mary prayed for Britain and Scotland to convert to Catholicism. The executioners then began to remove her veil, head dress, and various other ornaments, while Mary attempted to fight back, wanting to wear these during her execution, however she was forced to remove them. Finally, after much preparation, Mary was dead.
Near the middle of the story we see Mary exhibit her bad sinister character; her personality and feelings suddenly change when she murders her own husband by hitting him at the back of the head with a frozen lamb leg. After denying all of Mary’s helpful deeds, Patrick told her to sit down so that he can tell her something serious; the story doesn’t tell us what he says to her but Mary suddenly changes after he tells her something, her “instinct was not to believe any of it” (Dahl 2). She just responded with “I’ll get the supper” (Dahl 2) and felt nothing of her body except for nausea and a desire to vomit. She went down the cellar, opened the freezer, grabbed a frozen leg of lamb, went back upstairs, came behind Patrick, and swung the big leg of lamb as hard as she could to the back of his head killing him. This act of sudden violence shows how much she has gone ...
“Hail, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” According to both the religions, Mary, who was a virgin and betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, was considered to be the ‘most blessed’ among all women. “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God…..How shall this be, since I have no husband?” The archangel Gabriel tells Mary that she is going to have a baby and that she should name the child Jesus. Despite the fact that she is very young and a virgin, she does not disbelieve the angel. She has no fear of what the society would think, she just wants to understand more about her pregnancy, however she has no doubt. Th...
Abrams and Greenblatt (2006) explain that during the Victorian Era, women did not have the same rights as men. Women were not granted the right to vote until 1918, and married women were not permitted to own or handle their own property until the passage of the Married Women’s Property Acts (1870 – 1918). Men could divorce unfaithful wives, but wives could only divorce husbands committing adultery if their behavior included cruelty, bigamy, incest, or bestiality.
suffered her entire life and what she did; she did for love of one man
you told me all?' A modern way to express this is 'But have you told