Comparing Lamb to the Slaughter to The Speckled Band

1594 Words4 Pages

Comparing Lamb to the Slaughter to The Speckled Band

'Lamb to the Slaughter' and 'The Speckled Band' are both murder

mysteries. Like most murder mysteries each of the stories have a

murderer, a victim and characters acting in a suspicious or unusual

way.

'Lamb to the Slaughter' is a 20th century story about a woman called

Mary who kills her husband, Patrick Maloney, using a leg of lamb. This

seems quite surprising at first as she seems quite loving and devoted

to him- 'she loved to luxuriate in the presence of this man.' However

a lot of Mary Maloney's behaviour in the first scene does seem quite

worrying and peculiar. It seems that she is almost obsessed with her

husband and this is shown by the way she is constantly trying to

please him. Although the murder is a crime of passion Mrs Maloney

manages to deal with it quite well. She is very calculating when

realising quite what she has done and providing herself with a

convincing alibi. When the detectives arrive to investigate the murder

they seem to be taking it very seriously, however they don't really

seem to consider Mrs Maloney as a real suspect. There is one point in

the story where one of the detectives says

'acted quite normal very cheerful impossible that she' but this is

an idea which is soon discarded. After a while the attitude of the

detectives becomes more relaxed and not so professional. Mrs Maloney

takes advantage of this by asking the detectives to stay for dinner.

She then goes on to feed them the leg of lamb thus destroying the

evidence. There is a moment of irony towards the end because when

talking about the murder weapon one of the detectives says

'Probably right under our very nose' just as they are eating the leg

of lamb. ...

... middle of paper ...

...and' and 'Lamb to the Slaughter' are

very diverse. In 'Lamb to the Slaughter' Mr and Mrs Maloney both lived

in a 'warm and clean' home. The atmosphere is of a happy and content

household. In 'The Speckled Band' the murder takes place in an old,

grey, stone house. The setting seems colder and emptier. The fact that

Roylott keeps animals such as cheetahs and baboons adds a darker adds

a more sinister feel to the story. This is more typical of a murder

mystery but it may not have seemed so unusual when it was first

written in the 19th century. I think the author of ' Lamb to the

Slaughter' wants the reader to see Mrs Maloney as quite cunning and

deceitful. He does this by showing that Mrs Maloney can use the fact

that she was married to Mr Maloney and that she is six months pregnant

to her advantage. Holmes would probably not have fallen into this same

trap.

Open Document