GCSE English Coursework – Wide Reading Assignment - Lamb to the Slaughter

GCSE English Coursework – Wide Reading Assignment - Lamb to the Slaughter

by Roald Dahl, and The Speckled Band

In this wide reading assignment I have been looking at two stories,

'Lamb to the Slaughter' by Roald Dahl, and 'The Speckled Band' by Sir

Arthur Conan-Doyle. Both these stories are classed as murder

mysteries, and I am intending to investigate and compare the motives

of the killers in both stories.

'The Speckled Band' is written in first person from the viewpoint of

Dr. Watson. The story starts with Watson looking over notes of the

cases that he and Holmes have taken in the last eight years; one in

particular comes to his mind, and from their Watson tells the story of

'The Speckled Band'. The killer in 'The Speckled Band' is Dr Grimesby

Roylott. Roylott is a tall man who was well built.

'Lamb to the Slaughter' is written in a third person perspective, and

the story starts with a description of a room, and then breaks into

the characters, and follows them though the rest of the story. The

killer in 'Lamb to the Slaughter is Mary Maloney, a gentle, petite

housewife.

The two stories, as previously said, are both classed as murder

mysteries, however when comparing these two stories the styles of

writing and the way in which the stories are presented is completely

different. An example of this would be the chronological order of each

of the stories. What I mean by this is the traditional order of murder

mysteries would be body, a motive, a weapon, a death, a suspect, an

alibi and detectives. Lamb to the Slaughter and The Speckled Band are

no exception to these "guidelines". The Speckled Band follows this

order and is a very traditional murder mystery; Lamb to the Slaughter

on the other hand does not follow the conventional style of murder

mysteries and follows its own order. This order would be a motive, a

weapon, a death, a killer, an alibi and detectives. In changing the

traditional order of murder mysteries I feel that Dahl is mocking the

genre of Murder Mysteries.

The motives in 'The Speckled Band' are clear from an early stage. Its

clear to see that Roylott's motives was the money, or the lack of it

he would have if his step-daughters were to marry. While spending some

time in India, Dr Roylott married a considerably rich woman. Upon her

and Roylott's return to England Mrs Stoner died, and left her money to

Dr Roylott, and an annual fund that Julia and Helen Stoner could

collect when they were to wed. This is what Dr Roylott obviously