Compare ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ to ‘the Speckled Band’ Referring to the Structure, Language and Characterisation

Compare ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ to ‘The Speckled Band’ referring to the structure, language and characterisation

In this essay, I am going to compare two short detective stories; ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ and ‘The Speckled Band’. These two stories are very different but also similar. They both have a villain who has done a crime. A detective story is story which includes crime fiction and mystery fiction in which a detective, either professional or unpaid, investigates a crime most often; murder. Lamb to the Slaughter was published in 1953 by the famous children’s author Roald Dahl. It was initially rejected, along with another four stories, by ‘The New Yorker’. However it was ultimately publishes in ‘Harpers Magazine’ in September 1953. Dahl also included it in his short story compilation called ‘Someone like you’.

The Speckled Band is also known as The adventure of the Speckled Band. The Speckled Band is one of the 56 short stories about Sherlock Holmes written by Scottish author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The story was published first in February 1892 in ‘Strand Magazine’. However it was published under a different title in ‘New York World’ in august 1915 called ‘The Spotted Band’. Arthur Conan Doyle describes The Speckled Band to be his best Holmes story.

The setting of Lamb to the Slaughter is described in such detail. The house in which Mary and Patrick Maloney live in, is made apparent that the house is nice and cosy by the phrases used;’ The room was warm and clean’, ‘Lamps alight’ and ‘Curtains drawn’. Roald Dahl also suggest to the reader that Mary and Patrick were a close couple by describing things in the room twice such as; ‘two tables, ‘two tall glasses’ and ‘two chairs’.

The way that Mary Maloney is reported at the beginning of the story is very effective. Dahl describes Mary as a quiet, frail pregnant woman, who loves her husband to bits. He portrays Mary’s appearance as her having a soft smiling mouth, wonderful translucent skin and large...