Comparing Lamb to the Slaughter to The Speckled Band Essay -- English

Comparing Lamb to the Slaughter to The Speckled BandLamb to the Slaughter and The Speckled Band are both removemysteries. Like most murder mysteries each of the stories have amurderer, a victim and characters acting in a suspicious or unusualway.Lamb to the Slaughter is a 20th century fiction about a woman calledMary who kills her husband, Patrick Mal adepty, using a leg of lamb. This expects quite surprising at graduation exercise as she seems quite loving and given upto him- she loved to luxuriate in the presence of this man. Howevera lot of Mary Maloneys behaviour in the first scene does seem quite worrying and peculiar. It seems that she is almost obsessed with herhusband and this is shown by the way she is constantly trying toplease him. Although the murder is a crime of passion Mrs Maloneymanages to deal with it quite well. She is truly calculating whenrealising quite what she has done and providing herself with aconvincing alibi. When the detectives arrive to investigate the murderthey seem to be taking it very seriously, however they dont reallyseem to consider Mrs Maloney as a real suspect. There is one point inthe story where one of the detectives saysacted quite normal very cheerful unimaginable that she but this isan idea which is soon discarded. After a while the attitude of thedetectives becomes more relaxed and not so professional. Mrs Maloneytakes advantage of this by asking the detectives to stay for dinner.She indeed goes on to feed them the leg of lamb thus destroying theevidence. There is a moment of irony towards the end because whentalking about the murder weapon one of the detectives saysProbably right under our very nose just as they are eating the legof lamb. ... ...and and Lamb to the Slaughter arevery diverse. In Lamb to the Slaughter Mr and Mrs Maloney both livedin a warm and clean home. The atmospheric state is of a happy and contenthousehold. In The Speckled Band the murder takes place in an old,grey, stone house. The setti ng seems colder and emptier. The fact thatRoylott keeps animals such as cheetahs and baboons adds a darker addsa more sinister feel to the story. This is more typical of a murdermystery but it may not have seemed so unusual when it was firstwritten in the 19th century. I think the author of Lamb to theSlaughter wants the reader to see Mrs Maloney as quite cunning anddeceitful. He does this by masking that Mrs Maloney can use the factthat she was married to Mr Maloney and that she is six months pregnantto her advantage. Holmes would probably not have fallen into this sametrap.