Comparing Murderers in Lamb to the Slaughter and the Speckled Band
In this essay, I am going to compare and contrast the two murderers,
Sir Grimesby Roylott in 'The Speckled Band' with Mary Maloney from
'The Lamb To The Slaughter'.
The two stories 'The Speckled Band' and 'Lamb To The Slaughter' are
both about murder. The situations and motives that occur show sharp
contrasts between each of the separate murders. The character of
Roylott presented in 'The Speckled Band' is a violent character with a
unique quality with wit and skills that shine throughout this short
story. It is not however, for the best reason. He is a doctor, a
profession that carries respect and trust. He would also be well
educated and calculated to carry out most tasks for his patients in
this caring profession.
Maloney differs on the other hand; she is a housewife who just keeps a
clean house whilst her husband goes out to work. She is further
presented as a serene, loving wife, who is six months pregnant. She
loves her husband and follows whatever he has to say. She enjoyed a
good life as we gather from the text: 'For her, this was a blissful
time of day'. She could afford to relax in a quiet house with whiskeys
on ice just waiting for her husband to arrive home from his work.
The difference with the two murderers is their sex. Murders are
generally considered to be male. We refer to the murder as 'him'
We can sense that Roylott is under more pressure; he has obviously
decided to kill his stepdaughter for her riches that he can't make my
being a doctor.
Maloney has her husband's wage from his work, and the home will only
need to be cleaned every couple of days.
The text suggests that her husband is stressed. He has to tell Mary
that he is leaving her. He leaves her with no explanation for his
absence, only that he will pay for the baby's upbringing. This was to
keep Mary quiet; the text accuses Patrick of caring more for his job
Until the end where the clever detective (who is usually quite an old man, dressed in a smart tweed suit) goes through one by one all of the suspects telling them exactly why they could have committed the murder, but then why they didn't. He then confronts the real murderer who is normally the one everyone least suspects. This all takes place in a large country manor where lots of people would have been busying round but for the murderer, conveniently there are never any witnesses to the crime. The murder is most often well planed out, with a devious reason behind it. The two stories are both very different and mainly the only similarities are that they are both about murders that are done by people that are close family to the victims they murder in there own homes.7 The settings in both of them are very different; in lamb to the slaughter the setting is in a normal home in a small village, where normal family life goes on.
Throughout The Butcher’s Tale: Murder and Anti-Semitism in a German Town, the murder of Ernst Winter in Konitz is very much a reflection of the overall attitudes of many Europeans during the early 20th century. It was clear that once the anti-Semitic attitudes started to become prominent in society, they spiraled out of control and started to take over entire communities. The Jewish people were blamed for crimes they did not commit, were excluded from society, and suffered from acts of violence and hate speech. Wild stories began to be spread all over town and people started to believe everything they heard, even if there was no substance behind it. This caused lots of problems in Germany, as well as Europe in general, since many people got
The Murderers Are Among Us, directed by Wolfe Gang Staudte, is the first postwar film. The film takes place in Berlin right after the war. Susan Wallner, a young women who has returned from a concentration camp, goes to her old apartment to find Hans Mertens living there. Hans took up there after returning home from war and finding out his house was destroyed. Hans would not leave, even after Susan returned home. Later on in the film we find out Hans was a former surgeon but can no longer deal with human suffering because of his traumatic experience in war. We find out about this traumatic experience when Ferdinand Bruckner comes into the film. Bruckner, Hans’ former captain, was responsible for killing hundreds
do not seem suitable to be human beings. He understands the things he does are
head. She might just have hit him with a steel club.' As you can see,
Paula Bohince grew up in rural Pennsylvania town and still resides there. (Bohince, Paula). The theme and setting reflects a young innocent girl raped in a Pennsylvania town. The poet writes the poem from the victim’s perspective. The words give a creepy feeling of what has happened. The poem describes a young girl who was brutally taken advantage of and relays the devastating affect it had on her. The diction is very fitting for the poem. It creates a very vivid picture of the devastating affect the attack had on the girl. The diction creates a gruesome picture and tone for the reader. The use of words like transparency, black lamb and maggots generates a rejected feeling in the girl. There is no place she can hide and her feelings are constantly being eaten away.
On June 15, 2004, Cathy Renee Lamb was brutally murdered while getting ready for her 11th wedding anniversary date with her estranged husband, Jeffrey Lamb. Jeffrey, a tow-truck driver, was soon charged with beating his wife to death with a tire iron. He had arranged the date as part of a scheme to kill her so he could accumulate around $27,000 under her life insurance policy. Instead of divorcing Cathy, Jeffrey believed he could benefit more from getting rid of her all together. Prior to their encounter, Jeffrey asked Cathy if she could look after his dog, Bandit, and then added if he could move back home with her permanently. On the night of the date, he called 911 after saying he discovered her dead body. Lamb first seemed to have a well
Baruch Spinoza once said “Experience teaches us no less clearly than reason, that men believe themselves free, simply because they are conscious of their actions and unconscious of the causes whereby those actions are determined.” He compared free-will with destiny and ended up that what we live and what we think are all results of our destiny; and the concept of the free-will as humanity know is just the awareness of the situation. Similarly, Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five explores this struggle between free-will and destiny, and illustrates the idea of time in order to demonstrate that there is no free-will in war; it is just destiny. Vonnegut conveys this through irony, symbolism and satire.
Lamb to the Slaughter, by Roald Dahl, instantly grabs a reader’s attention with its grotesque title, ensuing someone’s downfall or failure. The saying “lamb to the slaughter,” usually refers to an innocent person who is ignorantly led to his or her failure. This particular short story describes a betrayal in which how a woman brutally kills her husband after he tells her that he wants a divorce. She then persuades the policemen who rush to the scene to consume the evidence. This action and Patrick’s actions show the theme of betrayal throughout the story which Roald Dahl portrays through the use of point of view, symbolism and black humor.
Life. Life is what gives you the ability to think, to speak, to breath and to be a part of this world. It is worth more than any amount of money, your life is priceless. Without it, we would seize to exist; our world would be utter darkness. Honourable Judge, Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, today Mary Maloney stands on trial before you. A woman who took the away the life of not just an innocent citizen, but her very own husband. She was thought to be an ordinary women, a typical housewife and a soon to be loving mother. However, the facts presented before you today conclude that Mary Maloney was not just an unordinary detective’s wife, but also a murder. On April 13th 1953, the life of Patrick Maloney came to a tragic end because of leg of lamb in the hands of Mary Maloney. For the following reasons, Mary Maloney, wife of the deceased, is guilty of 1st degree murder.
Comparing Roald Dahl’s Lamb to the Slaughter and The Speckled Band by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Mary Maloney was pregnant… Her hormones were all over the place. Patrick Maloney was putting too much pressure on her. By asking for a divorce and treating her really bad. He knew that she was pregnant and still asked for a divorce and was having an affair. He was only going to send money to his kid. Patrick was abusive physically and emotionally.
Everyone knows the story of Snow White. Everyone knows about the old woman who came to Snow White’s house was actually the queen in disguise, and that the apple the queen gave Snow White was poisoned. But Snow White didn’t. This is a perfect example of irony in a story. Ironic situations like this occur a lot in our daily lives, and many stories, like the short story Lamb to the Slaughter, by Roald Dahl. Throughout the story, Dahl demonstrates many moments of irony, which have a long term effect on the whole story. Dahl’s uses dramatic irony effectively to help enhance the plot and help the reader understand the story better.
The sweetest ones can be the deadliest, because behind that smile could be a world of misery. Sometimes the most obvious clues are the hardest to find. In “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl, a seemingly doting wifes world goes shattering into pieces and no one would expect her reaction. “Charles,” by Shirley Jackson, an impudent kindergarten boy finds joy in telling his parents about a disobedient boy who constantly gets into trouble. Both of these stories display that the truth can be right under your nose through the events in the plot.
In the story “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl, Mary Maloney is shown to have a very sinister and manipulative character. In the beginning of the story, Mary Maloney was a normal, loving and caring pregnant housewife that loved and cared for her husband, Patrick Maloney, very much. Earlier at the start of the story we see Mary was waiting for her husband to come home from work. She had set up the house with two table lights lit and plates on the dining table so they can have a very romantic dinner when Patrick comes home. When Patrick came home, Mary was very excited to see him. She would try to offer him some drinks and insisted she would get things in the house he needed so he didn’t have to get up himself. The countless times that Patrick said no to her offers and helpful doings, she still tried to serve and tried to make him feel comfortable and relax after work.