Emily Rice Essay -- English Literature

Emily Rice Both â€Å"Lamb to the slaughter† and â€Å"The Speckled Band† shares some of the characteristics of murder mysteries. Explain the similarities and differences between the two stories and say which story you think is more compelling to read. After reading both â€Å"Lamb to the slaughter† and â€Å"The Speckled Band† I intend to analyse the stories in detail showing their similarities, differences and success in fulfilling my expectations of a murder mystery story, taking into consideration that the two stories were written at very different periods in history. In order to do this I will make comparisons between characters, settings, language and overall story line, etc. I will constantly be considering how writing techniques and styles have changed through time and how this affects the story. Finally, I will attempt to come to a conclusion stating which story is generally most compelling to read. Roald Dahl and Arthur Conan Doyle were very different authors with very different writing styles, but they shared the same love for writing stories with a twist and for pleasing their readers in their own unique ways. They were both born in different centuries, had dissimilar views and were very incomparable for their time. Arthur Conan Doyle knew what the public wanted to read, they wanted to be able to associate with and love the main character, Sherlock Holmes. In this age, crime was at an all time high and people lived in fear of crime; with knowledge of this is, he decided to create an appropriate character. So, Conan Doyle wrote of a character that could solve mysteries and counteract crime in such a way that amazed the Victorian public so much that they became dependant on the stories. This meant that Cona... ...he murderer. I found this interesting. There were very clear difference in the two stories such as the time that they were written, the style of language and general story line. But, after looking more deeply into the plot I have found out that there are a lot of similarities between the stories. Even though writing styles have changed over time, the fact that authors need to know about their readers is a very important part of writing a story. After all, if the audience don’t like reading a certain story, it is likely that the rest of the nation won’t as nationalities usually share beliefs and opinions. If a story or book contradicts the opinions of people at the time they were written, the story will most likely be unsuccessful. In conclusion, the most important factor about these two stories is that they were suitable for the time they were written.