ASSIGNMENT

Assignment



Assignment

The two stories 'Lamb to the Slaughter' and 'The Landlady' are quite similar in the techniques used to create tension and fear, but the stories can also be very different in places. Like most murder mysteries each of the stories have a murderer, a victim and characters acting in a suspicious or unusual way and depict different treatments of unexpected violence.

'Lamb to the Slaughter' is a 20th century story about a woman called Mary who kills her husband, Patrick Maloney, using a leg of lamb. This seems quite surprising at first as she seems quite loving and devoted to him- 'she loved to luxuriate in the presence of this man.' However a lot of Mary Maloney's behaviour in the first scene does seem quite worrying and peculiar. It seems that she is almost obsessed with her husband and this is shown by the way she is constantly trying to please him. Although the murder is a crime of passion Mrs Maloney manages to deal with it quite well. She is very calculating when realising quite what she has done and providing her with a convincing alibi. When the detectives arrive to investigate the murder they seem to be taking it very seriously, however they don't really seem to consider Mrs Maloney as a real suspect. There is one point in the story where one of the detectives says

'...acted quite normal...very cheerful...impossible that she...' but this is an idea which is soon discarded. After a while the attitude of the detectives becomes more relaxed and not so professional. Mrs Maloney takes advantage of this by asking the detectives to stay for dinner. She then goes on to feed them the leg of lamb thus destroying the evidence. There is a moment of irony towards the end because when talking about the murder weapon one of the detectives says

'Probably right under our very nose' just as they are eating the leg of lamb. The story finishes with the line ' And in the other room, Mrs. Maloney began to giggle'. The author left the story with an open ending because he wanted the reader to think twice about the story and what sort of character Mrs. Maloney really was.

Like 'Lamb to the Slaughter', 'The Landlady' is also a short story; about a young lad called Billy travelling to Bath on a business trip. He arrives in Bath in the evening and looks for accommodation. Bath was an unfamiliar place to Billy so he was unsure of the area. Billy was guided by a porter who recommended the 'Bell and Dragon' because it was close by, but Billy never went. Although the landlady offered cheap prices and cosy surroundings, she changes her attitude towards Billy as the story unfolds. He then realises that this landlady doesn't appear to be all that she seems to be. He begins to become concerned during his stay but never manages to uncover the landlady's secret before she murders the young ...