Learning Intention
To compare and contrast some of the elements in two short stories
‘The Signalman By Charles Dickens
Lamb to the Slaughter By Roald Dahl
SETTING
The Signalman story is set in England, by a railway that goes into a tunnel. I believe it be around the 1860’s. Lamb to the Slaughter is not set around that time, because the speech mannerism is different, and the objects and everything included in the story seem modern. It was set in a town or village, because in one part of the story she walks down the corner to buy some groceries, which you can’t do in the country.
CHARACTERS
The main character in The Signalman is the narrator, who tells us the story from first person. The other main character is the Signalman. The Signalman seems to be very scared, and lonely. He is very vigilant and good at his work. The narrator is curious, intelligent and is very practical. I think this because whenever the Signalman says something supernatural, the narrator always thinks of a practical explanation for it. I think this also may also mean he is a doctor. In Lamb to the Slaughter, the main character is Mary Maloney, the wife. Mary is a round character. She changes after Mr Maloney talks to her, saying that he is moving, or cheating on her I believe. Mary goes on autopilot and seems to be in daze. She decides to cover up her crime because she feared for her unborn child. Mr Maloney seemed to be very solemn, and he didn’t seem to love his wife as much as Mary loved him. He might have been a little detached that night though because of what he had decided to tell his wife. There isn’t much description or information about him. I found that the characters in both stories were completely different.
OPENING
The openings in both stories were different. In Lamb to the slaughter the mood starts of being peaceful and calm and you don’t expect anything bad to happen. An example of why I think this is: The room was warm and clean, the curtains drawn, the two table lamps alight- hers and the one by the empty table chair opposite. This was the first sentence in the peace. It portrays everything being all peaceful. It starts to change when he has lots of whisky in his drink. In The Signalman the story starts off being sounding dreary when the narrator described what he saw, and what the Signalman looked like. An example is: So little sunlight ever found its way to this spot, that it had an earthy, deadly smell; and so much cold wind rushed through it, that it struck chill to me, as if I had left the natural world. I didn’t like the opening in The Signalman, because I found it hard to understand and get into. I also found the language was annoying, but it made the story better. The opening in Lamb to the Slaughter was more enjoyable, I found.
THEME
The theme of The Signalman is when the narrator (who is not described throughout the story), visits a man, who tells him he has been seeing a mysterious ghost. The narrator is told that after each sighting, a bad event followed. One day the ghost appears, trying to warn him about something. Later that day the signalman died. I think the point or what he was trying to get across was how ironic his death was, as the ghost had said the same words as what the train driver which had run him down had been trying to say. In Lamb to the slaughter the theme is about a husband and a wife (Mary). It is set their house, which is described to be lovely and homely. The husband returns from work, and tells his wife something. After he told her, she went to the freezer and got out a leg of lamb. She kills her husband with it, then sticks it in the oven. She then fakes being innocent, and fools the police, so she and her unborn child would not die. Lamb to the slaughter is also ironic, as the police are having a conversation which goes like this; “'That's the hell of a big club the guy must've used to hit poor Patrick,' one of them was saying.'The doc says his skull was smashed all to pieces just like from a sledgehammer,' 'that's why it ought to be easy to find. 'Exactly what I say.' 'Whoever done it, they're not going to be carrying a thing like that around with them longer than they need.' One of them belched. 'Personally, I think it's right here on the premises.' 'Probably right under our very noses. What you think, Jack?' They say this while eating the leg of lamb that Mary killed her husband with.
STYLE
The style that Roald Dahl uses in Lamb to the Slaughter is very descriptive, and he uses lots of adjectives. I like how he does that, because you can get a clear picture in your head of the story. It is written in third person, while The Signalman is written in first person. The Signalman isn’t as descriptive as Lamb to the Slaughter in my opinion, but Charles Dickens describes the scenery around lots, which is quite drab, dreary and dull, so I think he wanted it to sound like a very miserable place. He used quite a lot of direct speech, but it was easy to follow. He described the Signalman lots, and told us of his background and what he was like. There is nothing written physically about the narrator, but you can pick up on his personality.
SUSPENSE
There is suspense in both stories, though I found there to be more in The Signalman. This is because death followed when the ghost appeared the first two times, so you wonder what is going to happen when it appears the third time. It also keeps you wondering for longer than Lamb to the Slaughter, where there was only suspense when he had a lot more whisky in his drink than normal, and the part where he 'Sit down, 'just for a minute, sit down.' It ended once he had spoken what he wanted to say to Mary. The suspense in The Signalman ended when the narrator learnt of the Signalman's death.
PLOT
The plots of both stories are not very similar. Also, the setting and year are both completely different. The only way the characters are similar is that one of them die in each story. Another way the plots are similar is that they are both have irony in them, and something unexpected happens.
ENDING
Both stories have a twist at the end. In The Signalman, the twist is when the narrator finds out that the Signalman had died because a train had run him down, and the driver of the train had been shouting out “Below there, look out, look out!”, which is what the ghost had been saying when he had last appeared. The twist in Lamb to the Slaughter is when Mary Evans kills her husband, Mr Maloney. I didn’t expect her to be able to get away with the crime, which she did. I admire her for being so clever and smart about destroying the evidence. In both stories, I didn’t know what was going to happen in both stories, which is really great, as there is nothing worse than knowing what is going to happen at the end.
OVERALL
Overall I liked Lamb to the Slaughter the most, because it was funny, surprising and kept me interested the whole time.
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