Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl and The Signalman by Charles Dickens :: Comparing

In my essay I will be comparing the two short stories Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl and The Signalman by Charles Dickens. Comparing Short Stories In my essay I will be comparing the two short stories 'Lamb to the Slaughter' by Roald Dahl and 'The Signalman' by Charles Dickens. They both contain a twist in the tale and use the Macabre Tale Genre. The scenes are very different from on another and show different uses of language as Lamb to the slaughter uses 1900 text and The Signalman uses 20th Century text. The opening of Lamb to the slaughter gives the reader no reason to believe anything bad is going to happen. It starts off normal and uses words such as warm, clean and tranquil to paint the picture of the house being calm and a nice place. Though at the beginning of The Signalman it gives words such as gloomy and angry sunset to portray it is quite a scary maybe a dark and cold place. The Signalman is set in a 'Signal-box by a gloomy railway cutting with its dark tunnel' Lamb to the slaughter, being set in a house is completely different and delivers more of a calm and peaceful atmosphere. They don't seem to have many similarities. The theme to The Signalman is that of a man describing his experience of meeting a Signalman being haunted by a ghost. This ghost seemed to be warning him of hid death. It involves the two main characters, the narrator and the signalman. The Signalman described by the narrator, 'His attitude was one of such expectation and watchfulness' The narrator is not described throughout the story. The theme to Lamb to the slaughter is that of a husband and his wife. It is set in their house and their wife murders her husband with a leg of lamb. It is a story that tells us of how she tries to cover up the murder and tries to get the blame away from her and destroys all the evidence. The wife is described as, 'Her skin had acquired a wonderful translucent quality, the mouth was soft, and the eyes with their new placid look, seemed larger, darker than before.' The husband is described as having 'A warm male glow that came out of him' And the 'Far look in his eyes when they rested on her, the funny slope of the mouth.' These are things that the writer has written that the wife thinks about Patrick, her husband. I like the character of the wife because I like the way she covers up her murdering her husband.