Two detective stories Essay Example for Free

Two detective stories Essay I am going to compare and contrast two short stories, written by two different authors but they are both detective stories. The two stories were written in different times by two very different people.  Sara Paretsky, the author of Three-Dot Po, was born in the middle of the twentieth century and is still alive and writing books today. She has a good education; she has a degree in Political science, a PhD in history and has received an MBA from the University of Chicago. She has published 11 novels in several languages, 9 short stories, and 6 essays and has received numerous awards for her writing. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of The Speckled Band, was born in 1859 and died in 1930. He wrote in a very different time and society to the ones that Sara Paretsky writes in. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle qualified as a doctor and practised medicine, he was well educated and respected in his profession, however he preferred to write mystery stories. He was the first writer in the nineteenth century to have the same characters in his stories but different stories each week.  Both writers were/are respected in their fields of work and although they both had different backgrounds they had at least one thing in common, they both wrote murder mysteries that included the same characters but different stories in each edition. Both stories were aimed at the same audience range, however The speckled band may appear slightly more to an adult audience. Both Three-Dot Po and The speckled band are structured in the same way, they are both short stories. Although they both have a different under lying structure. Three-Dot Po is a methodical story and takes you step by step through what the character is going through, whereas The speckled band builds up to a climax and leaves you puzzled and confused up until the end. Each story has a different narrator in Three-Dot Po it is the detective herself, Vic Warshawski. Her character is an ex lawyer turned private detective, this means she has alot of experience in solving crimes. The narrator in the speckled band is Dr Watson, Sherlock Holmess sidekick. The tone in Three-Dot Po is quite relaxed and informal, not as dramatic as the speckled band. The tone of the speckled band is serious, dramatic and is ironic as the detective kills the murderer. The language of each story supports the tone; for example the language in The speckled band is formal, descriptive and old fashioned. Which supports the serious tone of the story. Also the language used in Three-Dot Po is informal, descriptive, modern and in first person. This also supports the informal tone of the story. The story is told, well and with the added use of imagery this helps to portray the meaning and thought behind the story. The use of imagery in Three-Dot Po is very good especially with the description of the scenery snow blowing across in fine pelting particles like a desert storm. The use of imagery is likewise very stereotypical of a methodical story. In each story the crime committed is a murder, but these murders are told in different formats. The murder in Three-Dot Po was a story killing and the murder in the speckled band was a mystery killing. There is another contrast in the murders, in Three-Dot Po it is a human being that killed the victim whereas in the speckled band it is a snake that commits the actual murders. There is yet another contrast in the stories to do with the murders and that is when it comes to the suspects. There is only one real suspect in Three-Dot Po and that is the victims boyfriend, Jonathan Michaels. Whereas in The speckled band there seem to be many suspects which include Dr Roylett, the gypsies and the cheetah and the baboon. There are many clues in each story, in Three-Dot Po there is an empty film tube left by the body, the sighting of the man in the ski mask, the phone call made to the victim shortly before she died and the break in at the flat. However in The speckled band the clues are much more suspicious and thought provoking. There is the fact that The character Helen Stone had to change rooms for a non-existent reason, the strange animals that roam around (the cheetah and baboon), her bad was nailed to the floor, the dummy bell pull, the whistling at night, the safe, milk and lead in the Doctors room, the last words spoken by the victim and the bars on the windows. All of these things are rather bizarre and therefore conclude to a twisted web of deceit. An additional contrast between the two stories is the detectives and sidekicks themselves. The detective in Three-Dot Po is a woman who is friendly, brave and not self disciplined. Whereas the detective in The speckled band is a self disciplined, inquisitive, observant, dedicated, arrogant and very clever man. The sidekicks are equally different; the sidekick in Three-Dot Po is Three-Dot Po, a dog. He is very determined, devoted and brave. He is also a useful warning system, e.g. when the burglar breaks in. However the sidekick in The speckled band is Dr Watson, who is also the narrator, he, unlike Three-Dot Po is a human but he has dog like qualities. He is faithful, respectful, in awe of Holmes and willing to help. The penultimate contrast in these stories is in the ending. Three-Dot Po has a happy ending; the wrong is put right however it isnt a conclusive ending, as we dont find out what happens to the characters after the event. It is also very predictable and quite cheesy. The ending in The speckled band is the opposite, the way in which the story is told makes it so that the ending is totally unpredictable and conclusive. Holmes doesnt seem to care that Dr Roylett is dead and acts with a clean conscience. The final contrast is with the settings of the stories. Three-Dot Po is set in America in Michigan City in the twentieth century and The speckled band is set in a rural part of London, England. This play was written in 1883. The final similarity between these two stories is that both of the stories are relevant to the times in which they were written. For example in 1883 there wouldnt have been motorised transport and this is picked up on when Sherlock refers to the use of a dog-cart. Another example is in Three-Dot Po, the murderer is a Spanish drug dealer, this is typical of the twentieth century. The use of drugs is common and the fact that a drug dealer is involved in a murder is not a great shock to anyone.  These two stories have many contrasts but they also have many similarities, they are both great stories for there times and were written by great-accomplished writers.