Compassion Circuit is a science fiction story while Lamb to the Slaughter is a detective story with a difference. Both stories surprise the reader because they both have two husbands in them and they both seem to have similar personalities, and in some way or another they either get injured or hurt in one way or another. In Compassion Circuit the husband falls down the stairs and breaks a lot of bones and gets turned into a robot, and in Lamb to the Slaughter the husband gets murdered by his wife for cheating on her. The stories also disturb the reader because they both have two women, who don’t have the same personality but both change throughout the story, especially with their emotions. In Lamb to the Slaughter the woman murders her husband but feels bad about it after but at the end of the story she giggles about it, and in Compassion Circuit the woman doesn’t really like robots, but then she starts to befriend one and then she gets turned into a robot herself.
The idea of Compassion Circuit is disturbing at the outset because it is the whole idea that a robot has its own mind that it doesn’t always obey its mistress and it can make its own decision. The robot says in the story that she would rather be a robot than a human. Here is a quote to explain it, “We are stronger. We don’t have to have frequent sleep to recuperate. I feel very sorry that you must have these things and be so uncertain and so fragile.” However, both Janet and the reader are lulled into a false sense of security because Hester starts from just being a robot-maid to help out, then having to have a name. A quotation for that is, “She can’t be just ‘it’. I’m going to call her Hester.” Then Hester starts to become a friend to Janet. A quote is, “Oh, Hester, you are such a comfort.” Then Hester becomes the boss of Janet. A quote is, “You mustn’t think about dying. And you mustn’t cry anymore, it’s not good for you, you know.”
The tension builds up in Lamb to the Slaughter when Mary Maloney...