Lamb To The Slaughter By Roald Dahl

The short story Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl contains many literary elements that contribute and impact the story and also add to the writer’s craft. The story is about a woman, Mary Maloney, who accidentally kills her husband and tricks the police into believing she is innocent. The literary element of dramatic irony was portrayed and impacted the reader’s perspective of the story. Mary Maloney, who is the killer of her husband, persuaded the police to eat a leg of lamb which actually was the murder weapon. The police do not realize they are being tricked as shown in the quote, “personally I think it’s (the murder weapon) right here on the premises” (9). The dramatic irony is that it the police are looking for the weapon but they are eating the very evidence they are looking for and do not know it. This shows that Dahl knows how to spin an ironic twist in his story without it seeming out

The author uses the characters in the story as a big climax, to show evil throughout the text. The two stories are very different and are very much the same all at once and they both play big parts with the main points using the characters. Lamb to the slaughter is written by Roald Dahl and The possibility of evil is written by shirley jackson. The characters in the stories play dramatic parts in the story, to make the story interesting.

Mary begins the story as a doting housewife going through her daily routine with her husband. She is content to sit in his company silently until he begins a conversation. Everything is going as usual until he goes “ slowly to get himself another drink” while telling Mary to “sit down” (Dahl 1). This shocks Mary as she is used to getting things for him. After downing his second drink, her husband coldly informs her that he is leaving her and the child. This brutal news prompts the first change in Mary, from loving wife to emotionless and detached from everything.

In the short story “Lamb To The Slaughter”, written by Roald Dahl, the two main characters, Mary and Patrick Maloney, show many emotions and the emotions are portrayed in certain ways depending on how Dahl uses word choice and figurative language. Throughout the story the emotions of the characters change and alter depending on how specific events happen and show how the character will react in the situation, whether it be good or bad. Mary and Patrick Maloney have very different emotions towards each other and it’s very surprising to see how the emotions change during the course of the story.

Emotive language and dialogue was a literary technique that Roald Dahl used in order to explore the idea of stereotypical gender roles which was a common societal issue particularly in the 1950s. Lamb to the Slaughter tells of a couple during the 1950s who followed the stereotypical couple concept of having a housewife and a husband working a middle-class job. Through the Maloney’s relationship it can be seen how Mary Maloney fulfilled and had a desire of wanting to provide and care for her husband using her skills of a housewife. This can be perceived in the quote; “I’ll get you cheese and crackers.” This informs readers that her nature and manner of wanting to please and satisfy the needs of her husband is very important to her. In response to Mary her husband replied with “I don’t want it”. The issue of gender roles/gender hierarchy in this particular situation encouraged Mary’s contentment of wanting to murder her husband which may have been initiated because of the imbalance within their relationship. Patrick Maloney’s reply to his wife portrays a disrespectful and inconsiderate attitude which represents the dominance and power that he has within the relationship. His authority within their relationship may have been generated because of his role as a provider for his wife. Another quote by Mr. Maloney states “sit down, just for a minute sit down,” this represents the type of relationship and interaction that the couple reflects. Their relationship shows no negotiation and inequality within the relationship; Patrick who is an educated detective, whereas Mary was just a

You wouldn’t expect the lamb to kill the man. “ Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl is a about a women named Mary Maloney that killed her husband. Mary’s husband tells her that he is leaving her. Not knowing what to do to try to keep her husband, she gets a leg of lamb and hits her husband in the back of the head and kills him. She quickly covers her tracks and fools the police, offering them the leg of the lamb for dinner to get rid of the evidence. Therefore Roald Dahl’s use of irony throughout the story, builds up a understanding of Mary Maloney.

There’s plenty of meat and stuff in the freezer, and you can have it right here and not even have to move out of the chair’’’ (2). Mary only ever want to please Patrick. She made sure everything was perfect for him and to never do anything wrong. She could not think of anything she had done to deserve such news. She immediately rejected the news and decided to pretend as if it never happened. Patrick was behaving so cruel to her while she was being nothing but nice to him. She even continued to make him dinner and he yelled at her saying not to because he is going out. This angered Mary resulting her to hit him with the leg of lamb and kill him. This shows that Mary is a sympathetic character because she was always compliant to Patrick. He had no right to disrespect her as he did.

Author also surprises readers, when he introduces conflict between a couple that used to love each other deeply. Diverting the story from love to betrayal, author develops an irony. In the story, reader sees two examples of betrayal. Ms. Maloney, while talking with her tired husband, finds out her husband no longer want to keep their marriage. Without giving any kind of reason, Patrick betrays her wife with a decision of breaking marriage. Mary shocks, when her husband, boldly, says, “ This is going to be bit shock of you”(P. Maloney) Author creates a total opposite picture of Patrick by describing him as a husband who used to give her wife surprises; he is now giving her shock in the middle of her pregnancy. Mary, who was previously shown as “anxiety less”(Dahl), with “a slow smiling air”(Dahl) and “curiously tranquil”(Dahl), had began to get upset and now inculcate her eye with a “bewildered look.” After betrayed by her husband, she, without any argue, she goes to the basement to look for frozen food. She decides to have leg of a lamb as a last dinner with her husband, but she smashes the frozen leg in to Patrick’s head with killing him. Mary betrays her husband by killing him and takes revenge of her betrayal. Later, Author confirms her as a murdered with the statement of “I’ve killed him”(Mary) from her own lips. Dahl, in the story,

In the short story Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl the husband that comes home early one day with bad news. He told his pregnant wife something. It was really shocking to her, and in the story it said that she got really sad. He then says that he would give her money and see that she is looked after. When she heard the news she went downstairs to the basement and got a frozen lamb to cook him. When she came up, he heard her and could tell that she wanted to make him supper. So he told her that he was going out so she doesn’t have to make it, but he said it in quite a rude manner and she seemed bothered by this because right after he said that she hit him in the head with the frozen lamb and he died. After she seen what she has done,

In Roald Dahl's 1951 short story, "Lamb to the Slaughter," Mary Maloney comes to embody a feminist heroine by escaping her husband's oppression. Her behaviour in the

The conflict in “Lamb to the Slaughter” is, that Mary. Maloney, a devoted housewife, six months pregnant, kills her husband with a leg of lamb after he tells her that he is planning on leaving her. In the very beginning, the atmosphere is very calm. Mary Maloney is peacefully sewing in her living room waiting for her husband, a police officer, to come home from work. After his arrival, they silently sit in the living room drinking whisky. Mrs. Maloney watches her husband very carefully but after he swallows his whisky very quickly and gets another stronger drink, the reader notices that something is unusual. Before she wants to fix something for supper, her husband stops her and tells her, even though it isn’t exactly conveyed to the reader, that he

The next several paragraphs prove just how much Mary loved her husband and explain why "She loved to luxuriate in the presence of this man". However, the more reasons Mary gives for loving her husband and the more attempts she makes to please him it becomes clearer and clearer that something is wrong - Patrick is avoiding conversation and is becoming increasingly more irritated with Mary for her attempts to please to him. When Mr. Malloney cannot bear another moment of the fuss that has been created around him by his wife, he loses his nerve and tells at Mary to "just for a minute, sit down". Patrick tells his wife, which by the evidence in the text I assume is, that he is leaving her.

expected them to be. From what I saw of the wife I expected Patrick to

Writers throughout time have taken it upon themselves to pen the injustices around them and hone their artistic skills to document and expose acts of injustice, intending to spark change, debate, and reform. Roald Dahl and George Saunders, two renowned authors, tackle the same responsibility in their works, in the hopes of critiquing society and its distasteful, unsavory elements. The short stories “Lamb to the Slaughter”, written by Roald Dahl, and “My Chivalric Fiasco”, written by George Saunders, utilize satire and stylistic techniques to critique society and outline their perspectives on the world around them.

Dahl’s protagonist in “Lamb to Slaughter”, Mary Maloney, displays her deceitful nature when her husband comes home from a long day of work. Mary kills Patrick with a frozen leg of lamb after he informs her that he wants a divorce. Immediately thereafter, she goes to the store to purchase vegetables. This is the beginning of her deceit. Mary clearly does not need vegetables. Her trek to the store is her way of creating an an alibi. This adds another layer to her deception. Here, she engages in a conversation with a seemingly familiar clerk, Sam. She informs him that Patrick “decided he’s tired and doesn’t want to eat out tonight” (Dahl 3). This gives Sam the impression that her husband is still alive when in all actuality, he is dead. She has added yet another layer to her level of deception. Mary’s deception has no limits. She eventually deceives herself into thinking she did not murder her husband. She convinces herself that she is “not expecting to find