Dramatic Irony In Lamb To The Slaughter

In "The Gift of Magi," Della and Jim sacrifice their prized possessions for each other and for love. Irony is represented in this story when Della and Jim both get each other gifts that mean a lot to each other. However, what they did not realize is that when Della cut her hair to to buy Jim a chain for his watch, she was unaware that Jim was going to sell his watch to buy her combs for her hair. The irony of their gift exchange is monumental as their unconditional love for one another took over for their own personal possession. Jim exclaims, “I don't think there's anything in the way of a haircut or a shave or a shampoo that could make me like my girl any less. But if you'll unwrap that package you may see why you had me going a while at first." The magi which are described as wise men also signifies irony because Della and Jim's presents were more than wise. They represented that a gift does not need to be expensive to have value. A gift can be more meaningful just by the thought.

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

“Lamb to the Slaughter” utilizes dramatic irony throughout the whole story. The most obvious example of dramatic irony is the fact that the readers know the main character Mary Maloney killed her husband. Mary kills her husband by hitting him on the back of the head with a frozen leg of lamb. She then goes out to the grocer in order to act like nothing has happened. When she returns home she calls the police and says, “Quick! Come quick! Patrick’s dead!”(Dahl 6). This quote uses dramatic irony because the reader is aware that Mary kills her husband, but the police are not. In this short story dramatic irony adds an element of suspense because the reader wants to know whether or not Mary will be caught for what she does. Details also play a big role in “Lamb to the Slaughter”. The details that make the biggest impact on the story are the ones that aren’t given. Mary Maloney’s husband, Patrick Maloney, comes home from work one day and is acting strange. He tells Mary to sit down because he has something to tell her. By this point the readers are suddenly cut out from the conversation and the brought back in when Patrick then says, “So there it is. And I know it’s kind of a bad time to tell you, but there simply wasn’t any other way.”(Dahl 3). The readers don’t know what Mary Maloney’s husband Patrick says, but it affects her in a negative way and is likely the reason she killed him. The unknown details of this story make the reader wonder what happened and want to keep reading

The short story, “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl, is about a pregnant wife whose husband comes home, and shares shocking news with Mary Maloney, his wife. Mary grabs a leg of lamb from the freezer and comes back and kills her husband, Patrick. The police come to investigate, but they eat the lamb that was used to kill Patrick. Dahl uses dramatic irony and symbolism to reveal common sense goes out the window when it comes to illegal matter.

Its seems to me that "The Necklace" is a better example of situational irony because, in "The Necklace" the author gives the main lead character an actual punishment where the characters has to spend the rest of her life paying for her greedy mistake. In "Lamb To The Slaughter" the main character did not receive any type of punishment, at the end of the day she got away with the murder of her husband. In "The Necklace" when she was invited to the party with her husband she said "Oh nothing. Only i don't have an evening dress therefore I can't go to the affair." Even before the the actual party started Mathilde was already complaining about how she did not have the necessary clothe to wear for the party.

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.

I think the title represents the idea of how someone is unaware of getting harmed, such as a lamb who is going to the slaughter and trusts the one guiding them. The husband has no idea that his wife was going to kill him, and when she does, “Lamb to the Slaughter” is a title that works appropriately to convey the idea. It shows situational irony because the reader and the character do not expect the events that play out.

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,

Foreshadowing in a story is very hard to include, without making the next event too obvious. In the story “Lamb to the Slaughter” Roald Dahl uses elements of suspense to engage the readers to keep reading to see what happens next. Even though one may seem innocent and gentle, can turn powerfull in a second. The author frequently uses dramatic irony, plot twist and foreshadowing to create a story that is both creepy and mysterious.

Authors use literary elements dramatically in short stories to influence a certain feeling on the reader or to send out a certain message to the audience. Throughout the stories, “The Interlopers” and “Lamb to the Slaughter”, both authors use elements to make their story appealing to the reader. Saki, the author of “The Interlopers” uses his examples of literary elements precisely and tremendously, which makes his story better than Dahl’s “Lamb to the Slaughter”.

For several years I failed to grasp the important aspects of literary and rhetorical devices. . However, since the beginning of my junior year my understanding of literary and rhetorical devices has improved substantially. Especially on the correspondence of identifying literary and rhetorical devices when reading. Also being able to incorporate these devices into my writing. Such as in my comparative analysis. I wrote about the irony in “Lamb to the slaughter” by Roald Dahl and “Desiree’s baby by kate chopin”.

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

This is a twisted, gripping tale of Mary Maloney, who murders her own husband by hitting him with a frozen leg of lamb and then hiding her crime and disposing of the evidence by feeding the lamb to the policemen who come to investigate the murder.

him he was tired. She then asked him if he wanted supper but he said

Societal norms show the worlds various good and bad ideologies. In the story, Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl a woman named Mary kills her husband with a leg of lamb. Then, she calls the cops and tells them that her husband is dead. After that, she feeds the murder weapon to the cops on the scene. The portrayal of women as the bad cop, the preconceived notion of a female's role in society, and implied dependence on men are all themes in Lamb to the Slaughter. In using the wife as the murderer, Roald Dahl shows the human desire to exact revenge.