How Does The Author Use Situational Irony In Lamb To The Slaughter

Much Evidence in Roald Dahl’s “Lamb to the Slaughter” suggests that almost every meaningful action that Mary Maloney commits is ironic. Mr. Maloney being killed by his own wife shows irony, because he was a detective and was totally unsuspecting of his wife’s intent to kill him. In the living room, “Mary Maloney simply walked up behind him and without any pause she swung the big frozen leg of lamb through the air and brought it down as hard as she could on the back of his head” (89-90). Additional evidence is shown when Mary returns from the store to look at his body, “… and when she saw him lying there on the floor… it really was rather a shock… It was easy.

In the short story Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl, a doting wife kills her husband with a frozen leg of lamb upon hearing of his intentions for divorce. She then avoids prosecution by feeding the lamb to the investigators, disposing of the weapon. In this story, the author’s use of situational irony and dramatic irony was crucial its enhancement. First, situational irony is shown when Mary Maloney, the loving wife, kills her husband Patrick Maloney without any hesitation. In the beginning, Mary “loved him for the way he sat loosely in a chair, for the way he came in a door, or moved slowly across the room with long strides.” However, when she was informed of their divorce, “Mary Maloney simply walked up behind him and without any pause

They leave in a rush because Mathilde doesn't want the other ladies to her in a "modest, everyday wrap" while they were wearing expensive furs. When they arrive home they realize the necklace is gone, so they retrace their steps trying to find it. When they have no luck, they buy the necklace for thirty-six thousand francs borrowing every cent from people. They spend ten years repaying everything back including interest. When it is over, Mathilde confesses to her friend and receives the shocking news that the necklace was costume jewelry and only worth a mere 500 francs at most.

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.

He finally decides it is time to do something about their predicament. They eventually buy another Necklace to replace the lost one, but the necklace leaves them in a huge debt. Dedicated to getting the money back, Mathilde and her husband work countless hours scrapping enough money together to pay off their debt. Her husband went everywhere looking for money he could use. “He did borrow… a thousand francs one, five hundred of another, five Louis here,

Mathilde wanted to be rich and live a luxurious life. She did not just want to be rich but she thought that she deserved to be rich. Before she got married she was living a decent lifestyle,she even had a maid for the house “She suffered endlessly, feeling herself born every delicacy and luxury.” (1). One night Mathilde and her husband got invited to go to a fancy ball. But she did not have any jewelry to wear so she borrowed a necklace from her friend. After the party she realized that the necklace was gone. She and her husband had to go out and buy the same necklace but for thirty six thousand francs. They had to be in debt for more than ten years. One day she decided to tell the woman that she borrowed the necklace from that she lost her original one and this is another one. ‘“Oh my poor Mathilde! But mine was imitation. It was worth at very most five hundred francs!...”’(8). Mathilde and her husband were in debt for most of their lives and lived in poverty. The irony in the story is Mathilde wanted to be very rich but ended up the poorest of the poor and the necklace she lost was imitation and she ended up paying so much more money to replace it than she actually

The author of the story “Lamb to the Slaughter”, Roald Dahl, uses a significant amount of irony throughout the story. Dahl uses irony to make his story more appealing to the reader by keeping them engaged. An example of irony in the story is when Mary is six months pregnant and her husband expresses he is leaving her, so she murders him. The audience would have never seen this coming because the author expresses Mary’s feelings from the beginning of the story by saying, “She loved him for the way he sat loosely in a chair, for the way he came in the door or moved slowly across the room with long strides. She loved the intent, far look in his eyes when they rested on her, the funny shape of the mouth, and especially the way he remained silent about his tiredness, sitting still with himself until the whiskey had taken some of it away.” (Dahl 1-2). When Dahl shares Mary’s feelings, the reader concludes that Mary is an innocent, loving wife that truly loves her husband and would do absolutely anything for him. But when Mary murders him after he decides to leave, situational irony appears. This is an example of situational irony because the reader would never expect Mary to murder her husband, but the exact opposite occurs. Dahl also uses situational irony as an example of language. The language makes the story more intriguing and exciting. The situational irony is used in the story to shock the reader and to create the climax of the plot.

Now consider the role of Mathilde Loisel in “The Necklace”. She constantly grieves about her simple life and fantasizes about extravagant life style with rich people and food surrounding her. Her husband is a simple man and is satisfied with his life. He appreciates her for the food which is cooked and never complains. Being in the Ministry of Education their lifestyle is modest. Mathilde is not satisfied on the other hand even when her husband proudly announces that they have been invited at a formal party held by the Ministry of Education. The irony in the story is more or less the same with regard to the female characters. Mathilde cries and gets her prize in the form of a dress but she is never satisfied. She wants jewelry as well. The necklace that she borrows from Madame Forestier teaches her a lesson of life. Since she is not familiar with the real jewelry she picks the cheapest one from her collection and wears it to the party why she loses it. Upon not finding the jewelry her husband takes the pain of selling everything out just to purchase an identical necklace worth 40,000 francs which leaves them poverty stricken for the next ten years during which her husband does three jobs and

But later in the story her discontentment caused her to terrible problem and sealed her fate. The necklace of Madame Forestier has been lost. It is her discontent that caused her to borrow the necklace which she lost. But it is an irony of fate that Mathilde and her husband faced 10 years of hardship for nothing but a fake necklace which cost “at most only five hundred francs.” (6) For this necklace they repaid a debt of “thirty-six thousand francs.” (5) If Mathilde and her husband had admitted to Madame Forestier about the truth of losing the necklace then the consequences would have been different and they would have avoided the hardship. This relates with another morality of the story which is to tell the truth.

In the story, “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl, irony plays a broad role in enhancing the impact of the story to make it more interesting. The title, “Lamb to the Slaughter” (p10) shows irony because the title indicates how when lambs are born, they are innocent and follow whatever their owner tells them to do and are slaughtered. Mrs. Maloney would be the Lamb whose heart is slaughtered by the news of her husband leaving her, but then she fights back and kills him with a leg of lamb which is ironic. Also, when she kills her husband whom, “She loved to luxuriate in the presence of” (p11), the irony of killing the man she loved was almost laughable. After Patrick is murdered, Mary puts on a little show for the grocer and then she returns

The most obvious case of dramatic irony in Roald Dahl’s “Lamb to the Slaughter”, is simply the ending. In the ending, Jack Noonan and the rest of the police officers are eating the lamb that Mrs. Maloney cooked for her husband, the irony in this is that Mrs. Maloney killed her husband with that specific lamb’s leg, therefore, the officers do not know what the lamb was used for, while Mrs. Maloney and the audience does. Another good case of dramatic irony happens when Mrs. Maloney went to the grocery store. She spoke to the owner, Sam, about her husband as if he was alive and well, but in fact, she knew he was dead while Sam, the owner, did not. These two cases of dramatic irony were done well, the first case of dramatic irony added humor to

When her husband gave her the invitation to the ball, which was a perfect place to meet the rich people, Mathilde got mad and cried. It was a shame since she has nothing to wear. Mr Loisel gave his money to Mathilde and she got an elegance dress. But she didn’t stop and wanted to have jewels. Mathilde met her friend, Madame Forestier and chose an gorgeous diamond necklace. Of course, she became the prettiest woman in the ball, with everyone stared at her, as if she was the most attractive woman ever. She felt fascinated, just like her dream came true. But then a tragic came to her. She lost the necklace! Mathilde and her husband tried to find the necklace, but they found nothing. Mathilde lost her hope and had aged five years. The Loisels finally decided to replace the diamonds for 36 000 Francs, spent all of their money and accepted to pay the debts. It was such an unfortunate situation. After Mathilde lost the necklace, she was described as “ And, clad like a poor woman, she went to the fruiterer, to the grocer, to the butcher, a basket on her arm, haggling, insulted, fighting for every wretched halfpenny of her money”. (Maupassant 8). The family was suffering from poverty and have to pay the debts continuously. Mathilde changed immediately and did everything. They have worked so hard to earn every single penny for their life, to survive and pay all those debts. The third person limited

Mathilde finds herself dissatisfied with her life. She craves for riches and glamour. Instead of appreciating what she has, Mathilde craves for jewels and high class commodities. One day, her husband receives an invitation to a formal party, which would give Mathilde a chance to experience the luxuries of high society. However, she seems upset because she does not own a formal dress to wear to the ball. Mathilde’s husband feels compassion for her and gives her his savings to buy a new and elegant dress. The night before the ball, we noticed Mathilde’s greed when she complains that she has no ornament to put on. She arrogantly tells her husband, “It's so mortifying to look poverty-stricken among women who are rich” (Maupassant). For this reason, he then advises her to borrow some jewelry from her friend, Madam Forestier. Blinded by greed, Mathilde follows her husband’s advice and borrows what looks like a diamond necklace. At the ball, she has a great time. However, when she and her husband get home, she realizes she has lost the diamond necklace. Worried by the consequences of losing a diamond necklace, Mathilde’s husband decides to buy a new necklace by using his inheritance, getting loans, and borrowing money from acquaintances. They return the necklace to Madam Forestier and focus on paying their debt. After 10 years of hard labor and misery, they eventually pay all their debts. At the end of the short story, Mathilde finds out that the diamond necklace she borrowed was fake. Ultimately, we see how greed drove Mathilde to misery and

The theme of the short story “The Necklace”, Written by Guy de Maupassant, is do not lie or be greedy for several. In the exposition of the story the narrator talks about Mathilde and her life. Then the narrator says “She was unhappy as if she had really fallen from a higher station.” This implies that Mathilde was ungrateful, and that she believed that she was poor even though she had enough money to live comfortably. This emerges the theme because she was greedy for wanting a better life then she already had.

In “The Necklace” by Guy De Maupassant, Mathilde’s character is a terrible person. She didn't care about anyone but herself, and she deserved the life she ended up with. First, Mathilde only cares about money and her appearance, here she would be classified as a gold digger. Mathilde was talking to her husband about going to a ball and she said, “There is nothing as humiliating as looking poor in the middle of a lot of rich women” (Maupassant 1). Mathilde wanted money for a new dress or she would not go to the ball her husband got a very hard to get invitation to.