Lamb To The Slaughter By Roald Dahl

There are a several major differences between Roald Dahl’s short story, “Lamb to the Slaughter” and the television adaption by Alfred Hitchcock. One key difference is that in the short story, Mary Maloney’s thoughts and feelings are distinctly expressed, but it is not the same in the television episode. For example as a murderer, in the story, Mrs. Maloney’s feelings are openly posed of how she did not really mean killing her husband. Likewise, her thoughts are also shown, such as her purpose of hiding the true reason of his death, which was because of her unborn child. She did not want to go to jail. Unlike the TV episode, all this makes readers feel pathos for the character, even though she has done something inexcusable and unforgivable. In the television episode, pity for the the character is much more less, since her feelings and purpose are not as explicit . Another difference is that in Dahl’s short story, since it is written in third person limited, we merely know things said by the main character or that has been said to them, but not what is said by other characters among

“Lamb to the Slaughter” a tale where Roald Dahl writes of a wife and a husband where the wife believes everything is perfect until, in a single day, it all comes crashing down. Mary Maloney is a housewife of the 19th century stereotype who is waiting for her husband to return home, so she can do her routine she has done countless times. Mary Maloney undergoes several emotional changes throughout the article in which Dahl uses figurative language and dialogue to convey his message. In the beginning of the story, Mary is waiting for her husband to return from his long day of work where she is waiting peacefully for him.

In Roald Dahl’s short story “Lamb to the Slaughter” , Mary Maloney murders her husband, a detective, after he declares that he is leaving her. Mary then has to cover her tracks or else she and her unborn child will be killed. Throughout the story, Mary’s character changes from loving wife to cold killer and back again based on her situation.

Throughout the first four paragraphs of Dahl’s short story, “Lamb to the Slaughter,” the literary elements of visual imagery and repetition create a setting that is almost “too perfect,” which skews Mary Maloney’s awareness of the world, foreshadowing major problems later in the story. Dahl initiates his story by introducing a perfect example of what society was in the postwar era of America in the 50s. Through the utilization of visual imagery, Dahl describes the livingroom of protagonist Mary Maloney as being, “...warm and clean...” (Dahl line 1), which is also prepared for the return of her husband, Patrick Maloney, such that, “...two tall glasses, soda water, whiskey...” (Dahl lines 2-3) are fixed in the living room. Through visual imagery,

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( THESIS). The author frequently uses dramatic irony, plot twist and foreshadowing to create a story that is both creepy and mysterious.

'The Landlady' is a short story about a young lad called Billy travelling to Bath on a business trip. He arrives in Bath in the evening and looks for accommodation. Bath was an unfamiliar place to Billy so he was unsure of the area. Billy was guided by a porter who recommended the 'Bell and Dragon' because it was close by, but Billy never went. Although the landlady offered cheap prices and cosy surroundings, she changes her attitude towards Billy as the story unfolds. He then realises that this landlady doesn't appear to be all that she seems to be. He begins to become concerned during his stay but never manages to uncover the landlady's secret before she murders the young lad.

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

At the beginning of the story, Mary Maloney loves and adores her husband, this does not last very long. Dahl uses simple but strong sentences to portray the killing of Patrick Maloney “At the point, Mary Maloney simply walked up behind him and without any pause she swung the big frozen leg of lamb high in the air and brought it down as hard as she could on the back of his head.” This illustrates Mrs. Maloney walking without any hesitation, killing her beloved husband and this also exemplifies the ultimate transformation of Mrs. Maloney from her calm behavior to being over dramatic. Another detail that this phrase demonstrates is that Patrick is so focused in his thoughts that he doesn’t sense his wife walking up towards him. Dahl reveals this unexpected transformation of Mary Maloney through her actions and thoughts. Another phrase that exemplifies Mrs. Maloney’s change in character is when she thinks to herself, after killing Patrick, “‘All right,’ she told herself. ‘So I’ve killed him.’” This illustrates Mrs. Maloney’s impeccable life, or what she conceives to be her life is demolished. At this point of the story, Dahl uses direct and indirect sentences to develop the protagonist and to show the complete transformation of Mrs. Maloney and brings her to

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 the beginning of “Lamb to the Slaughter” we meet Mary Maloney a devoted housewife to her husband, whom her whole world revolves around. However, as Dahl’s story progresses, we interpret that Patrick Maloney is unhappy in his marriage and he confesses that he is leaving Mary. The confession causes Mary’s whole universe to collapse around her because her sole purpose as a housewife is now obsolete as she does not have a husband to cook dinner for. The shock of the news causes Mary to do everything without thinking that “everything was automatic now” (Dahl 40) therefore, she approached Patrick without thinking of the consequences of her actions, as she didn’t even hesitate to kill her own husband. In this moment, we detect a significant change in Mary’s character, we observed an act of violence from Mary that wasn’t expected of her to commit. She conceives of her own alibi to conceal the murder by going to the grocer and coming back to find her husband deceased, this shows her skills of careful deception to make sure no one suspected her of the crime. The submissive and kind housewife is the facade that Mary puts up to deceive the detectives in order persuade the detectives to get rid of the murder weapon for her without them realizing it. In the course of the story, Mary goes from being solely dependent

In many of Roald Dahl’s storys, his characters have a tend to have an underlying trait to them that is not always prevalent throughout the story . For instance, in this story, Mary Maloney struggles with the trait of schizophrenia. A person with schizophrenia tends to exhibit some noticeable symptoms. According to The Internet Mental Health Initiative, some of the symptoms can be sometimes feeling nothing at all, feeling detached from your own body, and replaying or rehearsing conversations out loud. Throughout the story, Mary Maloney has a tendency to display all of these symptoms as she goes through the pre and post events that occurred after she received the unfortunate news. “Lamb to the Slaughter” elaborates on the symptom of body detachment by quoting , “The violence of the crash, the noise, the small table overturning, helped bring her out of the shock”(Dahl 382) . At this point in the story, Mary Maloney has just hit her husband with a leg of lamb which then caused him to fall over dead. This quote shows that during the point in time when she hit him, she was having an bodily detachment due to the fact she was in shock from the news she had recently received. By the time she had became fully aware of what she was doing and was awoken from her bodily detachment, he had already hit the ground. Mary Maloney also portrays the mutual

Three books that I have read with influential themes are as follows: Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior by Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman, Animal Farm by George Orwell, and Night by Elie Wiesel. Sway talks about how most human behavior do can be explained by science. It goes into detail about why people are attracted to doing what they know is the wrong thing to do. Animal Farm uses the metaphor of a farm being compared to a government to illustrate what happens when people are under the rule of strict leaders. Lastly, Night tells the story of a Holocaust survivor. Its vivid and horrific details about the Holocaust left an impact on me. One thing the author mentioned is how much it hurt him when people said the Holocaust was

Additionally, Dahl used situational and dramatic irony as literary devices in “Lamb to the Slaughter”. An example of dramatic irony used in the story is when Mrs. Maloney requests that the police eat the murder weapon, the frozen lamb leg. The author says, “It’d be a favor to me if you’d eat it up” (Dahl). This expresses dramatic irony because the police think she is asking them to eat the lamb to be polite, but in reality Mrs. Maloney just wanted to get rid of the murder weapon. An example of situational irony used is when Mary Maloney kills her husband with a frozen lamb leg because she was displayed as a loving wife who was obsessed with her husband and his happiness, but then she shocks the reader by killing him. The author states, “At that point, Mary Maloney simply walked up behind him and without any pause she swung the big frozen leg of lamb high in the air and brought it down as hard as she could on the back of his head” (Dahl).

Once hearing this news Mary Maloney was in complete astonishment, so amazed she could hardly speak. Dahl states, “her first instinct was not to believe any of it. She thought that perhaps she'd imagined the whole thing. Perhaps, if she acted as though she had not heard him, she would find out that none of it had ever happened” (Dahl 381). The circumstance in which Mary was faced with created upon her an oblivious mind. The reason for why Mary tried to avoid reality is not because she is unintelligent, but because of her obliviousness to divorces. “Lamb to the Slaughter” was a short story written and based off the time period of the 1950s. In the 1950s men never left their wives for other woman. Mary Maloney is not guilty, but oblivious to the idea of a divorce which developed her mind to reach the point of

Authors can create many complex characters using literary devices. In “Lamb to the Slaughter” the author, Roald Dahl, uses dramatic irony and dialogue to illustrate Mary Maloney, a submissive housewife, changing into a psychotic murder. To begin, the author uses dramatic irony throughout the story to depict the psychotic change coursing through Mary Maloney. One example is towards the end of “Lamb to the Slaughter” where Mary Maloney has killed her husband and the detectives that had come to investigate the murder are unknowingly eating the weapon, a leg of lamb. As the detectives eat with one another, one detective claims “It’s probably right under our noses” (Dahl 4) where as the narrator reveals “In the other room, Mary Maloney began to