The Characters Of Irony In The Short Story Of Roald Dahl

Different literary devices are used to make books and stories more descriptive and interesting. In Shirley Jackson’s short stories, “The Lottery,” and, “The Possibility of Evil,” she uses these literary devices in her writing. There are several examples of her using irony, imagery, and tone . Shirley Jackson uses these words to improve her short stories and to make them more fascinating for the reader.

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.

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.

Dahl’s use of dramatic irony during the story helps displays the actions of Mary Maloney and other characters. Mary Maloney swings the leg of the lamb to the back of the head of her husband. Dahl says, “ 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 320). As a result, this quote is effective because the lamb was used as a weapon, instead of food; which shows that Mary could use anything to harm someone without her trying or when it was her attempt to hurt that someone. The story writes, “Probably right under our very noses. What you think, Jack”. In the same way as the first quote, this sets back to Mary because she sabotages the police to eat the lamb. With the police eating the lamb she is getting rid of the evidence so she does not get caught. From the use of dramatic irony in the story, Dahl's builds Mary as a character; he also uses different irony to create her.

Traumatic news can lead to traumatic actions. In Roald Dahl’s ”Lamb to the Slaughter,” main character Mary Maloney is told very shocking new that causes her to overreact and kill her husband Patrick Maloney. Their blissful life turned upside down in a matter of five minutes. Mary was a great wife to Patrick. She loved him very much and is even carrying his child. Mary always catered to Patrick and was very loyal to him. Mary Maloney is a sympathetic character because she was very loving, compliant, and only lied to protect her baby.

For instance One way that Dahl delighted his readers was to take often vicious revenge on cruel adults who had harmed children, as in Matilda (1988). But even some innocent adults received rough treatment, such as the parents killed in a car crash in The Witches (1983).b

Roald Dahl uses humour in children books he writes to manipulate the reader’s perception of events that occur in the books. The book, Boy is an autobiography written by Roald Dahl. It was his first book and it is a combination of real events in his life. Matilda is one of his fictional books that he wrote later on. Dahl uses events that are actually gruesome and quite horrifying and makes them humorous by using sarcasm, hyperboles, short sentences, imagery, similes and juxtapositions (rose96, 2011). Dahl uses a lot of adjectives to describe the characters in his books to portray them in a humorous way. He uses figures of speech to describe a character and to make this character unique.

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

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,

Including irony/ dramatic irony is one way Roald Dahl created the element of suspense in his story. Dramatic irony relies on having the reader gaining or having missing information. An example from the story is the fact that the readers know that Mary is the killer in this story. The fact that the readers know that Mary is the killer of her husband really gives you this feeling of suspense on what can happen next. Dramatic irony is also that the readers know an object or a weapon of some sort is used by one character that the other characters don't know about. The weapon Mary is the killer of  her husband Patrick with is a fairly large lamb chop. Mary wanted to smack her husband as soon as he leaves the house, but in fact killed him.  She went to make dinner anyways. This would be considered dramatic irony because the readers know the weapon, but the police don't know.

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

Situational irony creates emotions and different feeling from the readers. The authors O. Henry and Guy de Maupassant both use situational irony to make their short stories more interesting. For example, in the story “The Ransom of Redchief” O. Henry uses situational irony to add humor and excitement to his story. He also uses irony to surprise readers and catch them off guard. Guy de Maupassant used irony to make readers feel sympathetic for the main character Mathilde in “The Necklace”. Many authors such as these two use situational irony to affect readers emotions and surprise them.

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”.

people are not what they appear to be. Dahl's works for children are usually told from the

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