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An essay of lamb to the slaughter
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When Roald Dahl used repetition to add to the scare factor in his short story, “Lamb to Slaughter”. Throughout the story he used repetition to emphasize things. Like when he repeats “They always treated her kindly.” and “The two detectives were exceptionally nice to her.” It was to emphasize that they treated her as the victim rather than a suspect. The repetition used made me curious when reading the story. Whenever I saw something repeated, I asked myself ‘Why would they do that?’ I became intrigued and wanted to read more and find out. By repeating, Roald created suspense and anticipation for the reader to get to the climax, prompting the reader to keep reading. In conclusion, repetition definitely made the story scarier.
While this sometimes had a unique effect of making the audience realise what exactly they had been seeing before, often it made the play feel like a broken record. The repetition of scenes feels like watching the nightmare of a guilty criminal who is obsessing over how everything went wrong, but in a drug-induced sort of way. It also makes the scene of Eva and Robert walking in the woods less powerful. Just when the tension begins to build up the first time we see it, the scene abruptly shifts away. This happens again the second time we see it, so by the third time their conversation about flying and frost feels tiresome. However, the decision to gather all of the men on one side and all the women on the other during Robert’s harassment of Eva did achieve a profound emotional effect. Having the townspeople act as trees also helped give the feeling that everyone in Eldritch was implicit in the act, and allowed it to happen without interfering before things got worse, as the preacher points out in his sermons: “We took no action. The burden must be ours. We are all responsible for the shock of these two innocents” (10). Perhaps the most effective use of repetition in the play is when we again hear Robert’s testimony, but now knowing the truth we see him for who he really is, and not the helpless victim we assumed him to be
Desperation is a state of despair,where someone will act in an extreme way. These extreme behaviours can lead to actions that cannot be taken back. In Roald Dahl’s “Lamb to the Slaughter” Mary is a kind and loving person before she is in a state of desperation. Mary’s actions are an example of how desperation can transform people forever. Mary is kind and loves her husband very deeply. Mary’s love for her husband is displayed when “ Mary Maloney was waiting for her husband to come home from work. Now and again she would glance up at the clock, but without anxiety, merely to please herself with the thought that each minute gone by making it nearer the time that he would come.”(Dahl 10) Mary loves Patrick very much and
Repetition is often used in oral literature to emphasize key or important points. Since this piece was originally spoken as a speech to the delegates, Henry uses repetition throughout it. His most obvious use of repetition is when he states “we must fight! I repeat is, sir, we must fight!” (72). This not only emphasizes his main point of the speech, but
The figurative language expresses emotions. Words can only classify emotions. However they are unfathomable and can only be expressed through “exaggerations”. To compare one self to the author’s feeling is the only way for the emotion to be understood. The repetition is used to show the struggle of letting go of the past. O’Brien becomes a writer and finds that he can’t let go so easily. He writes stories more than once to find a point in why it haunts him and why he must move on.
When authors use repetition it helps the reader connect to the importance of the novel. In this novel Galloway uses repetition in the beginning of the novel as he repeats the phrase: “It SCREAMED DOWNWARD,
Repetition exaggerates a feeling of desire and mercy in the beginning of the book. For example, in Chapter 1, describing the dwarves’ singing, the author states that Bilbo “felt the love of beautiful things made by hands and by cunning and by magic moving through him” which implicates that foreign and unknown things are cunning and magical; interfering with Bilbo’s ordinary world. The repetition of the passage brings up past memories to the dwarves, but creates a new opening for the curious hobbit. Additionally, in the next chapter, Bilbo asks for mercy by begging to the trolls, “please don’t cook me, kind sirs! I am a good cook myself, and I cook better than I cook, if you see what I mean” which shows
Moreover, to emphasize some important instances and clarify the message, Magnus delicately and predominantly also uses repetition. In fact, he also uses a poetic
snake could not be detected in the speckled band but if it were in the
Lamb to the Slaughter, by Roald Dahl, instantly grabs a reader’s attention with its grotesque title, ensuing someone’s downfall or failure. The saying “lamb to the slaughter,” usually refers to an innocent person who is ignorantly led to his or her failure. This particular short story describes a betrayal in which how a woman brutally kills her husband after he tells her that he wants a divorce. She then persuades the policemen who rush to the scene to consume the evidence. This action and Patrick’s actions show the theme of betrayal throughout the story which Roald Dahl portrays through the use of point of view, symbolism and black humor.
His strong diction is also depicted through anaphora. The repetition of phrases and words such as “when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mother,” “when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse” and “see tears welling up in her eyes” provide the reader with a sense of sadness. By emphasizing “you,” he forces the reader to put themselves in the position that he is in, and experience it with him. Using anaphora creates a sense of memorability and urgency, all while remaining in the pathos category (Longager & Walker, 2011, p.256). Strategically used repetition not only forces the reader to focus on an idea, but also assists in conveying his intended message.
In “Lamb to the Slaughter”, Roald Dahl uses diction, details, and syntax to emphasize the matter-of-fact tone that is consistent throughout the entire story. Diction is a key element of tone that conveys this matter-of-fact tone. For example, Mary Maloney says to herself after killing her husband, “All right… So I’ve killed him” (Dahl 320). This sentence is lacking emotion. It states a pure fact, without going into further detail and captures a turning point in Mary Maloney’s way of thinking. By telling herself “all right,” Mary distances herself from the murder. She is detached from her own story and does not reveal any qualms about murdering her own husband. Similarly, Dahl uses the next sentence to describe Mary’s thoughts by explaining,
Slaughterhouse Five, written by Kurt Vonnegut is an anti war novel told by the narrator who is a minor character in the story. Slaughterhouse-Five is the story of Billy Pilgrim, a man who has come "unstuck in time. "The bombing of Dresden is what destroyed Billy. Dresden’s destruction shows the destruction of people who fought in the war: the all the people who died. Some people, like the main character, Billy Pilgrim, are not able to function normally like before because of what they saw, because of their experience. Throughout the book, Billy starts hallucinating about his experiences with the Tralfamadorians: he wants to escape the world which was destroyed by war, a war that he does not and cannot understand. Vonnegut uses the technique of repetition.. The main repetition is “so it goes” which is told after anything related to death, he also uses other repetitions throughout the book. The major theme of the story is the Destructiveness of War. Vonnegut uses repetition to reinforce the theme of the story.
In addition to vocabulary, Poe’s use of repetition ensures that his audience will appreciate the deeper meaning of his writing and understand which concepts are important in his stories. In “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the narrator, after stating that he is not insane, goes on to describe “how stealthily, stealthily” (Long) he proceeds when going into of the elderly man and blighting the room with the lantern. The repetition of “stealthily” demonstrates just how sneaky and narrator is, suggesting that he is crazy.
Alfred Noyes uses repetition and diction to create suspense in the poem “The Highwayman”. The author uses various examples of repetition and diction. In the story Noyes states, “And the highwayman came riding/Riding-riding-/ The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn door”. This conveys a feeling of fear using repetition. The reader does not know what is going to happen next. In part two, paragraph one, when the redcoat troops seize the landlord’s home, Noyes uses repetition again stating, “A red-coat troop came marching/ Marching-/marching-marching-/ King George’s men came marching, up to the old inn-door”. This conveys that the red-coat troops are attacking the landlord’s home. This leaves the reader wondering what the troop is going to
The most obvious use of repetition would be the abundant use of Annabel Lee’s name in the poem. The fact that the title of the poem is Annabel Lee, and her name is repeated so often throughout the poem clearly demonstrates just how important and lovely she is to the narrator. The second most prominent use of repetition comes from the lines regarding the “kingdom by the sea” (Poe). Poe constantly reinforces the setting and reminds the reader of its importance in almost every single stanza until near the end of the