Irony In Lamb To The Slaughter

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Recommended: The characterization of lamb to the slaughter

The narrative Lamb to the Slaughter by Ronald Dahl, is very enjoyable as the obscured ideas presented kept the reader interested. We read many short stories but lamb to the slaughter was my favourite because it was ironic, comedic (dark), and uses satire.

Irony is used to create Suspense and left the story unfinished for the reader to use his/her imagination which I personally enjoyed. Irony is a way author engages a reader’s attention with a deeper meaning to the narrative. An example of situational irony is when the narrator says “She loved the warmth that came out of him when they were alone together”
(Dhal 1) The idea of killing a loved one is both ironic and strange. Usually when in an argument the thought of killing a loved one doesn’t appear. However as portrayed in lamb to the slaughter the betrayal of her husband caused emotional ruin which affected her and caused her to do those acts. This motivated me to read further because this doesn’t happen usually …show more content…

Dark humor is very obscured, the fact that the brutality of how a man was killed was presented with a twist of humor causing the reader to be intrigued therefore creating more interest in the story. While the police officers are investigating, one of them says, the murder weapon could be “Right under our very noses (Dahl 4).” Death and murder have negative connotations and just the sole fact that they are used so lightly with and nearly mocked make this story very strange. Her actions towards the officers displays that’s she’s indeed is not in the correct state of mind as serving people food is considered as a good deed however her manipulation shows her ill being. Also that the humor used in this narrative is quite out of the ordinary. The humor portrays her actions as normal which confuses the reader and compels them to figure out the reality. While we as humans are driven by our confusion and desire to learn

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