The story Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl demonstrates the main theme that overlooking the potential of a person that appears to be feeble can put you in a tough situation, so a person should not be too quick to judge another based off what they seem at first glance. In the short story, Roald Dahl uses character description, symbolism, and dramatic iron to convey this theme to the reader. Firstly, the main character in the story, Mary, is described as a mother-to-be: “This was her sixth month expecting a child.” (paragraph 2, pg. 1), and she is a woman who caters to her husband as demonstrated in the text “She took his coat and hung it up. Then she made the drinks, a strong one for him and a weak one for herself…” (paragraph 5, pg. 1) This line shows that she routinely takes care of her husband like any stay-at-home woman would. The author portrays her as your average stay-at-home mom, which make the reader think that she is innocent, frail, and could do no harm. But, as the story continues, she turns out to be the one who kills her husband with a lamb leg and strategically creates an alibi for …show more content…
herself so she would not be caught. This is not something a stay at home mom, as the author described Mary to be, would ever do. Which carries out the theme of the story through his character description, he was able to make the readers think one thing about a character and then proves that the readers were wrong. Another way the author exhibited the theme was through symbolism. Lambs are usually thought of as innocent and frail creatures who wouldn’t harm anything. When lambs are going to be slaughtered, they don’t see it coming, much like Mary when her husband told her he was leaving unexpectedly when she was expecting a child.” “"This is going to be a big shock to you, I'm afraid," he said. "But I've thought about it a good deal and I've decided that the only thing to do is to tell you immediately." And he told her. It didn't take long, four or five minutes at most, and she sat still through it all, watching him with puzzled horror.” (paragraph 20, pg. 2) Furthermore, the lamb is mentioned, not only in the title, but as the murder weapon. The reader is meant to relate a lamb being slaughtered to the way Mary was ‘slaughtered’ by her husband leaving her. This validates the theme by giving the reader a stronger sense at that point that Mary was truly innocent, unexpecting, and didn’t deserve what what her husband did because she wouldn’t harm anyone. But then she kills her husband which contradicts the picture of innocence the relation of a lamb to the slaughter with Mary carries thus directing us to the conclusion that Mary is this frail innocent ‘lamb’ is inaccurate and people should never overlook anyone based off appearance or by the way they act. Lastly, dramatic irony is used to prove the central theme of the story.
Towards the end of the story, after her husband is dead and she called the police after she ‘found him dead’, the detectives search the house trying to find the killer totally overlooking any possibility that the killer could be Mary. As proven in the following quote from the text, the detectives assume that the killer is a strong man, when in fact Mary is the true killer. “Whoever did it, he can’t carry a weapon that big around with him.” (paragraph 68, pg. 4) This assumption leads them to eventually eat the leg lamb Mary used to kill her husband. This is an example of dramatic irony because the reader knows who the true killer is while the characters in the story don't and overlook the actual killer, which proves that people often wrongly overlook possibilities due to previous
assumptions. In conclusion, the author of the short story Lamb to the Slaughter used dramatic irony, character description, and symbolism to convey the theme excellently. The lesson learned that judged a person as weak before really knowing what they are capable of is a mistake and this leaves the readers with a new sense on life after the author excellently used murder to teach a valuable lesson.
In Lamb to the Slaughter, Mary Maloney, doting housewife pregnant with her first child, commits a heinous crime against her husband. After he tells her that he is leaving, she become distraught and strikes him in the head with a leg of lamb. Afterwards, Mary...
Mary commits cold blooded murder with a big, frozen, leg of lamb in the back of the head. This is a very dark side to her, especially when previously it stated she waited happily for her husband to come home. This shows how people can have a secret about them that you might never know. Mary is a prime example of this because she murdered her husband and future father of her child. This shows how people can reveal a dark side to them that you may have never knew
Readers are met with a sense of familiarity as they recall a childhood nursery rhyme, “Mary Had A Little Lamb”. By using this Dahl created a link between the story and the reader themselves. The allusion adds a sense of irony as well, because while the nursery rhyme is sweet and innocent, murder is not. Irony can also be found in other parts of the passage. In the text Roald Dahl includes some dialogue from the cops which reads “‘Personally, I think it’s right here on the premises.’
Having to take your anger out on someone isn’t fair or good, especially if you’re being killed with frozen lamb. Based on everyone’s understanding, when you kill someone you’ll have to pay the price and consequences. Apparently this lady didn’t. But are we sure she’s going to marry another man and kill him too? In “Lamb to the slaughter”, I’m going to be talking about Mary Maloney and how madly crazy she is.
We see with Mary that being pregnant can alter your emotions and cause someone to act much different that who they really are. Her husband being ready to divorce, makes her in denial that he no longer wants to be with her and hopeless because she will be left to raise her baby alone. Mary, not being about to think straight, kills her husband, going to show that she was evidently suffering from mental instability during and even after the killing. As evident, this was no murder committed in cold blood. Mary is innocent in the murder of Patrick Maloney by plea of temporary
Near the middle of the story we see Mary exhibit her bad sinister character; her personality and feelings suddenly change when she murders her own husband by hitting him at the back of the head with a frozen lamb leg. After denying all of Mary’s helpful deeds, Patrick told her to sit down so that he can tell her something serious; the story doesn’t tell us what he says to her but Mary suddenly changes after he tells her something, her “instinct was not to believe any of it” (Dahl 2). She just responded with “I’ll get the supper” (Dahl 2) and felt nothing of her body except for nausea and a desire to vomit. She went down the cellar, opened the freezer, grabbed a frozen leg of lamb, went back upstairs, came behind Patrick, and swung the big leg of lamb as hard as she could to the back of his head killing him. This act of sudden violence shows how much she has gone ...
An additional view point of the story could be from a woman. A female reading Lamb to the Slaughter would most likely side with Mary Maloney. Dahl starts the story describing Mary’s behavior before her husbands’ arrival. She sits ...
Mary Maloney was a faithful loving wife, calm but a killer. She had an adoration for her husband and always stopped for him with curiosity but had not wasted time or thought twice to kill him. She lied that she loved her husband dearly and eternity though by doing an unspeakable crime her personality changed. Mary’s morals were that she thought that the right thing to do was to kill her husband since her husband had rejected her and was told about a problem. She thought no one loves her anymore and her whole world will be torn apart if she did not kill her husband. She was calm throughout the story and it showed that she had no regrets and she worked out a plan that she had wanted to be free of any pain or to be sent to jail. She was thinking about herself and we saw that she did not care about what happened and everything was fine that she had killed a human life because of her cruelty and selfishness. She could have talked to her husband instead and resolved it by talking to each other, thus this problem had not been
The author did a “so so” job at revealing the theme (Don’t be selfish!) through the use of irony, mood and foreshadowing. Mary Maloney feels angry in some parts of the story. This reminds me of when I ask my friend to come out with me and I told him that we will meet at Fairview (the mall) at 1 o’clock, but he was late by a few minutes, so I got a bit angry because he was late when a girl was waiting for a while. No one likes when people are late when they need to meet someone. In the story, Mary got angry when Patrick told her that he will leave her or get divorced, so she went and get the leg lamb from the freezer to kill him. It’s the same because we had the feeling of angry and frustrated because I got a bit angry when my friend came late and Mary angry when he said that they will be separated when she
me show her as a typical wife waiting for her husband to come home and
In Roald Dahl’s short story “Lamb to the Slaughter”, Mary Maloney is a cold-blooded killer. While using the excuse to make dinner, Mary Maloney used the frozen leg of lamb to brutally beat Patrick (her husband) to death. She had brought up the lamb from the cellar and had then swung it across the back of Patrick’s head, “She might just as well have hit him with a steel club…Then he crashed to the carpet” (Dahl 13). Mary had outright killed her husband in cold-blood, due to his proposed divorce. Thereafter, Mary Maloney was very smart and she knew how the detectives would find the murderer so she made an alibi. Her alibi was her grocer (Sam) that she personally knows very well, she even told herself to, “Keep things absolutely natural and there’ll
The short story “Lamb to The Slaughter” by Roald Dahl is about the death of a detective who has been murdered by his wife. As officers arrive they can’t seem to find the murder and the murder weapon. The short story Lamb to The Slaughter is interesting to read because the author allows readers to put their own perspective into the book. Another reason is the storyline and finally the theme.
She felt like she was in a daze and went downstairs and found the first thing in the freezer, a leg of lamb. She hit her husband over the head with it, and it wasn’t until he fell that the shock wore off and she realized what she had done. She was very practical about the whole thing. “All right, she told herself. So I’ve killed him.” Her mind then became very clear. Mary decided that although she did not care about herself, she did care about her unborn child and, as a result, wanted to protect it. At the grocer, she created her alibi and convinced herself that she had not done anything to her husband, but that she was just going to cook him dinner. She decided that the best way to protect herself and her child was to act natural. “That’s the way, she told herself. Do everything right and natural. Keep things absolutely natural and there’ll be no need for any acting at all.” When she saw her husband, Patrick, was dead, she found herself crying; she did not need to act at all. Eventually, she fed the lamb to the investigators and in the end, she is a bit hysterical about how she got away with
In the story “Lamb to The Slaughter” by Roald Dahl, Mary Maloney is patiently waiting for her beloved husband Patrick Maloney to return home from work.When he does return he tells Mary something horrible and she gets upset. While upset she then kills her husband with a leg of lamb. Because of how she killed her husband Patrick, Mary Maloney is guilty of Murder. Mary Maloney is guilty of murder because of her motives and how much she planned.
With this in mind, Mary Maloney tries to “reject it all” like “he hadn’t even spoken” (Dahl 2). Evidently, Mrs. Maloney tries to ignore everything that her husband had told her and almost went on with the day like nothing had happened, which leads her to becoming mentally disturbed with the current situation. In the heat of the moment, Mary had decided that she didn’t want her husband leaving so she “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 3). Hence the current situation, Mrs. Maloney didn’t know what to do, so by killing her husband, she knew that no one else would be able to see him. Clearly, Mary Maloney from “Lamb to the Slaughter” only tried to have a good Thursday night, but during the heat of the moment, she killed her own beloved