Saivanee 1 Sudha Saivanee Professor Yasodhara Rakshit Communication Skills – II 7 May 2018 Marriage and gender roles in Lamb to the Slaughter “Lamb to the Slaughter” is an intriguing murder story by Roald Dahl. It was initially rejected, along with four other stories, by The New Yorker, but was ultimately published in Harper's Magazine in September 1953. It was adapted for an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and starred Barbara Bel Geddes and Harold J. Stone. Mary Malony, wife of a senior detective Patrick Maloney, is six months pregnant and waits for her husband to return home after work. She is a typical housewife and religiously does her duties of taking care of her husband’s needs and is engaged in all sorts of domestic …show more content…
chores throughout the day. Her husband decides to leave her and in turn, states to take care of her financially. She is taken aback and in response to this decision of her husband she brings the frozen leg of lamb and hits his head, killing him. In this paper, I shall discuss how marriage and gender roles play a vital role in the society taking explaining instances from the story. After the Great Depression and World War II, the decade of the 1950’s was a movement back to conformity and very traditional dynamics for gender roles. The economic climate of the country allowed for the women to return to the home and take care of the children. The mood of the country was one of celebration and hope after the wars, but was also one of conformity during the Cold War (Arlene). Throughout the story, Mary is situated in a patriarchal society where she is expected to be in the private sphere of domestic life and is considered unfit for the public sphere. While, on the other had, her husband, Patrick freely moves between these two spheres where his wife takes care of him at home and he is superior to her as well as he makes economical and political decisions by engaging in the public sphere. Gendered hierarchy explains Mary’s marriage well as her life revolves around her Saivanee 2 husband’s and all she has to care about is her husband’s needs and happiness. As soon as her husband reaches, she hangs his coat in the closet, makes a drink for him and offers to fetch his slippers (Dahl 39-44).As a stereotypical housewife, she performs all these tasks to show her affectionate submission to her husband. “Popular since the 1950s, the tenacious stereotype conjures mythic images of culture icons – June Cleaver, Dona Reed, Harriet Nelson – the quintessential white, middle-class housewives who stayed at home to rear children and bake cookies” (Meyerowitz) The creation of the “ideal woman” gave a clear picture to women of what they were supposed to emulate as their proper gender role in society. In effect, women began to construct their identities around this image, and may continue to do so till today. Mary’s marriage is heavily influenced by the masculine dominance. Mary’s love for her husband is an idolization of or submissiveness to masculinity. Patrick’s return home is said to be “blissful” for Mary not only because she has been all by herself and isolated in the house all day but also because she “loved to luxuriate in the presence of this man, and to feel-almost as a sunbather feels the sun-that warm male glow that came out of him to her when they were alone together” (Dahl 39-44). Her husband is said to be the sun, a powerful celestial body that shines on the mere humans and makes their life filled with light and supports their existence. This shows how men are associated with strength and perfection, and women with weakness and inferiority. In the story, the lack of reciprocity in Mary’s marriage can also be clearly seen. She makes several attempts of comforting Patrick by calling him “darling” which goes unseen by him and isn’t reciprocated at all even though he knows that his wife is pregnant and also, as a human being, needs affection and care. Marry keeps on trying to engage him in the conversation and asks him repeatedly if he wants to eat something but he ignores her words and whenever he wishes to talk, he orders her to “sit down” just as a master orders his dog to submit to him. Patrick decides to leave her and tells her that he would “look after” her financial needs. After breaking the news of his imminent departure, he dismisses his wife’s Saivanee 3 potential reactions and emotions as “fuss” and that it would be bad for his job (Dahl 39-44). Patrick’s privileging of his work over Mary stands in stark contrast to the life she has built around him. He was insensitive towards her and expected that she would abide by his decision without even questioning him. Women didn’t have a say even in the major life decisions of their own life. Decisions were forced upon them and they had to act accordingly. After Mary murders her husband, she is able to escape suspicion partly because of her cleverness and partly because the policemen hold traditional, patriarchal views of women as caregivers incapable of violence or deceit. When Jack Noonan, a detective and friend of Patrick, asks Mary if she would prefer the company of her sister or of his own wife, he reinforces the stereotype of women, as caregivers. When he explains to Mary what happened to Patrick, he assumes the culprit is male, using masculine pronouns such as “him” and “he” to describe the murderer(Dahl 39-44). The detectives consider “impossible” the idea that Mary has deceived them all as well as Sam, the grocer who unwittingly becomes her alibi (Dahl 39-44). Black humour and dramatic irony prevail in this story. Black humour is humour that may amuse one but it does not leave one essentially in good cheer. It uses the grotesque or the absurd for comic purposes. It is, in other words, fun but rather morbid. Black humour became widespread in popular culture, especially in literature and film, beginning in the 1950s. It remained popular till the end of the twentieth century. Joseph Heller's novel Catch-22 (1961) is one of the best-known examples in American fiction. The short stories of James Thurber and the stories and novels of Kurt Vonnegut Jr. also offer examples of black humour. The image of the cheerful housewife, Mrs. Maloney in Roald Dahl’s story “Lamb to the Slaughter” suddenly smashing her husband's skull with the frozen joint of meat intended for his dinner is itself an instance of black humour for its unexpectedness and the ugly incongruity of the murder weapon. There is a morbid but funny double meaning, too, in Mary's response to her grocer's question about meat, "I've got meat, thanks. I got a nice leg of lamb from the freezer." She did indeed get a leg of lamb from the freezer. The story, told in an apparently simple style, carries a number of Saivanee 4 meanings within itself. It ends with the giggling of Mary Maloney who is a murderer now. Indeed the situation is funny but it is also simultaneously sad and strange. Dahl wrote many adult short fiction stories that contained dark humour, rich and complex personalities, and a sort of forced adoration for murderous and insane characters. Two of his short stories, “The Landlady” and “Lamb to the Slaughter”, each have a main character that share similar traits making them deadly, yet loveable. The use of simple descriptions by Roald Dahl is both the stories, even though don’t paint a clear picture of the physical characteristics of the main characters but manage to create a presumption of innocence. Mary Maloney, in “Lamb to the Slaughter” (Dahl 39-44), is described in a way that creates the impression to the reader of an angelic like beauty. Her eyes were the most simple physical feature that were written of. “The eyes, with their new placid look, seemed larger, darker than before” which portrayed the anger that was brewing inside her for her husbands when she got the news of him leaving her. The Landlady, who is anonymous in the story, is said to have appeared to be middle aged.
Dahl doesn’t provide much description about her physical characteristic but she is said to be sweet and kind. He states that she has a “warm, welcoming smile”(Dahl 52). Instead Dahl elaborates on the physical descriptions of the leading male character more, in the story, just as he did in “Lamb to Slaughter”. Lack of physical descriptions, force the readers to picture the Landlady in their mind’s eye based upon her personality within the dialogue. All the first impressions given of both the characters, Mary and the Landlady are of loveable characters which turn out to be misleading …show more content…
eventually. One major similarity between these two characters was how they were able to facilitate a sense of trust with the male characters. Mary Malone is portrayed as the perfect housewife. So much so, that her husband is confident that he can decide to leave her and talk to her in a vile tone and expecting her to react in quiet manner. The Landlady enables trust with her kind demeanor and welcoming home. The main character, Billy Weaver, refers to her in the story as looking “exactly like the mother of one’s best school Saivanee 5 friend welcoming one into the house to stay for the Christmas Holidays” (Dahl 52). Another comparison between these two mystifying characters is their choice of the murder weapon, which is ‘food’ here. Mary Malone whacks him on the back of his skull with the lamb causing him to plummet to the floor and die. The Landlady also had a humorous and strange way of killing her victims. She poisoned poor Billy Weaver presumably with cyanide, “the tea tasted of bitter almonds” (Dahl 52). Though it is not clearly stated in the story, it is hinted that the Landlady kills her guests and stuffs them, making them permanent guests to her cozy bed and breakfast. The endings of both the stories leave the audience struggling to decide whether or not these characters are loveable or absolutely evil.
In the end of “Lamb to Slaughter”, Mary sits in the other room listening and begins to “giggle”. This signifies to the audience a child like manner that attaches somewhat of an innocence to her. In “The Landlady”, after Billy is poisoned, he questions whether or not there have been any other guests within the last couple of years other than the two men listed in the guestbook and to this, with a “gentle little smile” she states “No, my dear. Only you”. She continues to be the sweet and loveable motherly type as she watches him sip his deadly
tea. The genius writing style of Roald Dahl is the main contributing factor to these fascinating and deeply disturbing individuals. Saying very little, often says a lot. Roald Dahl beautifully does this by creating mental images of these characters by simply describing their manner. He evolves these sweet and innocent characters into the dark and murderous, yet loveable villain. Saivanee 6 Works cited Dahl, Roald. "Lamb to the Slaughter." Harper's Magazine September1953: 39-44. Print. Dahl, Roald. "The Landlady." New Yorker 28 Nov. 1959: 52. Print Meyerowitz, J. Not June Cleaver, Women and Gender in Post War America. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994. Skolnick, Arlene. “Embattled Paradise: The American Family in the Age of Uncertainity.” Basic Books 1991.
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...
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,
Through a feminist lens, it is evident that Mary is a product of the attitudes of her society in the mid-twentieth century, where patriarchal views are still in power. As a pregnant woman, Dahl portrays Mary as feeling that she needs her husband to take care of her and their child for both social and financial stability. This emphasizes the unequal gender roles of that time, where women are subordinate to men. Additionally, through a psychoanalytic lens, one can agree that Mary’s rejection of her husband’s news shows her Id response. Although Mary’s consciousness recognizes the situation, her unconscious mind is trying to repress the pain.
In Roald Dahl’s “Lamb to the Slaughter” Mary Maloney is put in this exact situation. Mary ends up killing her husband with a leg of lamb because of the news he told her. The question being asked is Mary Maloney a psychopath or is she just a normal housewife driven to extreme measures?. She waited eagerly for her husband to come home from work, she truly cared about him she didn't really have to act, she also looked so upset when the policemen were talking to her, so those reasons make it clear that she was a normal housewife.
During the course of the novel Mary becomes more vigorous and courageous. She is the one who takes the initiative to save her mother when Caleb loses hope. As the novel progresses she becomes more and more courageous. To sneak around and attack who used to be your best friends and defile the law takes a lot of courage. One of the greatest examples is that she will do anything to save her mother. This is shown when Mary and Caleb kill a lamb to scare Constable Dewart, “A hooded figure jumped out from behind the boulder, but instead of a human face, the head of a sheep stared at constable Dewart” (257).
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 ...
One of Dahl's more popular short fiction stories for adults is "Lamb to the Slaughter." I am going to be using this story in my comparison against another Murder Mystery called "Speckled Band" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
“Her first instinct was not to believe any of it, to reject it all” (319). In the short story by Roald Dahl, Mary was a devoted housewife who later on turns into a cunning, deranged housewife. Mary Maloney is a woman who is 6 months pregnant, happily married to her husband Patrick. One day he comes home acting unusual and wants to tell Mary something, but she keeps interrupting him trying to make supper for him. Next thing you know Mary goes to the freezer grabs a leg of lamb walks behind him and hits him in the head. To identify the language that portrays the emotions and the changing of her emotions, this essay traces the emotions of Mary and how she changes throughout the story.
One of Dahl’s most prominent styles used to highlight betrayal throughout the story is point of view. The point of view of the story is told in is third-person limited, meaning the reader only gets to read the thoughts of one character. That character was Mary Maloney, the main character and wife of Patrick Maloney. Hearing only one characters view of events can make readers opinions biased, meaning the feelings they feel towards characters are from the influence of Mary Maloney. The readers do not know what Patrick Maloney is thinking so it is hard for readers to sympathize him in the beginning of the story when he tells Mary he wants a divorce (Dahl). As one critic stated, readers are unable to see into his mind, he is immediately marked as the antagonist (Bertonneau). Another critic believed that having no knowledge of his motives made his actions seem inexcusable.
She doesn't scream, cry, plead, question or demand answers. Her calm response intensifies the suspense. She confidently gets a frozen lamb leg out of the freezer and hits her husband over the head. Even though readers first see Mary as a stereotypical submissive housewife
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.
In the story “ Lamb to the slaughter “ by Roald Dahl, the main character, Mary Maloney is devoted to her husband and also portrayed to be a clever woman when it comes to murdering her husband. Mary Maloney is highly devoted towards her husband in the beginning of the story. Her devotion is shown as the character says “ she loves to luxuriate in the presence of this man “ ( Roald Dahl, pg #177 ) because she is a very caring person and is willing to do whatever it takes to keep patrick in her life. Spending the day alone while Patrick is at work gets Mary to only love one part of the day, as the narrator mentioned “ for her this was always a blissful time of the day “ ( Roald Dahl, pg #177 ).
Mary Maloney is a character from the story “Lamb of the Slaughter” written by author Roald Dahl. Mary Maloney as a character in the story has a lot of versatile characteristics. Her most versatile characteristics are that she’s very patient, clever and brave. First, Mary Maloney is a very patient individual. Even after she’s been waiting for her husband to come back home for a long period of time, but she is still able to be calm and keep “[looking] at the clock [without showing any type of] anxiety [or frustration].” The fact that she kept her self-calm and relaxed in the point of situation where she needed him the most, shows that she has a lot of patience. Secondly, Mary Maloney’s a clever woman. She knew in order to keep herself safe from
With strange characteristics Mary and Patrick Maloney, from “Lamb to the Slaughter” are written in with many levels of personality. Mary’s almost psychopath behavior, and Patrick’s monotone personality. In the beginning of the passage the author gives a very calming tone witch is carried until her husband Patrick arrives home, changing the tone. He is off in that “He lifted his glass and drank it down in one swallow…” (1).
Maloney dialed Molly, addressing Patrick’s feebleness, so they could not go over for dinner. Subsequently, Mary departed the house to the supermarket gaily. Without tears, Mrs. Maloney communicates with Sam, the man behind the counter. As soon as Mary arrived, she messed up everything in the interior of the house, to act as if someone else committed the murder. Right after, Mary called the police. With pseudo character, Mrs. Maloney exclaimed the tragic death to the investigators. Even with all the interrogation, the only comment Mary exposed included the fatigue in Patrick Maloney. Though examining the crime scene, the clever detectives observed Patrick transpired to be hit with a club-like object. In addition, the investigators conjectured the murder was not premeditated. At last, the policemen, detectives, and the photographer ended up eating the lamb leg. Inevitably, Mary Maloney escaped murder; yet, Mrs. Maloney was the criminal all along. With Roald Dahl’s specialties, he added irony into the story. We, as readers were conscious about Mrs. Maloney being the culprit; however, the characters in the story never realized the truth. Verbal irony is expressed within the true clues of the officers, “the weapon could be right under our noses”. Lastly, the situation irony comes into play when the investigators, photographer, and policemen devour the lamb