Lamb To The Slaughter Structure

There are certain aspects of every story that makes literature unique to its author. The way that an author's structures there story can make its structure and style one of a kind. This can be seen in the stories “The story of an hour” and “lamb to the slaughter”. Though These two stories take largely different ways of structuring a marriage tragedy, both stories are still stories revoling around a wife dealing with the death of their husband . Through a plethora of rhetorical devices f , both authors make their own aesthetic impact and style of literature

The two stories begin in very different ways yet use the same structure. The story of an hour starts with Ms.mallard learning of her husband's death. The slaughter story starts with Ms.Maloney waiting for her husband to come home. Even with this, the two text use foreshadowing to structure the story from the start. In the first sentence we are told that Mrs.Mallard has a heart condition which ends up being a huge deal at the end of the story. In Ms.Maloney’s story the last sentence of paragraph 2 ends with ms. Mallards “mouth and her eyes with a calm new look seemed larger and darker then before”. This foreshadows the true intentions of ms.Maloney at the end of the story. This

device allows both authors to leave clues for the reader to later find which impacts the amount of times the reader will reread the story.

The rising action of the stories take rather odd turns, both stories third person perspective are written in abnormal ways. Ms.mallard goes through a slew of conflicting emotions. Learning of her husband’s death she is both sadden, yet joyful because she is now widowed but is also free to live the way she wants.the third person perspective. Howeve,r only gives you as much information as the charaters in the story know at a given time.In ms. Maloney’s story the perspective seems to be written like a dairy in third person.there are moments in the story in which the narrator talks as though it is Ms.maloney. For example the quote “All right, then, they would have lamb for supper.” The narrator does not refer this statement as a thought of Ms.maloney. Also this story is written in third person but only the feelings and thoughts of one character is told, ms.Maloney. Not to mention the only time any characters have dialog or move in the story is when Ms.maloney is in the room.

The climax of both stories not only are the turning points of the stories but also the start of the charter progressions of Ms.Mallard and Ms.maloney.In ms.mallards’s story the charater becomes over joyed at the fact that she is no longer cained by her mareriage and starts dreaming about her future.

In ms.Maloney’s story she acts shocked about her husband telling her something and then kills her husband. Then she devises a plan to go out and buy food giving her an alibi and call the police. While all this unfolds in the story you see both characters grow. Ms.mallard settles her conflicted emotions and realizes her new formed freedom. While ms.Maloney charater goes from being a loyal wife and selfish to being a calm, cold hearted

killer.