Analyzing Dahl's 'Lamb to the Slaughter': Character and Structure

“Lamb to the slaughter” by Roald Dahl is a gripping short story with an interesting central character. Mary Maloney, a 1950s housewife, is completely infatuated with her husband, Patrick, until he declares he is leaving her so, in anger, she takes a frozen hunk of lamb and hits him over the head. He dies and she attempts to cover it up to prevent the killing of her unborn child and herself as, at this time she would be put to death. The writer effectively manages to make the reader sympathize with her through the use of characterisation and structure.

Dahl structures the short story very effectively. In the opening paragraph he clearly establishes the setting, helping to give an insight to the central character early on in the text. It is made clear that Mary

Maloney is a typical stay-at-home 1950s housewife:
“The room was warm and clean, the curtains drawn, the two table lamps alight”
From this, I get the impression that she is house-proud and trying to create a cosy, intimate atmosphere for her husband to return home to
In the following paragraph Dahl skilfully conveys her harmless appearance through her physical description:
“Her skin- for this was her sixth month with the child- had acquired a wonderful translucent quality, the mouth was soft, and the eyes, with their new placid look, seemed larger, darker than before.”
This vivid account of her innocent air helps to create a link to the title, leading the readers to believe she is the lamb being lead to slaughter portraying her as helpless.
Roald Dahl helps convey Mary Maloney’s happiness in their marriage through the use of characterisation. He clearly portrays her feelings for her husband when he describes the way she waits for him to return home:
“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 made it nearer to the time he would come”
Her patience shows her security and her complete trust in him. This makes the reader calm and trusting in him, helping to add to the contrast later on.
In addition to this after her husband arrives home the writer again conveys her endearment towards him through the use of a potent simile:
“She loved to luxuriate in the presence of this man, and to feel – almost as a sunbather feels in the sun- that warm male glow…”
I feel that this technique truly enhances the central characters profile as it sets her aside from other characters. The warmth she found in his presence helped keep up the image that her misplaced trust made her vulnerable.
I was drawn to the character when Dahl portrays her subservient role as this contrasts with what most women aspire to be like in this day and age. Roald Dahl reveals this side of her by writing the small tasks she does for her husband:
“She took his create and hung it in the closet”
This effectively shows the welcoming attitude Mary Maloney has towards her husband as well as the role she plays within the couple.
Roald Dahl effectively uses dialogue to establish the sharp distinction between Mary’s feeling towards Patrick and vice versa:
“Tired, darling?”
“Yes,” he said “I’m tired”
Patrick speech is consistently monosyllabic throughout the prose convincing me that he had no reciprocation of this complete infatuation. This led me to dislike his character as I felt that it was unfair for her to have false hope in their relationship. This added to my moral justification for her actions later in the story.
Mary Maloney was truly devastated after her husband who she was so helplessly infatuated with breaks up with her and makes the reader sympathetic for her. Roald Dahl manages to capture this intense emotion during this key incident by the use of an effective description of Mary’s feelings:
“Watching him with a kind of dazed horror as he went farther and farther away from her with each word.”
This has both a literal and metaphorical meaning: he is going to a different place and that the relationship is getting farther and farther from her grasp until nothing is salvageable.

When Dahl describes the incident itself he shows how she wouldn’t do anything like this if she were in her usual state of mind. He emphasises:

“Everything was automatic now”

This helps to create the impression that ‘fight or flight’ was starting to kick in and she was unable to control her actions. This is a key factor to influencing how we feel about her cover up and makes us side with her.

Roald Dahl impelled me to sympathize with her character by showing the predicament she is in.

“As the wife of a detective, she knew quite well what the penalty would be. That was fine. It made no difference to her. In fact, it would be a relief. On the other hand, what about the child? What were the laws about murderers with unborn children? Did they kill them both- mother and child? Or did they wait until the tenth month? What did they do?”

I believe it shows her caring attitude towards her unborn baby and this again makes you side with her. This crescendo of questions let us empathise to some extent the stress she was

enduring.
The author continues to create a sympathetic attitude towards her with his description of her grief after his death:
“All the old love and longing for him welled up inside her”
I strongly believe that this makes her character more interesting as it engages me making me want to find out how she covers it up.
At the end as the police are eating the lamb she used as the murder weapon Dahl effectively creates a sense of relief for her and in turn the reader:
“‘Probably under our very noses. What do you think Jack’ and in the other room Mary Maloney began to giggle.”
The giggling conveys her feeling of elation. She has got away with the incident and she and her baby are saved. It seemed to enhance the piece greatly to end on a high as if justice had been served. It made me find her character more interesting as many people would still be too broken to laugh therefore conveys her independence.
I felt that most of these aspects help to create the most interesting character, Mary Maloney. Roald Dahl made this happen through creating a gripping short story which keeps the reader entertained at all times through the theme of deception. He does this though many techniques such as characterisation, structure and key incident.