Roald Dahl's 'Lamb To The Slaughter'

Literary Theme Essay

Roald Dahl’s eerie story, “Lamb to the Slaughter,” is a cold and thrilling fiction which is based on Mary Maloney, a cruel and wicked psychopath who kills her husband and easily gets away with it. The naive police do not suspect her because she was the victim’s wife. Hence, the main idea popping out in this creepy and cold story is the ineffectiveness of judging people based on their position, situation or appearance. Ever since the police and detectives arrived at Maloney’s house to investigate, they’ve been exceptionally considerate to her. They offered an unusual kindness that might have not been given to everyone in the same situation as her. Of course, Maloney takes perfect advantage of that and manipulates them when she asks, “Would you like a drink? You must be extremely tired,” and the gullible policemen- without any doubt answer by saying, “Well. It’s not allowed by police rules, but since you’re a friend.” This part really emphasizes the detectives’ unique kindness for Mary Maloney just because she is a “friend,” as they would

It can in this particular story as Roald Dahl expresses an innocent lamb’s leg to be a slaughter weapon and nobody expects it. The police, audience nor Mary Maloney anticipated it. Everyone expected it to be a gloomy meal when Roald Dahl wrote: “ ‘I’ll fix some supper,’ she whispered- It was wrapped in paper, so she took off the paper and looked at again -- a leg of lamb.” Nobody could have even guessed the true meaning of the lamb’s leg because of its position. The word “lamb” itself carries an innocent essence with it, which provokes us to deduce it to be an innocent meal until, “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-” Consequently, is it really also that safe to judge items based on their position or