The Landlady And Lamb To Slaughter

Why go to that extreme? To protect yourself? Your unborn child? Even when he said "I hope you don't blame me to much." Raold Dahl has written many short but widely read stories such as, 'The Landlady' and 'Lamb to slaughter'. Lamb to slaughter is about a pregnant woman named Mary, whose husband is leaving her and their unborn child, and in a state of panic, she beats him to death with a leg of lamb. The ideas we address in this story are, what made her snap? Why did she do what she did? What compelled her to kill the man she loved? Can Lamb to slaughter really be justified as a story of love?

This story is justified as one of love because she killed him to protect her unborn fetus. "What about the baby?" is the first thing she asks herself.

She is worried about the well being of her child, like any good parent would. She acts like she did before, like she didn't just beat her husband with a leg of lamb. She hides the crime she has committed to keeping her son or daughter safe, to keep him or her from ever asking themselves "What was so wrong with me that my own father and mother didn't want me?" The need to protect her child along with her pregnancy hormones caused her mind to shut down for just a second. She obviously wasn't in her right mind, all she wanted was to protect the baby. To spare him or her from growing up without a father knowing that his or her father is out there, alive and well and never once did he try to contact him or her, to go through life knowing they had a father who didn't want them and didn't love them.

Another reason this story could be justified as one of love is because she loved him so much she cooked for him, cleaned for him, got him anything he asked her for, and all she wanted in return was for him to love her as a husband and wife should love each other. She waited for him at the door when he came home from work, and as soon as he was home she asked "How was your day darling?" She made him put his feet up and asked if he was tired and got him an alcoholic beverage. She did everything for him and he repaid her by leaving her while she was pregnant with his child.

She acted as the obedient wife, she loved him to the point of obsession and when he said he was leaving her she just, snapped. He was going to leave her, after everything she had done for him, he was going to leave her. At first she thought she heard him wrong, then he said it again. When she killed him she must have thought "If I can't have him, no one can." Even if she did kill him, she was still shocked to see he was actually dead when she came home from the store, which leads me to believe even more that she had some sort of a mental break.

This story can and will be justified as a story of love because She did it for herself, and her child. She did it so her child wouldn't grow up knowing it's father didn't want him or her. She did it because all she wanted was his love and after everything she did for him he couldn't even give her that. Lastly she did it because her love for him bordered on obsession and she must have thought "If I can't have him, nobody can." It is hard to say if all this is accurate, but somehow you kinda get it right? This is most defiantly a love story. Every reason she had for doing this, she did it out of the love in her heart. For her child and for herself.