Throughout ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ and Gone Girl, Roald Dahl and Gillian Flynn originally portray their central female characters, Mary Maloney and Amy Dunne, as innocent and devoted wives. However, both authors essentially flip this perception of harmlessness upside down through the use of characterisation and reader positioning. Dahl uses imagery and irony, whilst Flynn uses first person, point of view dialogue, and symbolism to uncover the manipulative and unempathetic interior of the two female characters. This presents the two female characters as flaws not admirable, since both women evidently end up showing their true selves as wolves in sheep’s clothing.
Mary and Amy are both characterised as domesticated and fragile women with no …show more content…
Dahl uses dramatic irony to show how manipulative Mary is by allowing the audience to clearly understand the situation although the other characters do not. Mary took advantage of the sympathies the detectives and investigators had shown towards her as she manipulated them into eating the murder weapon. After the detectives say that the weapon is “probably right under [their] noses” that Mary “began to laugh” behind the open doors as they unknowingly continued to destroy their only evidence. She willingly put aside her morals to pretend, lie and manipulate her way out to remain the image of the perfect wife. Similarly, Amy also manipulated people in order to get her way. However, instead of toying around with a small handful of people, if she got it right, “the world will hate Nick for killing his beautiful, pregnant wife”. Flynn uses internal dialogue, as well as symbolism to present to the audience how conniving Amy really is. Since she is the way she is, she creates a diary, “minimum 300 entries on the Nick and Amy story. Start with the fairy-tale early days…you want Nick and Amy to be likable. After that, you invent”. The diary is a symbolism of deceit and manipulation as its been fabricated to give a false impression of events and of her personality. Amy created a fictional life within her diary and managed
Mary and Amy are both characterised as domesticated and fragile women with no …show more content…
Dahl uses dramatic irony to show how manipulative Mary is by allowing the audience to clearly understand the situation although the other characters do not. Mary took advantage of the sympathies the detectives and investigators had shown towards her as she manipulated them into eating the murder weapon. After the detectives say that the weapon is “probably right under [their] noses” that Mary “began to laugh” behind the open doors as they unknowingly continued to destroy their only evidence. She willingly put aside her morals to pretend, lie and manipulate her way out to remain the image of the perfect wife. Similarly, Amy also manipulated people in order to get her way. However, instead of toying around with a small handful of people, if she got it right, “the world will hate Nick for killing his beautiful, pregnant wife”. Flynn uses internal dialogue, as well as symbolism to present to the audience how conniving Amy really is. Since she is the way she is, she creates a diary, “minimum 300 entries on the Nick and Amy story. Start with the fairy-tale early days…you want Nick and Amy to be likable. After that, you invent”. The diary is a symbolism of deceit and manipulation as its been fabricated to give a false impression of events and of her personality. Amy created a fictional life within her diary and managed