Lamb To The Slaughter Essay

Based on the 1953 short story by Roald Dahl, Alfred Hitchcock’s adaptation of Lamb to the Slaughter displays several changes that are critical to how the story unfolds. There are changes in scenes, characterization, ways the plot differs, etc. People say that the movies are never live up to the books, or short story in this case, but this adaptation gives the audience more detail than the story itself. One of the major changes is the dialogue that is added on in the adaptation and the dialogue that is removed from the short story.
Although some of the dialogue remains in place, majority of the dialogue in the adaption was added on, or removed. For example, in the beginning of the short story, Patrick responds to Mary when she welcomes him home, “‘Hullo darling,” he answered” (Dahl 1). In the episode, the dialogue is different in which she greets him, “Hello love” and he continues to walk toward the table to pour himself a glass of whiskey, ignoring her (Hitchcock). She continues to talk to him in the episode, but is unsuccessful in getting a response out of him. Straight from the beginning, the episode differs from the short story, in that Patrick is more insensitive. The added dialogue, or removed dialogue in this case, is necessary to paint Patrick as the cold, mean …show more content…
The way the dialogue differs in the adoption of Lamb to the Slaughter adds more surprise elements and gives more change in events than the short story does. One could argue that the adaption is better because of the detail that is put into making it, yet one could also argue that the short story is better because of the way both Mary and Patrick are portrayed, and that the adaption shifts their view of them. One could fall as a victim to the adaption for feeling sorry for Mary on a different level from reading the story, because of the extra detail provided, that shows her as a pregnant, distraught wife who acted on