Roald Dahl’s “Lamb to the Slaughter”
INTRODUCTION
My analysis of Roald Dahl’s short story “Lamb to the Slaughter” reveals the murder of police detective Patrick Maloney. The story depicts a tale of a loyal wife’s reaction to her husband’s betrayal. The story is an irregular day in Mary’s regular life. She makes the day turn around by murdering her husband and smartly covering it up, leaving the detectives with no possible way to excuse “innocent” Mary of murder. This short story, we are taught that we should treat others how we want to be treated or as we read about, serious consequences will happen. In this short story, Roald Dahl uses wide-ranging use of irony, character and symbols as Dahl’s primary elements of choice when writing this short story “Lamb to the Slaughter”.
PARAGRAPH 1
Within the short story Mary is perceived as a very clever person. After murdering her …show more content…
The lamb symbolizes Mary Maloney, a lady overcoming her weak point. A lamb is stereotyped as a weak animal that spends its whole life following the herd. This relates to Mary Maloney because she is a stay at home pregnant housewife, who scans all over her husband, doing anything and everything that needs to be done to make him thrilled. Not only does the reference Lamb to the Slaughter relate to Mary, Roald Dahl has made the murder weapon also a lamb. The lamb goes to slaughter as well when she insists the detectives eat all of the Lamb Roast. By murdering her husband, Mary overcomes her frail lamb status. This shows the destruction of the weak life she has always known to have. Mary’s new stereotype is a dominant woman, who can no go on living as a powerful figured mother. As mentioned in the passage “And in the other room Mary Maloney began to giggle”. This shows she feels accomplished of what she has done, and does not regret it at
INTRODUCTION
My analysis of Roald Dahl’s short story “Lamb to the Slaughter” reveals the murder of police detective Patrick Maloney. The story depicts a tale of a loyal wife’s reaction to her husband’s betrayal. The story is an irregular day in Mary’s regular life. She makes the day turn around by murdering her husband and smartly covering it up, leaving the detectives with no possible way to excuse “innocent” Mary of murder. This short story, we are taught that we should treat others how we want to be treated or as we read about, serious consequences will happen. In this short story, Roald Dahl uses wide-ranging use of irony, character and symbols as Dahl’s primary elements of choice when writing this short story “Lamb to the Slaughter”.
PARAGRAPH 1
Within the short story Mary is perceived as a very clever person. After murdering her …show more content…
The lamb symbolizes Mary Maloney, a lady overcoming her weak point. A lamb is stereotyped as a weak animal that spends its whole life following the herd. This relates to Mary Maloney because she is a stay at home pregnant housewife, who scans all over her husband, doing anything and everything that needs to be done to make him thrilled. Not only does the reference Lamb to the Slaughter relate to Mary, Roald Dahl has made the murder weapon also a lamb. The lamb goes to slaughter as well when she insists the detectives eat all of the Lamb Roast. By murdering her husband, Mary overcomes her frail lamb status. This shows the destruction of the weak life she has always known to have. Mary’s new stereotype is a dominant woman, who can no go on living as a powerful figured mother. As mentioned in the passage “And in the other room Mary Maloney began to giggle”. This shows she feels accomplished of what she has done, and does not regret it at