Mary Maloney In Roald Dahl's Lamb To The Slaughter

“Lamb to the Slaughter” utilizes dramatic irony throughout the whole story. The most obvious example of dramatic irony is the fact that the readers know the main character Mary Maloney killed her husband. Mary kills her husband by hitting him on the back of the head with a frozen leg of lamb. She then goes out to the grocer in order to act like nothing has happened. When she returns home she calls the police and says, “Quick! Come quick! Patrick’s dead!”(Dahl 6). This quote uses dramatic irony because the reader is aware that Mary kills her husband, but the police are not. In this short story dramatic irony adds an element of suspense because the reader wants to know whether or not Mary will be caught for what she does. Details also play a big role in “Lamb to the Slaughter”. The details that make the biggest impact on the story are the ones that aren’t given. Mary Maloney’s husband, Patrick Maloney, comes home from work one day and is acting strange. He tells Mary to sit down because he has something to tell her. By this point the readers are suddenly cut out from the conversation and the brought back in when Patrick then says, “So there it is. And I know it’s kind of a bad time to tell you, but there simply wasn’t any other way.”(Dahl 3). The readers don’t know what Mary Maloney’s husband Patrick says, but it affects her in a negative way and is likely the reason she killed him. The unknown details of this story make the reader wonder what happened and want to keep reading

In Roald Dahl’s short story “Lamb to the Slaughter” , Mary Maloney murders her husband, a detective, after he declares that he is leaving her. Mary then has to cover her tracks or else she and her unborn child will be killed. Throughout the story, Mary’s character changes from loving wife to cold killer and back again based on her situation.

In the short story “Lamb To The Slaughter”, written by Roald Dahl, the two main characters, Mary and Patrick Maloney, show many emotions and the emotions are portrayed in certain ways depending on how Dahl uses word choice and figurative language. Throughout the story the emotions of the characters change and alter depending on how specific events happen and show how the character will react in the situation, whether it be good or bad. Mary and Patrick Maloney have very different emotions towards each other and it’s very surprising to see how the emotions change during the course of the story.

Emotive language and dialogue was a literary technique that Roald Dahl used in order to explore the idea of stereotypical gender roles which was a common societal issue particularly in the 1950s. Lamb to the Slaughter tells of a couple during the 1950s who followed the stereotypical couple concept of having a housewife and a husband working a middle-class job. Through the Maloney’s relationship it can be seen how Mary Maloney fulfilled and had a desire of wanting to provide and care for her husband using her skills of a housewife. This can be perceived in the quote; “I’ll get you cheese and crackers.” This informs readers that her nature and manner of wanting to please and satisfy the needs of her husband is very important to her. In response to Mary her husband replied with “I don’t want it”. The issue of gender roles/gender hierarchy in this particular situation encouraged Mary’s contentment of wanting to murder her husband which may have been initiated because of the imbalance within their relationship. Patrick Maloney’s reply to his wife portrays a disrespectful and inconsiderate attitude which represents the dominance and power that he has within the relationship. His authority within their relationship may have been generated because of his role as a provider for his wife. Another quote by Mr. Maloney states “sit down, just for a minute sit down,” this represents the type of relationship and interaction that the couple reflects. Their relationship shows no negotiation and inequality within the relationship; Patrick who is an educated detective, whereas Mary was just a

You wouldn’t expect the lamb to kill the man. “ Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl is a about a women named Mary Maloney that killed her husband. Mary’s husband tells her that he is leaving her. Not knowing what to do to try to keep her husband, she gets a leg of lamb and hits her husband in the back of the head and kills him. She quickly covers her tracks and fools the police, offering them the leg of the lamb for dinner to get rid of the evidence. Therefore Roald Dahl’s use of irony throughout the story, builds up a understanding of Mary Maloney.

Roald Dahl, a British novelist, offered his readers a classical short story, “ Lamb to the Slaughter,” with the tale of betrayal, justice, injustice and passivity. Two main characters of the story are detective Mr. Patrick and Ms. Patrick who live in small town. Roald Dahl tries to reflect human nature of perversity, and cruelty through the “ Lamb to the Slaughter”. As the story progresses, theme of love, passion, betrayal and injustice grow stronger. Author smartly shows us how an idle wife becomes a smart criminal to take the revenge of her betrayal and successes to trick officers.

In the short story Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl the husband that comes home early one day with bad news. He told his pregnant wife something. It was really shocking to her, and in the story it said that she got really sad. He then says that he would give her money and see that she is looked after. When she heard the news she went downstairs to the basement and got a frozen lamb to cook him. When she came up, he heard her and could tell that she wanted to make him supper. So he told her that he was going out so she doesn’t have to make it, but he said it in quite a rude manner and she seemed bothered by this because right after he said that she hit him in the head with the frozen lamb and he died. After she seen what she has done,

Authors use literary elements dramatically in short stories to influence a certain feeling on the reader or to send out a certain message to the audience. Throughout the stories, “The Interlopers” and “Lamb to the Slaughter”, both authors use elements to make their story appealing to the reader. Saki, the author of “The Interlopers” uses his examples of literary elements precisely and tremendously, which makes his story better than Dahl’s “Lamb to the Slaughter”.

Characterization is an important component in short story writing. In the short story "Lamb to the Slaughter" written by Roald Dahl, we are introduced to Mary Maloney, a pregnant housewife who recently found out that her husband is going to leave her. Mary develops into a very complex character as the events of the short story unfold. Mary is a typical housewife, waiting on her husband hand and foot. She loves him dearly, but as the short story unfolds, we see that he does not share the same feelings. Mary, unable to handle the rejection, lashes out and kills her husband. We then see Mary’s character transform before our eyes and the once loving, dutiful housewife becomes a very devious, manipulative and cold hearted character. She manages

A story may depend on the structure of the book and how well it flows from page to page, but yet it strictly depends on the word choice and how effective the author is able to apply rhetorical devices. Stories such as A Separate Piece, A&P, and The Man I Killed, is able to effectively portray the character’s emotion, thoughts, and the intent of their actions. The authors use heroic, rhetorical strategies to reveal Tim, Gene and Sammy’s struggle to overcome their own selfless desires and ignorance toward the consequences, resulting with each protagonist’s life lesson.

Additionally, Dahl used situational and dramatic irony as literary devices in “Lamb to the Slaughter”. An example of dramatic irony used in the story is when Mrs. Maloney requests that the police eat the murder weapon, the frozen lamb leg. The author says, “It’d be a favor to me if you’d eat it up” (Dahl). This expresses dramatic irony because the police think she is asking them to eat the lamb to be polite, but in reality Mrs. Maloney just wanted to get rid of the murder weapon. An example of situational irony used is when Mary Maloney kills her husband with a frozen lamb leg because she was displayed as a loving wife who was obsessed with her husband and his happiness, but then she shocks the reader by killing him. The author states, “At that point, Mary Maloney simply walked up behind him and without any pause 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” (Dahl).

“Lamb to the Slaughter” is told with details that Dahl chose and put around into patterns to cause the reader to go above and beyond to find the meanings in the story. A point is made to is made to Mary’s large, dark eyes in the story, sensing her calm personality; they are pointed towards again when she has Patrick’s friends to eat the leg of lamb, revealing this time how sneaky Mary is. Police don’t suspect Mary of anything because she has made up a solid alibi. Dahl’s usage of irony is quite funny. The police officers eat the leg of lamb and discuss trying to find the weapon used to kill Patrick. The officers’ believed that as soon as they finish eating they will be able to find the weapon. The story makes sense a world that is orderly,

Erika Hernandez Mrs. Briscoe English I Honors 7 September 2017 The Leg of the Lamb Killer The author wants us to understand that violent behavior and violence can happen when people get mad at each other or one is mad at the other. Violence is not a way to solve your problems, however it is for Mary Maloney.

As of 2015, the estimated number of murders in the US was 15,696 (“Latest Crime Statistics Released”). From 1993 to 2008, 73-79% of murders were committed by someone the victim knew (Harrell). Murders make the news almost every day, with multiple ones occurring every hour. When the suspect murderer is caught, they are put on trials that often take a while to process through the court system. Pleading not guilty to the felony is common, as death row is a likely outcome. This leads to the case for temporary insanity, in which the person who has supposedly killed the other person(s) was not aware of their actions during the crime. However, these cases are often unsuccessful in proving the insanity of the defense. The character Mary Maloney, in the short story “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl, is guilty of and fully aware of her actions in her death of her husband Patrick. This is made clear by the amount of thought put into her actions immediately following the homicide, the analysis of how the scene would look, and her reaction to his death.

In 'Lamb to the Slaughter', Dahl utilises a variety of techniques and concepts to create tension and drama. For instances, the title itself is a source of underlying tension, in which Dahl has cleverly incorporated deception to give a twist to the story. Moreover, the way Dahl establishes his settings as well as his characterisation of his characters also gives rise to tension. In short, Dahl has intentionally orchestrated this story in such a way that our thoughts are manipulated as we read through this thriller story.