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Lamb Of The Slaughter Analysis

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The short story Lamb of the Slaughter by Ronald Dahl uses situational irony and dramatic irony. The use of the dramatic irony adds humor to the story. Whereas situational irony adds suspense, and leaves the audience wondering. The humor of dramatic irony is that we know how the husband died, and the cops do not . The audience learns that Mary Maloney "swung the big frozen leg of the lamb high in the air and brought it down as hard as she could on the back of his head" (pg. 360). Swinging the lamb of leg on her husband, killed him. When the cops showed up they could not figure out the weapon as it states: "That's why it ought to be easy to find" (pg. 368). This is humorous because the cops have no idea of what happened, but we know

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