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Comparing Lamb To The Slaughter And The Possibility Of Evil

622 Words3 Pages

In both stories Mary Maloney and Miss. Strangeworth appear kind and loving but both demonstrate betrayal and hatred towards people at the end of both stories. Sometimes we get fooled by the appearance of others. In “ The possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson and “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl both share a common theme of appearance could be deceiving . At the beginning of “The Possibility of Evil” Mis. Strangeworth was caring about others when they were together,but when they left Mis. Strangeworth betrays them and talks negative about them. In “Lamb to the Slaughter” Mary murders her husband with a leg of lamb when he tells her that he is leaving her and acts like the protagonist but is the antagonist. In the beginning of “The …show more content…

She had a soft mouth, her eyes with their new placid look. She was waiting for her husband to come home from work to make dinner. He finally got home and he said he didn’t want dinner. He told her that he is leaving her but she will be fine. Mary gets up and goes to the cellar and grabs a frozen leg of lamb and walked to the living room. “ at this point, Mary Maloney simply walked up behind him and without a 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 4). Mary killed her husband because he was leaving her. She decides to go to the grocer so it looks like she is the protagonist but is the antagonist. She practices what she is going to say so it seems like she doesn’t know anything. She got to the grocer and acted calm and was talking about Patrick so that Sam wouldn’t be suspect anything. “ ‘ Patrick’s decided he’s tired and doesn’t want to go eat out tonight’ she told him ‘ we usually go out Thursdays, you know, and now he’s caught me without any vegetables in the house’”(Dahl 5). Mary is acting like her husband is still alive and is telling Sam how he is too tired to eat and she needs food to cook for him. Looks can be deceiving because she looks innocent at the grocer’s but in reality she has committed a crime and is covering it

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Compare And Contrast Lamb To The Slaughter And A Jury Of Her Peers

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Lamb to the Slaughter is an action packed short story about a wife who is let down by her husband and proceeds to kill him as an act of revenge. Obviously much more happens in this story consisting of humour, action, mystery and irony. Roald Dahl is a master of writing short stories in ways that attract readers, draw them into what is happening through using literary elements and universal themes to make the story relatable to the readers. In this story the main literary elements were foreshadowing, situation and dramatic irony, imagery and symbolism which really drew me in and kept me attached to the story. Literary elements are what make a story powerful and attracts readers to continue reading in the story and in this story they highlight the universal theme of Revenge and Betrayal.

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Character Analysis Of Lamb To The Slaughter Mary Maloney

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Lamb To The Slaughter Comparison

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