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Examples Of Irony In Lamb To The Slaughter

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It isn’t Irony, it’s the Truth! In “Lamb to the Slaughter” and “Trifles,” the authors use irony to underscore the women’s acuity, as well as emphasize the men’s sexiest incompetence First, the authors of “Trifles” and “Lamb to the Slaughter” use irony to emphasize the men’s sexiest and most biased actions. For example, in the short play Trifles the male investigators on the crime scene completely disregard the kitchen as a place with criminal evidence. They believe that the only thing the kitchen contains is women’s culinary tools. Glaspell states, “ COUNTY ATTORNEY: (looking around) ‘I guess we’ll go upstairs first — and then out to the barn and around there, (to the SHERIFF) You’re convinced that there was nothing important here — nothing that would point to any motive.’ SHERIFF: ‘Nothing here but kitchen things.’”(3) In this example the …show more content…

Wright is the murderer of her husband. The strangled bird is almost a leading replica of the murdered husband; strangled at the neck. This bird is a key piece of evidence because it shows the motive for the murder of her husband. Mr. Wright was not a man that enjoyed noise, so when Mrs. Wright got the canary he most likely became annoyed. This lead him eventually to strangle the bird by the neck. Since Mrs. Wright does not have any children, this canary almost replaces this aspect that she is missing. The death of her almost “child figure” would lead Mrs. Wright to eventually murder her husband, the same way as her bird was killed. The women use this secret evidence as a way to side with the woman, even Mrs. Peters who is deemed to be “married to law” eventually sides with Mrs. Wright. This is an example of situational irony because the sheriff’s wife, Mrs. Peters, begins to secretly tamper and drift the case away from the truth Therefore, the irony the authors use helps to highlight the womens rebellious nature throughout these

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In the suspenseful short story, “Lamb to the Slaughter,” Roald Dahl uses dramatic irony to show that appearances can be deceiving because someone that appears weak and innocent could actually be guilty. For example, when Mary Maloney is at the store and she says, “Patrick's decided he's tired and he doesn't want to eat out tonight,”. This shows theme because Mary is just playing the part of the caring housewife who is willing to cook supper for her husband just because he’s tired. This also demonstrates dark humor because the reader knows she killed him, not what the grocer now believes. Furthermore, when the detectives are eating the lamb and a detective said “ Personally, I think the weapon is somewhere near the house.”

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Hales exclaims: “She – come to think of it, she was kind of like a bird herself – real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and – fluttery. How – she – did – change” (Glaspell 1044). Mrs. Hale clearly admits that the canary represents Minnie Foster, who once was that sweet, fluttery girl that was transformed into the lonely, depressed Mrs. Wright by years of her husband's neglect and emotional abuse. Additionally, the word “dead” next to bird suggest that Mrs. Wright is emotionally and mentally “dead.” For example, in the beginning of the play, Mrs. Wright displayed some usual sense of emotion or feelings towards her death of her husband, such as, her laughter and fearful look (Glaspell 1039-40).

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Mrs. Wright In Susan Glaspell's Trifles

699 Words | 3 Pages

The scene begins to unfolds in their minds. Mr. Wright yanking open the cage door, taking out the bird, and breaking its fragile neck was enough to make Mrs. Wright lash out, and in a heat of passion, kill her husband. As the trifles collect,  the women worry that the men will see their findings, and have what they need to prove Mrs. Wright guilty. Though the men believe her to be the murderer, the women are trying their best to hide the evidence that will prove it.

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Jury Of Her Peers By Susan Glaspell

801 Words | 4 Pages

Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters contemplate this disturbing discovery, and they wonder who else could be capable of this act of violence. They know Mrs. Wright surely did not do it, as she cared for the bird greatly, she even “used to sing real pretty herself” and the women have already concluded “she would’ve liked a bird.” That leaves Mr. Wright, and due to the fact that he broke the birdcage, it is only reasonable that he killed the bird as well. This realization that the women make leads them to what the men have been searching for all day, a motive. Mr. Wright likes the quiet, so he killed the singing canary which happens to be the only thing bringing happiness to Mrs. Wright.

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Comparing 'The Yellow Wallpaper And A Jury Of Her Peers'

1006 Words | 5 Pages

The men of the group, much like John in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” consider themselves more capable than the women and refuse to consider Mrs. Wright as anything other than irrational. The men leave the women to their “trifles” on the first floor, where they discover a broken bird cage, and the bird’s body, broken, carefully wrapped in a small, decorative box. They realize that Mr. Wright had wrung the neck of his wife’s beloved bird and broken its cage. Mrs. Wright, once known for her cheerfulness and beautiful singing, she stopped singing when she encountered Mr. Wright. Just like he did with the bird, Mr. Wright choked the life out of his wife until, finally, Mrs. Wright literally choked the life out of her husband.

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874 Words | 4 Pages

Wright it is easy to tell that she is not at all upset about her husband’s death. When being asked about the situation she “laughed and pleated her skirt” (4). Mrs. Wright is compared to a bird that is found later in the story. The bird was found in a pretty box with marks around its neck. Hale and Peters say that the death of her bird would have been her motive if she actually was her husband’s murderer, but the author utilizes the bird and its broken cage to be a comparison to Mrs. Wright’s life.

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A Jury Of Her Peers Symbolism Analysis

734 Words | 3 Pages

The dead canary and its cage was a pivotal piece of evidence that the women discovered. The dead bird represents the old Mrs. Wright— Minnie Foster and its cage represents how she was

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1489 Words | 6 Pages

Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are hiding the main evidence from the Sheriff and county attorney; for instance, the canary. Without this key evidence they will have no reason to blame Mrs. Wright for her husband's death. At this point in the passage, the women are still in the kitchen conversing, while the men are going all over the house looking for clues, only to see the already discovered body. The women are not sure what to do with Mrs. Wright’s bird, but they now know that Mrs. Wright did in fact kill her husband. “Martha Hale snatched the box from the sheriff's wife, and got it in the pocket of her big coat just as the sheriff and the county attorney came back into the kitchen.”

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A Jury Of Her Peers Essay

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As the two women are tidying up the house, Mrs. Peters discovers an empty birdcage. The two women continue their work throughout the house, but upon closer inspection Mrs. Peter finds that the door of the birdcage is broken. This specific incident makes the women grow suspicious of what may have happened to the bird that was in it. Upon further research, John Wright’s neighbor explained that John was a “hard man,” and that he was also “like a raw wind that gets to the bone” (555). This description of John Wright shows the aggressive and harsh side of Mr. Wright that not a lot of people may necessarily know about him besides people who live with him or live in close proximity to him.

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Perceiving Evidence In Susan Glaspell's Trifles

796 Words | 4 Pages

In Susan Glaspell's play “Trifles,” there is a difference between the men and women’s way of perceiving evidence to Mr. Wright’s murder case. The men spend most of their time searching for solid evidence upstairs where Mr. Wright's murder takes place. However, the women spend most of their time in Mrs. Wright’s kitchen. Instead of seeking tangible evidence, they inspect the condition of the items and acknowledge how they have been muddled around. Different perspectives lead to a variety of discoveries such as the women’s way of perceiving evidence.

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A Jury Of Her Peers Analysis

767 Words | 4 Pages

When the women unwrap the bird, Mrs. Peters notices that “somebody wrung its neck.” It does not make sense for Mrs. Wright to kill her own bird because it was the only thing that brought light into her life. She cared about it so much that she wrapped it in such an expensive fabric, silk, even when she scarcely has enough money for essentials, such as clothing. While Mrs. Hale is examining Mrs. Wright’s clothing, she holds up a “shabby black skirt that bore the marks of much making over.” This suggests that she would put the bird in front of her own well—being, so she would not kill the canary.

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747 Words | 3 Pages

Murder today is something that most people do not think about because we are so accustomed to it. Minnie Foster, a lively woman who loses her childhood and becomes a married unhappy lady, so unhappy she kills her own husband. Although at first we are introduced to the bird as the main symbol of the play, we discover that Mrs. Wright is the bird and Mr. Wright is the bird cage trapping her life. By looking at the symbolism of this play we begin to understand that when Mr. Wright killed the canary along with Mrs Wright’s childhood, the motive to kill Mr. Wright was set for Mrs. Wright with the rope.

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942 Words | 4 Pages

In the play, Mrs. Peters said, “We don’t know who killed the bird” Mrs. Hale said, “I knew John Wright.” This showed that John Wright’s not only killed the bird but killed Mrs. Wright in the inside as well. All over the play, you see that Mrs. Wright did not have a choice of killing her husband because she would have to live with the abuse or kill him to free herself from this pain she

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What Is The Evidence In A Jury Of Her Peers

690 Words | 3 Pages

Wright killed the canary and is also motive for Mrs. Wright to seek revenge. The women conclude that Mrs. Wright’s bird was her prized possession, the bird even reminds the women of Mrs. Wright, “‘She—come to think of it, she was kind of like a bird herself. Real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and—fluttery. How—she—did—change.’”

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How Is Irony Used In Trifles

737 Words | 3 Pages

When conversing the County Attorney says to the Sheriff, “You're convinced that there was nothing important here—nothing that would point to any motive” to which the Sheriff responds, “Nothing here but kitchen things”(Glaspell,Susan). The men are trying to prove Mrs.Wright committed murder however, their assumptions of women being weak causes them to ignore the kitchen when typically is considered to be the woman's domain where she probably spent most of her time. It is in the kitchen that Mrs.Hale and Mrs.Peters find the questionable unfinished piece of quilt, the birdcage, and the dead canary wrapped in Mrs.Wrights sewing box. The women's intellectual reasoning surpasses the men's basic detective skills, ironically creating a clever plot during the time period because it is the complete opposite of any role a woman would play in that

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