Examples Of Situational Irony In Lamb To The Slaughter

Sometimes people make a good first impression on other people, and they can get fooled into thinking that they are genuinely a good person. In “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl, Mary, a sweet pregnant lady, is waiting for her beloved husband to come home from work; little does she know that he has bad news for her. In this short story, there are many examples of dramatic and situational irony. Roald Dahl uses different kinds of irony to create suspense, and make the reader want to find out more. One clear example of situational irony is when Mary, who appears to be a sweet lady, kills her husband. For example, Dahl wrote, “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

This example of situational irony adds suspense because the reader wonders if she will get caught, and it adds a plot twist to the story. Furthermore, another obvious example of irony occurs when the detectives are examining the corpse, and they come to a conclusion that he got hit in the head with a sharp, blunt object. For example, Roald Dahl solemnly states, “He had been killed by a blow on the back of the head administered with a heavy blunt instrument, almost certainly a large piece of metal” (8). This is ironic because the reader knows that the victim was killed with a frozen lamb leg, but the detectives think he got killed with a blunt metal object. This is an example of dramatic irony that creates suspense because it leaves the reader wondering if they will figure out that he got hit in the back of the head with the lamb leg. A third example of irony can be found when the detectives are eating the lamb leg and talking about the murder weapon. For example, Dahl says, “Personally, I think it’s right here on the premises. Probably right under our very nose”