Irony In Lamb To The Slaughter And Trifles

The Use of Irony to Empathize Men’s Idiocy
Throughout the investigations in “Lamb to the Slaughter” and “Trifles,” the authors use irony to emphasize the men’s idiocy and arrogance and highlight women’s perceptiveness.

The authors use dramatic irony to emphasize the men’s idiocy. One example of this is in Trifles. The women had just finished hiding evidence as the men walked in. Glaspe wrote, “ ‘Well, Henry, at least we found out that she was not going to quilt it. She was going to — what is it you call it, ladies?’ “ (175) The men are more concerned with making jokes about what they consider the women's trifles than looking for evidence. Their arrogance keeps them preoccupied, and unable to appreciate any helpfulness the women might offer,

While investigating the death of Mrs. Maloney’s husband, Mrs. Maloney requests a drink. “ ‘Sure I’ll give you a drink. You mean this whiskey? ‘ ‘Yes, please. But just a small one. It might make me feel better.’ He handed her the glass. ‘Why don’t you have one yourself,’ she said. ‘You must be awfully tired. Please do. You’ve been very good to me.’ ”(Dahl 105)Dahl. The police officers naively accept Mrs. Maloney’s offer, even though they comment they shouldn’t be drinking on the job. Mary takes advantage of their naiveness about her motives to get them to drink, which further impairs their judgment. Likewise, in Trifles when the men are looking around the kitchen the county attorney said “ ‘No — it’s not cheerful. I shouldn’t say she had the homemaking instinct.’ ” (Glaspell 46) Glaspell. The police, who are looking for a motive, don’t understand see how untidiness can indicate a motive. The men are too naive to understand how the untidiness affects the motive in the investigation. In Lamb to the Slaughter while the men are searching for the murder weapon, Mary pleads for them to eat the lamb cooked in the oven. “ ‘Would you do me a small favor you and these others?’ ” ‘You must be terribly hungry by now because it’s long past your supper time, and I know Patrick would never forgive me, God bless his soul, if I allowed you to remain in his house without

In Trifles, while the men are investigating elsewhere, Mrs. Halethe women searches the kitchen for clues. “(to the other woman) ‘Oh, her fruit; it did freeze. (to the LAWYER) She worried about that when it turned so cold. She said the fire’d go out and her jars would break.’ ” (Glaspell 31)Glaspell. The men fail to view the breaking of the jars through a detective mindset, which is the opposite of what you would expect. The women see that because the jars broke, it must have been cold. The cold indicates to the women that the living condition wasn’t the best which could be an indicator of a motive. Furthermore, the women examine while examining Minnie’s quilting sewing work, the women discover signs of seething anger in her erratic stitches:. “(examining another block) ‘Mrs. Peters, look at this one. Here, this is the one she was working on, and look at the sewing! All the rest of it has been so nice and even. And look at this! It’s all over the place! Why, it looks as if she didn’t know what she was about!’ (After she has said this they look at each other, then start to glance back at the door. After an instant MRS HALE has pulled at a knot and ripped the sewing.) (Glaspell #?). The men that are supposed to be detectives don’t notice the small thing like the “queer” sewing. The women are very perceptive so they notice it and realize it was likely all “queer” because she was enraged by