Lamb To The Slaughter Comparison

In the stories, “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin and “Lamb of the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl both have a similar aspect in furthering the plot and creating an aesthetic impact on its target audience. In the story, “The Story of an Hour”, Mrs. Mallard not only has heart trouble but her husband was pronounced dead. Whereas, in “Lamb to the Slaughter”, Mary Maloney kills her husband after finding out that he was leaving her, while she was still pregnant. Furthermore, what makes these stories similar is having two female protagonist feeling strong emotions towards their husband’s motives. Given this fact, “The Story of an Hour” uses a gloomy exposition and depressing ending whereas, “Lamb to the Slaughter” begins in a calm exposition to a clever ending in order for both of their stories to have a climactic resolution and have an aesthetic impact on its readers.

In the story, “The Story of an

The similarities these two stories share is, they both have female protagonist who are married and dealing with emotional states of their lives- Mary is pregnant and Mrs. Mallard has heart trouble. Also, both protagonists are young women who are living in a society where it is expected of a women to get married and have children. In addition, they both show two women who eventually realize that they can handle being single and free from the societal standards in the late 18th and early 19th century. However, they also differ because Mrs. Mallard is coping with her husband’s supposed death while Mary Maloney is done with her husband’s excuses and lies. Also, Mary murders her husband by the falling action unlike, Mrs. Mallard who dies towards the end of the story. Finally, each story proves to readers that despite the setting of the stories women can be happy and satisfied with being single and independent on their