Lamb To The Slaughter Literary Analysis

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. This essay will explain those literary elements, how they allow

In particular the scene of Patrick's death imagery is used to make his death more realistic and easy to see in the minds eye for the reader. “At this point Mary Maloney simply walked up behind him and 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 his head” (Dahl 320). The use of the words, swung, big frozen leg, high in the air are all words and phrases that dramatise the events in the story. Without those words the story would not have the same effect or impact on the reader.”The violence of the crash, the noise, the small table overturning, helped bring her out of the shock.” (Dahl 320). This is another example of the use of imagery. The words, the crash, the noise, table overturning all add to the scene that is happening in the story. It really makes the image in our mind's eye so much more vivid and contributes to the story by allowing us as the readers to be able to relate more to what is