Lamb To The Slaughter Theme

The “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl started starts in Mary Maloney’s living room. Mary was eagerly waiting for her husband to come home. Her husband, Patrick, was a policeman. Mary was six months pregnant with a child. Patrick came home and was extremely tired after a long day at work. Mary made him an alcoholic beverage and they sat down. Patrick did not like to talk much right when he came home, so Mary stayed mostly silent. After fixing himself another drink, Patrick decided to tell Mary some devastating news. Patrick was leaving Mary, but said he would leave her some money. Mary was upset and could not believe it. Mary took a lamb’s leg, that was for supper, and hit Patrick in the head. Patrick was hit so hard that he died. To cover

The reader notices how certain characters are fooled throughout the story. The police officers had no idea that they were eating the weapon that Mary used to kill her husband. A major theme in the story is betrayal. Patrick betrays Mary when he tells her that he is leaving. Mary betrays Patrick by murdering him, while his back was turned. Roald Dahl was a huge troublemaker when he was young, which could relate to the way Mary acts in the story. Mary was very mischievous after she killed Patrick. She used her acting skills to pretend like she didn’t know how he died. This may have been similar to the way Roald Dahl acted when he was a child in that he was a troublemaker and a mischievous child. At the beginning of the story, Mary is characterized as a loving wife, but later she is depicted in a deceptive manner. Mary seems to be a person who quickly retaliates, which is shown when she kills her husband. Roald Dahl did an amazing job of developing Mary’s character throughout the story. Mr. Dahl displayed Patrick as a person who was stressed out. This was shown when Patrick came home and fixed himself multiple drinks. The mood of the story seemed depressing, but also suspenseful. Throughout the story, Roald Dahl creates suspense by allowing the reader to understand what is going on, but the characters are unaware. Roald Dahl does a fantastic job of displaying suspense throughout the

Mary killed Patrick because she was so worked up about him leaving her. If she had more time to think about her decision, I do not believe she would have killed Patrick. This seems to correlate to gun laws and the way people react. There is an amount of time that a person has to wait to receive the gun they purchased. I now understand that it is important to have this law in place. I understand because of the way Mary reacted and all she had was the leg of a lamb. I enjoyed reading the story, because it was very suspenseful, which appeals to me. I originally chose this story because Roald Dahl has written some great pieces of literature and I enjoyed “The Landlady”. I did not like the way the police officers and detectives acted. It did not seem believable to me that the detectives would bypass the lamb’s leg as a possible weapon. A part of the story that stood out to me was when Mary killed Patrick. It was incredibly shocking that she would act in that way. I really like Roald Dahl and his stories are fantastic to read. Overall this story was a quality read and I would definitely encourage others to read this