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Symbolism In Lamb To The Slaughter

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Symbolism in Lamb to the Slaughter
How could such a soft, gentle creature be used for such violence? In the short story, Lamb to the Slaughter, by Roald Dahl, symbolism was shown prominently. Mary Maloney and Patrick Maloney were happily married with a child on the way. Unfortunately, Mary Maloney was unaware of Patrick Maloney’s unhappiness and that he wanted to leave her. When she heard the news she tried to push it to the side like it did not happen and things started to escalate. Without thinking a great deal about what her next action was, she grabbed a frozen lamb leg out of the freezer and brutally slammed the savory lamb leg into her dear Patrick. With him dead, she had to get rid of the evidence and have an alibi to avoid getting arrested. She cooked the meat and went to the grocer. When she returned with vegetables, she called 911 and acted as if she had no idea. When the police arrived and had searched, Mrs.Maloney fed them the murder weapon. Throughout this spine chilling tale, symbolism is shown in the lamb leg, dinner, and makeup. …show more content…

At first, their love was alive and growing every day. When things were not per usual, the lam leg became a possible dinner. “‘Yes,’ he sighed. ‘I'm thoroughly exhausted.’ And as he spoke, he did an unusual thing. He lifted his glass and drank it down in one swallow although there was still half of it left. He got up and went slowly to get himself another drink.” (Dahl 1) This quote shows that Mr.Maloney was stressed and did not take telling his beloved wife that he would be leaving her lightly. Mrs.Maloney getting the lamb leg represents her getting the news that Mr.Maloney would be leaving to a new and better life for him. The frozen lamb leg represents Mrs.Maloney trying to pretend nothing was wrong with their love and how she wanted to stay frozen in time. Unfortunately, cooking the lamb leg represented the end of her husband's life and their dying

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Upon returning to the Maloney residence she acted as a distraught wife who had just found her dead husband. Mary Maloney then continued to cook dinner after the officers arrived, she told them it would calm her down, when in reality she was cooking the murder weapon. Mary Maloney does not stop there, she then begs the officers at the scene to eat the leg of lamb, telling them it would be doing her a favor. “ ‘Please,” she begged.

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Though a lot may disagree, Mary Maloney deserves some sympathy for killing her husband in Roald Dahl’s Lamb to the Slaughter. Mary Maloney deserves sympathy for killing her husband because, although murdering him would not have been the most reasonable way to deal with the betrayal of her husband Mr. Maloney was still a cold man. Patrick's brutal Diener is presented in the fact that Mary Maloney was six months pregnant and waiting for her husband to come home she states her favorite part of the day was to see him.

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For instance, Mary is dressed up waiting for her husband to get home, she is looking forward to going out to dinner with her husband. lamb to the slaughter Dahl writes, “she laid aside her sewing, stood up and went forward to kiss him as he came in.” (380). Mary loves her husband at the beginning of the story. She is expecting her first baby and

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The story “Lamb To The Slaughter” starts off with the pregnant wife Mary Maloney anxiously waiting for her husband, Patrick, to get home from work. She has two glasses and some drinks behind her and constantly looks at the clock. Every minute that passes satisfies her. This shows that she is very lonely at home by herself and waits around for him all day. When Patrick gets home from work she quickly jumps up from her sewing and kisses him as he walks through the door.

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Mary Maloney “simply walked up” behind Patrick and struck him with a “big frozen leg of lamb” “as hard as she could”. This completely contrasts the starting character of Mary as a housewife whom was patiently waiting for her husband to return home, which no one had expected. She did it “simply” which moulds an image of her not needing to think through her action, effortless and swift. The readers would be disgusted at how fast her character changes, thus suspense would be created as they would constantly question themselves about how it was possible. Additionally, after she struck her husband, she thought that it was “funny” on how “he remained standing” for a while.

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It's almost as if Mrs. Maloney is trying to prove her innocence in the situation. Another interesting statement from one of the police officers helping themselves “That's the hell of a big club the gut must've used to hit poor Patrick" (dahl 124). although the officer might have stated this as a joke. It's noticeable that the size of the Lamb matches the description of the murder weapon the policemen are looking for.also when the men arrived the lamb was heating up in the oven meaning it had not been long since Mrs. Maloney has started on making the dinner, and the victim was hit in the head , it is possible to believe that “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

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I’m defending Mary in the short story, “The Lamb to Slaughter,” written by Roald Dahl. I am pleading for my client, Mary who is not guilty in the murder of Mr. Maloney. Mary would have never murder her husband, because she is six months pregnant. She couldn’t lift the heavy weapon used to kill him while carrying a baby. Mrs. Maloney was at the neighborhood grocery store at the same time the murder happened.

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Throughout the story, Dahl used the leg of the lamb as a symbol to show the cowardice in Mary. Also what occurred was “Don’t make supper for me i’m going out.” (Patrick 2) this is a perfect example of symbolism because Patrick used going out to supper instead of having Mary cook for him. Instead of owning up and being a man Patrick is trying to run away from his mistake.

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Mary Maloney provides the detectives with lamb that she kills her husband, Patrick, with. When the detective declares that the murder weapon is probably right under their noses, it is ironic because the reader knows that they are eating the weapon that the detectives are seeking. Furthermore, situational irony is displayed when Dahl narrates, “At that point, Mary Maloney simply walked up behind him and without any pause, she swung the big frozen leg of lamb high

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Betrayal and False Stereotypes in “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl “When people rely on surface appearances and false stereotypes, rather than in-depth knowledge of others at the level of heart, mind, and spirit, their ability to assess and understand people accurately is compromised.” – James. A. Forbes. As Forbes states, when “people rely on surface appearances” and do not look beyond, they often times fail to realize how deceiving looks can be. In “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl, Mrs. Maloney uses her image as leverage to get away with the murder of her husband. Throughout the story, Mrs. Maloney betrays multiple people after being betrayed by her own husband.

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