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The Lamb To The Slaughter By Roald Dahl

781 Words4 Pages

The Lamb to the Slaughter is a mystery horror story by Roald Dahl. It is about a wife (Mary Maloney) murdering her drunk husband (Patrick Maloney) after he gives her short answers when she asks him questions. She hits him over the head with a leg of lamb to kill him. A theme I see is change and when something bad happens. You can drastically change in life. From the beginning, you can see how the Mary might change to the point where she wants to kill her husband. In the beginning she is shown waiting eagerly for her husband to walk thru the door. Roald Dahl shows this by Mary looking at the clock every once and awhile. She would know that every time a minute goes by, the closer he is to home. Patrick finally comes home and sits down to drink. Mary knows not to talk until the first drink is finished. Whenever Mary would ask …show more content…

They ask her questions. The detective have asked Mary if they can look around for the murder weapon. When they have searched the entire house they came back and Mary asks them for a drink. They all sip a bit of whiskey. One of the sheriff 's (Jack), tells Mary her oven is on with the lamb (the murder weapon) inside. And he turns it off for her. Then Mary asks them if they want to eat the lamb. She feels guilty having them at their house not giving them decent hospitality. At first, they say no. “Please, Mary begs.” She is really wanting them to eat it so she can get rid of the evidence. So she changes from innocent to mischievous again to make sure she gets rid of the evidence by making the police officers eat it. When they eat the entire leg of lamb, the two cops are talking. One of them says, “Whoever done it, they 're not going to be carrying a thing like that around with them longer than they need.” Then they say, “Personally, I think it 's right here on the premises. Probably right under our noses. What do you think, Jack.” Then Roald finished by saying, “And in the other room, Mary Maloney began to

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Mary begins to have no hope and starts questioning God if it was her [her] “choice that [she] dangling like a turkey’s wattles from this more than indifferent tree. ’’ Mary goes on to explain how her “body dangles with strength going out of [her]” and describes how her “blood bulges in [her] skull’’ and how her “lungs flail as if drowning.” Atwood gives the readers a better understanding of how Mary feels at 3am by using no punctuation and making it a run on to give the readers a feeling of being out of

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Mary goes from being very caring and loving, to being crafty and maternal, to finally being manipulative and victorious. Throughout the beginning of the story, Mary shows the reader how much she truly cares and loves her husband. She constantly asked Patrick Maloney if there is anything she can get him. She offered to get him his slippers, cheese, and also on crackers.

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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.

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Usually after committing a crime, people would immediately feel guilty and sorry, but Mary though it was “funny” and even “giggled” when the detectives ate the evidence. The readers would say she went insane after killing her husband and feeding his colleagues with the murder weapon, which creates tension within the readers. Briefly, Roald Dahl uses insanity to create suspense in ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ as people that are insane are unpredictable, leading the audience to anticipate the ending of the

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Lamb To The Slaughter by Roald Dahl uses a lot of Indirect Characterization. When a writer's uses Indirect Characterization the writer reveals a character by description, dialogue, thoughts, effects on people, or showing him/her in action.(Normally this is gleaned through inference).In the short story there are several examples that demonstrate Indirect Characterization. An example is when Mr.Maloney goes ‘’Listen,’’he said. ‘’I’ve got something to tell you’’.(DAHL 2).Or when he goes,‘’This is going to be a big shock to you, I’m afraid’’ he said,’’but I’ve thought about it a good deal

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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.

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