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Use Of Situational Irony In Lamb To The Slaughter

434 Words2 Pages

In Ronald Dahl's short story “Lamb to the Slaughter,” situational irony and dramatic irony create suspense in the story. Mary, a stay at home wife happily awaits for her husband to return every single day, but this day was different. Her husband returns home and claims he is unhappy in their marriage and is leaving her. In the short story the author writes, “She carried it upstairs, holding the thin bone-end of it with both her hands, and as she went through the living room, she saw him standing…At that point, Mary Maloney simply walked up behind him and without any pause she swung the big frozen leg of lamb” (Dahl 136-138.). This scene in the short story demonstrates situational irony because it would be expected for Mary to become extremely distressed, and saddened over what her husband is claiming he will do. Instead Mary leaves quietly to grab the lamb to murder her …show more content…

Suspense is created because the audience now wonders what she is going to do with his body and with the murder weapon, it seems like it is her first time which the audience can gather that Mary has a high chance of getting caught. Irony also creates suspense in the short story as the officers are unknowingly consuming the murder weapon, while sensing that the murder weapon is somewhere near them in the house. In the short story the author writes, “Why don’t you eat up that lamb that’s in the oven….Whoever done it, they’re not going to be carrying a thing like that around with them longer than they need..Personally, I think it’s right here on the premises.Probably right under our very noses” (Dahl 340-370). Mary offers the men the lamb which she had used for the murder weapon for dinner, she claims it is a favor for her. As the men are eating

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How Does Dahl Use Irony In Lamb To The Slaughter

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Lamb to the Slaughter Essay A person's true identity will not be revealed if only noticed by their physical appearance. In Roald Dahl’s short story “Lamb to the Slaughter,” a frozen lamb leg is used by Mary Maloney, a housewife, to kill her husband. Next, she creates a crime scene, tricking the cops into eating the cooked lamb and erasing the evidence. Substantially, Dahl’s short story uses the murder of Patrick Maloney to show readers that everyone is not always as they seem.

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Examples Of Dramatic Irony In Lamb To The Slaughter

183 Words | 1 Pages

In Roald Dahl’s short story “Lamb to the Slaughter,” dramatic and situational irony forward the plot. For instance Dramatic irony is shown when the police are talking to Mary about dinner she asks them to stay and eat it. She also states “It’d be a favor to me if you’d eat it up. ”(345 Dahl) We the audience know that Mary used the lamb leg to murder her husband.

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Examples Of Mary Maloney In Lamb To The Slaughter

730 Words | 3 Pages

“Lamb to the Slaughter,” a thrilling short story by Roald Dahl, tells the story of a young housewife in the 1950’s who kills her husband and has to hide it from the police. Mary Maloney and her husband Patrick Maloney are expecting a child and seem to be in love, until Patrick comes home from work one day and wants to file for divorce. Mrs. Maloney becomes sad, surprised, and is overcome with anger. Now fuming, Mrs. Maloney swings a leg of lamb as high as she can, brings it down on Patrick’s head, and kills him. Mary Maloney should be convicted for her crimes in “Lamb to the Slaughter.”

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Use Of Irony In Lamb To The Slaughter And Trifles

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In “Lamb to the Slaughter”, Mary Maloney manages to get the police to unknowingly destroy the murder weapon she used to kill her husband. Mary carefully coerces the officers into doing what she wants: “‘Please,’ She begged. ‘Please eat it. Personally I couldn’t touch a thing, certainly not what’s been in the house when he was here. But it’s all right for you.

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The Use of Irony to Empathize Men’s Idiocy Throughout the investigations in “Lamb to the Slaughter” and “Trifles,” the authors use irony to emphasize the men’s idiocy and arrogance and highlight women’s perceptiveness. The authors use dramatic irony to emphasize the men’s idiocy. One example of this is in Trifles. The women had just finished hiding evidence as the men walked in.

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1734 Words | 7 Pages

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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Irony In Lamb To The Slaughter

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In this story Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl, ambiguity was used because throughout the story we question ourselfs about situations. There are three types of irony but only two were utilized in this story. The two types of irony that were utilized were Situational and Dramatic irony. The most utilized one in the story is Dramatic Irony. For example, Ambiguity was used when the husband came in the door, he sat down and drank whiskey, and told his Mary his wife what was wrong with him due to him acting strange.

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Later throughout the story, suspense is built up when the police are looking for the suspect and weapon. Mary snarkily says “Why don’t you eat up the

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1362 Words | 6 Pages

The title Lamb to the Slaughter is a prime example of the foreshadowing used in this story. The use of the word “slaughter” foreshadows some form of slaughter or murder occurring in the story. In the end, it is revealed that Mary killed her husband Patrick in the story, ending the tension created by the title. This use of foreshadowing, combined with the innocuous start of the story, which begins very lightly with Mary simply waiting for the husband she adores to come home, makes the reader suspicious of everything that happens in the story leading up to the murder itself. This allows the reader to embrace the theme immediately, since the title is quite literally the first thing one reads when reading a story.

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"(155). This is showing that she didn’t something that she regretted because of what he told her. conclusion In “Lamb to the Slaughter” Dahl uses conflict, imagery, and direct characterization to develop feelings for Mary’s husband. This is important because the feelings Mary has for her husband are a main purpose in the story.

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Theme Of Irony In Lamb To The Slaughter

294 Words | 2 Pages

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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Lamb To The Slaughter Summary

776 Words | 4 Pages

Subsequently the action of the story begins to rise as Mary patently waits for her husband to return and continues to increase as it becomes clear that he is preparing to start the matter of divorce. Hence the falling action become interesting because she already killed her husband and wants to cover everything so she acts as an innocent woman as she sees her husband’s friends which are officers, and tries to hide the weapon by making them eat the leg’s lamb. Moreover, the story is expressed from the third person limited omniscient point of view so that the readers can see warmth, cleanliness, and scene of the story through Mary’s eyes. Indeed Mary has shown as a harmless domestic character at

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Lamb To The Slaughter Analysis

812 Words | 4 Pages

Mary Maloney was sitting in her living room when her husband, Patrick Maloney, came home. This was the premises of the short story, “Lamb to the Slaughter,” composed by Roald Dahl. Patrick was a police officer; his wife stayed at home, which was typical for the 1950s, which was the time period of the story. The couple had been, so it seemed, happy throughout their marriage. In fact, Mary was pregnant with a baby boy.

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Lamb To The Slaughter Literary Analysis

1237 Words | 5 Pages

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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Examples Of Dramatic Irony In Lamb To The Slaughter

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In Roald Dahl’s riveting short story “Lamb to the Slaughter” dramatic irony is used to build tension. Dramatic irony is defined as a literary device where the reader knows more about a situation than the characters in the story. The main character Ms. Maloney, a devoted and tender wife, suddenly turns into a reckless murderer as her husband tells her he wants to leave. Throughout the narrative a prominent example of dramatic irony is when the policemen eat the leg of lamb. " ‘That's why the weapon should be easy to find.’

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