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Lamb to the Slaughter
When Patrick arrives home from work, it quickly becomes clear that he is unhappy about something. He says that he feels tired, he drains his drink "in one swallow," and he speaks very abruptly to...
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Lamb to the Slaughter
You should read several newspaper articles to get a good idea of how a news story is written. When writing a news story, you should include the five W's: who, what, when, where, why, and sometimes...
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Lamb to the Slaughter
“Lamb to the Slaughter” is a short story written by Roald Dahl. It deals with the murder of Patrick Maloney. Mary, Patrick's wife, kills him with a frozen leg of lamb, which had been intended to be...
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Roald Dahl does indeed surprise us with an unexpected murder in "Lamb to the Slaughter." And it's not just the murder that's unexpected, but the identity of the murderer herself. This isn't some...
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Lamb to the Slaughter
The setting for this story is primarily in a normal middle-class home that is described as very warm and cozy. The murder takes place in the sitting room where the couple meets so that Mary can it...
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Roald Dahl uses metaphor to better describe Mary Maloney in his short story "Lamb to the Slaughter." A metaphor makes a comparison between two things that are unrelated but share some common...
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Lamb to the Slaughter
I believe that this question is asking for help with writing a solid thesis statement for a student essay that is likely analyzing this story in some way. Keep in mind that a thesis statement makes...
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Direct characterization consists on detailing the physical traits of a character in order to describe them as clearly as possible to the reader. It is the depiction of the character at face value....
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Lamb to the Slaughter
In "Lamb to the Slaughter," Dahl uses a number of literary devices. For example, he uses foreshadowing to build suspense as the story progresses. And as he spoke, he did an unusual thing. He...
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Lamb to the Slaughter
There are two main conflicts in the story. The first is between Mary Maloney and her husband. The second is between Mary Maloney and the police. At the beginning of the story, Mary's husband tells...
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Before Mary heads to the grocery shop, she kills her husband by hitting him in the head with a frozen leg of lamb. She then practices her "speech" to the grocer and proceeds to create a ruse that...
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Lamb to the Slaughter
That's a very good question. "Lamb to the Slaughter" does indeed delineate the dark regions of the human psyche by showing us how ordinary people often behave in extreme circumstances. On the face...
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Mary Maloney isn't a stereotypical murderer. After all, she is devoted to her husband in the beginning of the story, anticipating his every need when he returns home from work and diligently...
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Lamb to the Slaughter
A pun can be defined as a play on words: a joke exploiting the different possible meanings of a word or the fact that there are words which sound alike but have different meanings. A particularly...
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Mary does not turn herself in for murdering her husband. Mary impulsively whacks her husband over the head with a leg of lamb, which was frozen so hard it might as well have been a steel rod. After...
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Lamb to the Slaughter
In Roald Dahl's short story "Lamb to the Slaughter", the character of Mary Maloney is a young, pregnant woman who is married to a police officer and seems quite devoted to him. Upon being told by...
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Let's start with Mary. When the story begins, Mary is "waiting for her husband to come home from work." She would consistently look at the clock to "please herself with the thought that each minute...
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Lamb to the Slaughter
This is an interesting detail to pick out of this short story. It is unusual for the police detectives to drink alcohol because they are on the job, because, as Detective Noonan points out, "it’s...
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Lamb to the Slaughter
At the beginning of the story, Mary is a docile, loving, subservient housewife who lives to please her husband. She thrives on routine, stability, and making sure that her husband his happy. Her...
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Lamb to the Slaughter
The end of the story leaves us hanging. We know that Mary killed her husband by whacking him on the back of the head with a frozen leg of lamb. We also know that the police have eaten the evidence...
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Mary goes through a rapid series of emotions in the aftermath of killing her husband. First, she experiences a sense of shock at what she has just done, which was to whack him on the back of the...
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Before Patrick returns, Mary is waiting and listening. Everything is prepared for his arrival: whiskey and soda, glasses, fresh ice. The sounds of his arrival are described in detail: the tires on...
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Setting The setting facilitates tension because of the enormous detail in how very perfectly peaceful it is. Mary sits alone at home, watching the clock but "without anxiety." The simple inclusion...
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Lamb to the Slaughter
There are various themes to the story "lamb to the slaughter" but the one that i think is the most prevelant is the theme of Betrayal. Patrick betrays his wife, his marriage vows, and himself by...
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Lamb to the Slaughter
The setting of this wonderfully dark short story is the Maloney household. Other than her brief trip to the store, Mary Maloney stays within the confines of her home. That closeness helps maintain...
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Lamb to the Slaughter
The way you structure your body paragraphs really depends on the thesis statement you have in your introduction. Mary Maloney provides a fascinating psychological examination about what can happen...
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Lamb to the Slaughter
In the first part of "Lamb to the Slaughter," Dahl portrays Mary Maloney as the perfect, doting wife. He describes in detail, for example, how she prepares the home ahead of her husband's arrival...
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Lamb to the Slaughter
This question is tougher than it first appears, because Patrick Maloney is barely in the story. Well, he's in the story the entire time. He just isn't alive for much of the story. I would pick...
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Lamb to the Slaughter
I would say that the majority of your adjectives would need to come from the beginning of the story, because Dahl is very careful to build up a precise nature of Mary's character to prepare us for...
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Mary uses the word "darling" over and over again when talking to her husband. The first few times she says it it's usually in the context of an offering, such as "Darling, shall I get your...
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Lamb to the Slaughter
The story does not tell the reader exactly what Patrick tells Mary, so the reader isn't 100% sure of what the news is; however, the news is most likely that Patrick is leaving Mary. In other...
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Lamb to the Slaughter
The idea of a “perfect” crime is debatable in that it assumes that the criminal’s ability to commit the crime undetected is an ideal worth achieving. The psychological weight on the perpetrator and...
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Lamb to the Slaughter
The answer to this question is subjective, and different readers can defend a variety of answers. Personally, I do not think that Mary premeditated killing her husband. We are told that she goes...
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Lamb to the Slaughter
"Lamb to the Slaughter" is a fairly short story so to choose five important scenes would pretty much encompass the entire work. The first important scene is when the husband comes home....
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Lamb to the Slaughter
I have had to edit your question down to focus on one question alone - multiple questions are not allowed under enotes regulations. In this excellent short story the biggest kind of irony that is...
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Lamb to the Slaughter
The phrasing of this question is interesting because it's pushing the response toward explaining Mary Maloney's betrayal. In a way, that is easy. Mary doesn't betray her husband. He betrayed her....
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Lamb to the Slaughter
After Mary Maloney realizes that she has killed her husband, her reaction is very calm, considering the circumtances. One might expect her to freak out, to go into hysterics, to weep and sob, to...
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Lamb to the Slaughter
In the beginning of the story, Mary Maloney adores her husband. She looks for him to come home with eager anticipation and has his favorite drink ready as soon as he arrives. She is expecting their...
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Lamb to the Slaughter
In "Lamb to the Slaughter," Mary and her husband are seen amid a marital dispute. At the start of the story, Mary is unaware that anything is wrong. She is pregnant and ispresented as a loving...
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Situation irony occurs when events in a story work out in an unexpected way, usually the opposite of what we would expect. "Lamb to the Slaughter" is filled with situational irony. First, given how...
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Lamb to the Slaughter
We don't have room here for me to cover them all, but I will get you started.Internal conflict is best shown in Mary. She is at war with herself when she finds out her happy home is not happy and...
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Lamb to the Slaughter
It's hard to believe that Dahl didn't know what he was doing when he chose to call his main character Mary. With its association with the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, the name has connotations...
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Lamb to the Slaughter
I think more than anything else, Mary Maloney's lies are made more believable and convincing because she rehearses them. After killing Patrick, Mary is quite shaken, but she knows that she must...
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Lamb to the Slaughter
In the short story "Lamb to the Slaughter" by Roald Dahl, pregnant Mary Maloney waits at home for her husband, Patrick, to finish a day's work. It's clear Mary loves her husband, as "she would...
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Lamb to the Slaughter
The principal source of humor in Roald Dahl's "Lamb to the Slaughter" is irony. The policemen search in vain for the murder weapon, which they describe as something roughly the size and shape of a...
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Lamb to the Slaughter
When the reader first meets Mary Maloney, she is sitting in a state of peacefulness in her living room, sewing and waiting for her husband to come home from work. She is very calm and happy; not...
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Mary Maloney is a devoted wife who has no idea that her husband plans to leave her. His news comes as a complete shock, compounded by the fact that she is pregnant with his child. Horrified by his...
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Mary was a sane woman except for the momentary lapse in judgment which she suffered due to anger. She was angry towards her husband who had made it clear that he wanted a divorce. The husband...
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Of course she is guilty. That is why she goes to so much trouble to establish an alibi and to dispose of the murder weapon. She is not guilty of first-degree murder because the murder was not...
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Lamb to the Slaughter
On the first page of the short story, we are introduced to Mary as being "without anxiety" and "tranquil;" in her husband's absence, this appears to be her natural state. However, not long after...
