Lamb To The Slaughter Irony

Much Evidence in Roald Dahl’s “Lamb to the Slaughter” suggests that almost every meaningful action that Mary Maloney commits is ironic. Mr. Maloney being killed by his own wife shows irony, because he was a detective and was totally unsuspecting of his wife’s intent to kill him. In the living room, “Mary Maloney simply walked up behind him and without any pause she swung the big frozen leg of lamb through the air and brought it down as hard as she could on the back of his head” (89-90). Additional evidence is shown when Mary returns from the store to look at his body, “… and when she saw him lying there on the floor… it really was rather a shock… It was easy.

In a general sense, irony is a rhetorical device that is characterized by incongruity in the real situation and what is expected. The deliberate use of irony, especially in literary works and speeches, is used to emphasize a point. It is a language that in some of its forms understates facts, denies the contrary of the truth, or states the opposite of the truth. In all it’s forms, it elicits a similar effect to the audience. There

The short story Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl contains many literary elements that contribute and impact the story and also add to the writer’s craft. The story is about a woman, Mary Maloney, who accidentally kills her husband and tricks the police into believing she is innocent. The literary element of dramatic irony was portrayed and impacted the reader’s perspective of the story. Mary Maloney, who is the killer of her husband, persuaded the police to eat a leg of lamb which actually was the murder weapon. The police do not realize they are being tricked as shown in the quote, “personally I think it’s (the murder weapon) right here on the premises” (9). The dramatic irony is that it the police are looking for the weapon but they are eating the very evidence they are looking for and do not know it. This shows that Dahl knows how to spin an ironic twist in his story without it seeming out

Irony is a very big part of a story, because it can create new elements in a story. Some of these elements may include humor and theme. "The Ransom of Red Chief" is a great example for this.

In “Lamb to the Slaughter” Roald Dahl uses dramatic irony to make the reader feel surprised because Mary Maloney does certain things, like killing her husband and acting as though it is a shock when she finds out, that only the reader and Mary Maloney know. First near the middle of the story, after finding out he wants to leave her, Mary Maloney kills her husband Patrick with the leg of lamb that they are supposed to eat for dinner at their house. According to the text, “At that point 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 head” (Dahl 153). This quote is an example of dramatic irony because only the reader

“Lamb to the Slaughter” utilizes dramatic irony throughout the whole story. The most obvious example of dramatic irony is the fact that the readers know the main character Mary Maloney killed her husband. Mary kills her husband by hitting him on the back of the head with a frozen leg of lamb. She then goes out to the grocer in order to act like nothing has happened. When she returns home she calls the police and says, “Quick! Come quick! Patrick’s dead!”(Dahl 6). This quote uses dramatic irony because the reader is aware that Mary kills her husband, but the police are not. In this short story dramatic irony adds an element of suspense because the reader wants to know whether or not Mary will be caught for what she does. Details also play a big role in “Lamb to the Slaughter”. The details that make the biggest impact on the story are the ones that aren’t given. Mary Maloney’s husband, Patrick Maloney, comes home from work one day and is acting strange. He tells Mary to sit down because he has something to tell her. By this point the readers are suddenly cut out from the conversation and the brought back in when Patrick then says, “So there it is. And I know it’s kind of a bad time to tell you, but there simply wasn’t any other way.”(Dahl 3). The readers don’t know what Mary Maloney’s husband Patrick says, but it affects her in a negative way and is likely the reason she killed him. The unknown details of this story make the reader wonder what happened and want to keep reading

It is often said that irony is the vital literary element to a story because it gives the story character. Whether it changes the mood, creates suspense, adds foreshadowing, engages the reader or something else, irony can do many things for a story.

Its seems to me that "The Necklace" is a better example of situational irony because, in "The Necklace" the author gives the main lead character an actual punishment where the characters has to spend the rest of her life paying for her greedy mistake. In "Lamb To The Slaughter" the main character did not receive any type of punishment, at the end of the day she got away with the murder of her husband. In "The Necklace" when she was invited to the party with her husband she said "Oh nothing. Only i don't have an evening dress therefore I can't go to the affair." Even before the the actual party started Mathilde was already complaining about how she did not have the necessary clothe to wear for the party.

You wouldn’t expect the lamb to kill the man. “ Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl is a about a women named Mary Maloney that killed her husband. Mary’s husband tells her that he is leaving her. Not knowing what to do to try to keep her husband, she gets a leg of lamb and hits her husband in the back of the head and kills him. She quickly covers her tracks and fools the police, offering them the leg of the lamb for dinner to get rid of the evidence. Therefore Roald Dahl’s use of irony throughout the story, builds up a understanding of Mary Maloney.

A very dull and boring story can be made into a great story simply by adding in something that is unexpected to happen. When the unexpected is used in literature it is known as irony. An author uses irony to shock the reader by

The novel was presented with several different types and different examples of irony. The most obvious irony is in the end of the novel, Ethan intentions to commit suicide with Mattie. As for Mattie, being alive seems to be worst than death considering the change in her behavior. She was once a very caring person who later aged into a bitter older woman who ends up being miserable in a wrecked body and life.

Dramatic irony is shown heavily throughout the story, as the reader connects with Mary as she goes through her whole plan on how to cover-up the murder. An example of dramatic irony that was shown is when the officers were eating the murder weapon and they didn’t even know except for Mary and the readers. I found the situational irony to be more dramatic because you would have never pictured a woman going from such a calm and loving state to one that killed her husband in the spur of the moment. It was shocking to me on how she had such a rapid change in attitude and how she was able to put on a smile

“The violence of the crash, the noise, the small table overturning, helped bring her out of he shock. She came out slowly, feeling cold and surprised, and she stood for a while blinking at the body, still holding the ridiculous piece of meat tight with both hands.”. (13)In the quote the narrator explains how Mary picked up the weapon and how she hit him in the back of the head which ended up brutal. Its dramatic irony in the sense that the reader knows that lamb chop was the weapon. The use of dramatic irony allows the readers to really feel like a ghost in this story because you know everything but can say anything to the characters.

The author of the story “Lamb to the Slaughter”, Roald Dahl, uses a significant amount of irony throughout the story. Dahl uses irony to make his story more appealing to the reader by keeping them engaged. An example of irony in the story is when Mary is six months pregnant and her husband expresses he is leaving her, so she murders him. The audience would have never seen this coming because the author expresses Mary’s feelings from the beginning of the story by saying, “She loved him for the way he sat loosely in a chair, for the way he came in the door or moved slowly across the room with long strides. She loved the intent, far look in his eyes when they rested on her, the funny shape of the mouth, and especially the way he remained silent about his tiredness, sitting still with himself until the whiskey had taken some of it away.” (Dahl 1-2). When Dahl shares Mary’s feelings, the reader concludes that Mary is an innocent, loving wife that truly loves her husband and would do absolutely anything for him. But when Mary murders him after he decides to leave, situational irony appears. This is an example of situational irony because the reader would never expect Mary to murder her husband, but the exact opposite occurs. Dahl also uses situational irony as an example of language. The language makes the story more intriguing and exciting. The situational irony is used in the story to shock the reader and to create the climax of the plot.

Every day people experience ironic situations. Whether it is the bus leaving early when someone is already running late for work or an obstetrician missing a delivery because she is in labor; irony happens. Poetry is life in the form of art, and without irony, it would not be as interesting or relatable. “Irony in poetry occurs when a discrepancy exists between two levels of meaning or experience… Skillfully used, irony is a powerful way of making a pointed comment or manipulating a reader’s emotions” (445). Be it situational irony where the situation itself is opposite a reader’s expectation, verbal irony where a poet manipulates tone to say something opposite of what the words say or dramatic irony which is when the reader sees something