What do you understand by this title?

What is a leg of lamb?

➢ Do you think it is a cheap or expensive cut of meat?
➢ Based on the price of the cut of a leg of lamb, what does
this indicate about the characters economic standing?
➢ Is a leg of lamb heavy?
Imagine a crime so perfect that the murder
weapon disappears... into dinner.

That’s exactly what happens in Roald Dahl’s

short story Lamb to the Slaughter
 About the Author
(13/09/1916 – 23/11/1990)
He was a man of many talents who was
best known as a British novelist, short
story writer and poet. Roald Dahl’s
books have sold hundreds of millions of
copies worldwide. He has been referred
to as ‘one of the greatest storytellers for
children of the 20th century’. His works
include Charlie and the Chocolate
Factory and Matilda.
 Background
"Lamb to the Slaughter" is a 1953 short story by Roald
Dahl.
It was initially rejected, along with four other stories, by
The New Yorker, but was published in Harper's Magazine
in September 1953.

The original use of "Lamb to the Slaughter" is found in the

Bible.
It refers to someone who goes innocently and
unconcernedly
into a dangerous or life threatening situation.
 Symbols
A lamb is a baby sheep which is often regarded as a
symbol for innocence and purity. Like most baby animals, it
is trusting, loyal and a follower. As we read the story, try to
identify which character you would regard as a lamb.

Slaughter – this is the process of killing animals for the

purpose of food.

As we read the story, we will identify who the innocent

character is that is being led to his/her death
 Symbols
Mary Maloney goes to the grocery store after committing
the crime, she carefully constructs an alibi, chatting
casually with the grocer to make it seem like a normal
evening. The market represents normalcy and routine—
Mary enters it as a devoted wife, but returns home as a
cold and calculating murderer.

Symbolically, the market reflects the way Mrs Maloney

seamlessly transitions between two roles: the innocent
housewife and the cunning manipulator.
Setting
 Mid-20th Century
Society had expectations that women would be homemakers while their husbands took on the

bread-winning jobs outside the home. Mary and Patrick are representative of that cultural

expectation.

The pregnant Mary’s use of alcohol reflects her era. She is moderate with her intake of the

whiskey she has laid out on the sideboard, but she does not abstain altogether, as medical

science has at this point yet to determine the risks of alcohol consumption during pregnancy.

Also typical of the mid-20th century are the names of the characters.

Police detective Patrick Maloney, Sergeant Jack Noonan, and Officer O’Malley all have Irish

names. Irish immigrants to America in the 1800s underwent, early on, harsh discrimination. It was

not uncommon that the lack of employment opportunities and the resultant poverty often

obliged many to take on the dangerous jobs of firefighting and law enforcement that more

affluent citizens rejected. Thus, by the 20th century, they dominated the police departments.
 Urban or Suburban
As the story opens, Mary is waiting for Patrick to come home from work and listens
for his car on the gravel. While this could indicate either an urban or suburban
setting, Mary later hurries from the house after the murder, grabbing her coat and
running down the garden into the street. She is next discovered in the grocery
shop. This would indicate that she did not drive to the store but arrived on foot and
suggests an urban setting rather than a suburban one. When one of the detectives
questions Mary about which grocer she visited, he goes outside into the street
rather than getting into a vehicle.
Mary’s familiarity with Sam the grocer is probably as typical of a city neighborhood
setting as it is of a suburban one. Possibly the strongest indication that the setting
is urban is that all the policemen have Irish names. Irish immigrants to America and
their descendants were still very much congregated in big cities during the 1950s
when the story takes place.
Characters
 Mary Malony
The story’s protagonist and wife of Patrick Maloney. Mary is a devoted housewife who
loves her husband dearly. She is six months pregnant. After Patrick callously reveals
that he intends to leave her, Mary snaps and kills him with a blow to the head using a
frozen leg of lamb. Mary is able to cover up the murder with cunning intuition as she
roasts the murder weapon, feigns innocence, and feeds the leg of lamb to the
unsuspecting detectives.
 Patrick Malony
The husband of Mary Maloney and the murder victim. Patrick is a well-
loved police detective. He receives Mary’s loving gestures and caring
actions with dismissive hostility. He informs Mary of his intent to leave
her with callous disregard, though he confirms that he will pay for her
living expenses. This prompts Mary to kill him with a frozen leg of lamb.
Notably, Patrick’s name is revealed halfway through the story after he
has already been killed.
 Jack Noonan
A sergeant on the police force and friend to the Maloneys. Jack is the
first to arrive at the murder scene after Mary’s phone call. He is
incredibly sympathetic toward Mary and yet simultaneously
condescending. He never suspects her of Patrick’s murder, and he and
the rest of the police force are unwittingly duped into consuming the
murder weapon.
 Sam
The grocer and Mary’s unwitting alibi.
After killing Patrick, Mary goes to the grocery store to prove she
was elsewhere when her husband was murdered in their home.
To pull this off she needs Sam as a witness. Sam becomes the
perfect witness. The police confirm Mary’s story with Sam and
thus rule her out as a suspect.
 O’Malley
A responder who shows up at the Maloney home after the murder.
Just as Sam the grocer is given no surname, the narrator grants
O’Malley no first name. It is O’Malley who first kneels to inspect the
corpse and then rushes off to question Sam, returning with notes and
a hushed, confidential account of the interrogation that deflects
suspicion away from Mary.
Main Ideas
 [Link] seems to be
solid in one’s life can quickly dissolve.
At the opening of the story, Mary Maloney’s life appears solid. Her home is orderly and intact. Her joyful anticipation of the

sound of the car tires on the gravel outside and the punctuality of her husband Patrick’s arrival show that the couple has

consistent, dependable routines. The narration is specific about the bliss Patrick’s presence brings to Mary. She is in the sixth

month of her pregnancy, which renders her appearance radiant.

On the Thursday evening when the story takes place, however, all this solidity dissolves when Patrick tells his wife the truth

in a statement the narrator describes as taking no more than four or five minutes. The narration leaves Patrick’s

announcement unspecified but it is clear that he is leaving Mary. Their carefully planned routine destroyed, Mary quickly

transforms from upstanding citizen and loving wife to murderer and widow. Their marriage is destroyed by Patrick’s decision

to leave, their orderly home disrupted by a team of investigators as a result of Mary’s violent reaction, and their carefully

plotted life together has dissolved entirely.

2. Desperation makes morality less defined.
Mary begins the story as an objectively moral person. She is faithful in her relationship and

completely devoted to her spouse as evidenced by her desire to make him comfortable and happy.

The narrator references her responsibility with alcohol consumption. She makes a “strongish” drink

for Patrick but a weaker one for herself. (In the 1950s the possible harmful effects of alcohol on a

child in utero were not as well known.) Mary kills her husband out of spontaneous passion and not

out of an immoral disregard for the sanctity of life, yet she sees her own hypothetical execution as

just punishment for the crime and is content to accept that.

However, she experiences desperation when she speculates that the child she carries may be

terminated along with her, or that she may be obliged to carry the baby to term only to be separated

from her child forever. Immediately after realizing the true extent of what her future may hold,

desperation drives Mary to begin a series of calculated lies and manipulations that could be

considered truly immoral.

 3. Sudden monumental change can be a
catalyst for strength.
Though Dahl does not pointedly deal in stereotype, the clichéd view of the 1950s homemaker is of an obedient and

dutiful domestic partner. In the beginning, Mary fits that cliché.

The sudden monumental change comes when her husband Patrick lays out a confession along with some

conditions that he has predetermined, following both with more uncultivated insensitivity. The sudden shock

changes her behaviour from docility to swift aggression as she kills Patrick. A

After that, with little effort, Mary covers up her crime. It comes as a surprise to Mary that she is skillful enough to pull

off a flawless act of innocence for both the neighbourhood grocer and a team of police investigators.

With Patrick dead, and having been the one to kill him in an act of reckless aggression, Mary is finally capable of

finding her own strength and being fully independent from the husband to whom she once deferred.
 Impulse vs Intention
The story is filled with impulses that spring from passion or necessity, and intentions that either get fulfilled or ultimately
mutate into impulsive acts.
The pregnant Mary’s intention at the opening of the narrative is to provide a pleasant evening for her husband and for

herself. Each of her attempts to fulfill her intention run aground.

Patrick’s arrival is punctual but his tone is unanticipated, as is the information he delivers. Her intention to cook supper with

the leg of lamb turns instead into the impulse to kill him with the frozen leg of lamb. By the end of the opening scene, all

order has been overturned, her husband is dead, and Mary is a murderer. The initial intention has been shattered.

Mary’s impulse to accept punishment for her crime turns into an intention to save herself for the sake of her unborn child.

As the investigations proceed, Mary entertains no further impulses. She calculates silently to dispose of the key piece of

evidence against her in a creative and ironic way and carries out one final devious intention.
 Finding Strength
Mary’s position at the beginning of the narrative is not a particularly strong one. She is pregnant, which is a condition that,
especially in the 1950s when the story was written and is set, severely limited a woman’s options. Mary accepts her husband’s
unexpectedly rude and harsh behavior toward her with conciliatory responses. It is not until he adds insult to injury by telling
her that he wishes to end their marriage that Mary snaps and begins a rapid transformation from homemaker to murderer.
Killing Patrick is not necessarily a morally strong thing to do, but it does require physical strength as well as the strength of
unshakable decisiveness, and her reaction to the idea of punishment is characterized by a distinct lack of fear. Her decision to
protect her unborn child no matter what becomes her fortification.
Mary also finds strength in the skills required to deceive the police. Her powers of inference are piqued during her quiet
observations while the investigation proceeds. Her ability to manipulate the investigators into unknowingly destroying the
evidence requires intelligence, and a tenacity she didn’t know she previously possessed. By the end of the story, Mary is a
different person, one who is strong and willful rather than merely deferential and cooperative.
 Changing Forms
Every major element in “Lamb to the Slaughter” changes form in some way. When the story opens, Mary has placed
fresh ice cubes in a Thermos bucket on the sideboard, signaling the importance of ice, which is destined to melt and
change. The hard frozen cubes clink against the glass as Patrick consumes his alcohol and indicate to Mary that
something is not right.
Mary’s life is as solidified as ice, lacking spontaneity and marked by routines that dissolve after Patrick imparts the news
that he is leaving her. The marriage briefly changes form and then ends altogether. Mary transforms from a dutiful wife to
a wily widow. The setting transforms from a neat, cozy domestic fortress to a crime scene. Mary’s relationships with Sam
and Jack Noonan change form from simple, trustworthy associations to calculated connections that benefit her.
The most important change in form is the frozen leg of lamb. It changes from potential nourishment to a deadly weapon.
Then, over the course of the story, by the application of heat over time, the lamb gradually changes back from a heavy
weapon to a soft, warm, seemingly innocent source of human sustenance.