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Analyze Roald Dahl As A Writer of Lamb To The Slaugher

Roald Dahl was a British author known for writing stories for both children and adults. This document evaluates his short story "Lamb to the Slaughter" based on an assignment. It summarizes the plot, which involves a woman, Mary, killing her husband with a frozen leg of lamb after he tells her he wants a divorce. The analysis discusses Dahl's descriptive writing style and use of literary devices like irony and character development to explore complex human emotions. It concludes that Dahl crafts an engaging story that effectively uses plot twists and descriptive techniques to hold a reader's attention.

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132 views3 pages

Analyze Roald Dahl As A Writer of Lamb To The Slaugher

Roald Dahl was a British author known for writing stories for both children and adults. This document evaluates his short story "Lamb to the Slaughter" based on an assignment. It summarizes the plot, which involves a woman, Mary, killing her husband with a frozen leg of lamb after he tells her he wants a divorce. The analysis discusses Dahl's descriptive writing style and use of literary devices like irony and character development to explore complex human emotions. It concludes that Dahl crafts an engaging story that effectively uses plot twists and descriptive techniques to hold a reader's attention.

Uploaded by

Lavina D
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Nirma University

Institute of Management

ELT –Individual Assignment

Topic of the Assignment: Evaluate Roald Dahl as a short story writer based on “Lamb to the
slaughter”

Class: SYBBA (A)


Roll No. 187122
Name: Hensi Sheth
Date: 21/01/2020

Roald Dahl was a British author, short story writer, screenwriter, warrior pilot and a poet. He
majorly wrote stories for both the children and the adults. One of the short stories he had written
was, “Lamb to the slaughter”, a classic short story based on the theme of treachery to the
innocent and how much quickly love can turn to hatred. The story also revolves around the
protagonist, Mary Maloney, whose reflex to an unfavorable situation sets the plot of the story.

He uses simple and comprehensible language but also leaves certain situations for the readers
to analyze by not explicitly mentioning them. Like he did in “Lamb to the slaughter” where, the
fact of Patrick Maloney divorcing Mary Maloney wasn’t stated but the idea of it formed through
the details of expressions of Mary Maloney and the dialogue where Patrick told Mary that he will
ensure that she would be taken care of.

The author is very descriptive about the setting of the house, the timings of the incidents and the
expressions of characters. The physical location of things like lamps, chairs and wine glasses
were briefly stated, indicating his writing style in terms of presenting a visual appeal for the
better understanding for the readers.

Roald Dahl develops the characters in a way that displays the actuality of complex human
emotions. Instances where Mary waits for her beloved husband for hours and enjoys his
company even in silence, shows her submissive attitude whereas the murdering of her husband
in a reflex for revenge, questions her love for him. The situation suggests that the author uses
the technique of contrast in the character development. The detectives of the story were
portrayed as unprofessional in their job as they had whiskey during an on-going investigation.
This suggests that the author uses a realistic and practical approach also.

Roald Dahl’s deftness of using various literary devices makes the short story filled with thrill and
exhilaration for the readers. The author employs imagery as a literary device for the plot
development by presenting an auditory imagery of Patrick coming back from work and she
heard the sound of tires graveling, the door of the car banging, Patrick’s footsteps approaching,
opening of the lock. Other instance where the author is using sensory imagery is Mary hearing
the ice cubes were falling back against the bottom of the empty glass when Patrick lowered his
arm. He also uses the technique of foreshadowing here, where it becomes evident from the
unusual behavior of Patrick that something unexpected is going to happen.

The author has also deployed dark humor in the story in the instances like, when Mary Maloney
was asked by the grocer if she wanted meat and she replied by saying that she has already got
a nice leg of lamb in the freezer, which we knew was the weapon used by her to kill her

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husband. Another definitive instance is when the police and detectives gathered conjecturing
about the used weapon in the crime which they were eating right at that moment. The tones that
the author has used were placid and caring, melancholic and ironic and these changes in the
tone suggest the changes in the life of Mary Maloney.

The author uses the three types of irony in his short stories. Here, he has used Situational irony,
which involves an inversion of readers’ and characters’ expectations. Here, we expected that
Patrick would bring Mary to the slaughter by the dreadful declaration that he wanted to part
ways with her but unanticipatedly Mary kills Patrick in the story. Dramatic irony has also been
used in the sense that we knew who the culprit was but the characters didn’t. The readers also
realized that the detectives were eating the very thing they have to see so as to catch the
offender and one of them also remarks that the weapon used to kill Patrick Maloney could be
right under their noses draws dramatic irony in the story. Dahl has also used Linguistic irony in
the short story which is generally regarded as sarcasm based. Here, the phrase “Lamb to the
Slaughter” implies that an innocent animal is going to experience torment and demise, but
instead Mary Maloney who can be represented as the innocent one escapes the crime.

Biblical irony has also been used in name of the character of the protagonist, the one with the
name Mary, the name of the mother of Jesus Christ, is generally identified as calm, docile and
placid which is not the case here, thus draws us to Biblical irony. Also, lamb which is regarded
as harmless, the symbol of innocence, has been used here to kill Patrick.

To conclude, the story by Roald Dahl is a wonderful description of how any writer can hold
his/her readers attention for long with their descriptive techniques. This work by Dahl suggests
an appeal for the teenagers. The story is short, with kind- of a ghastly plot and seems to be
useful tool that can be utilized in teaching. (Abrahamson R., 1979)

Essay word count: 799

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References:

Abrahamson, R. (1979), The Swan and the Wonderful World of Henry Sugar by Roald Dahl.
The English Journal, Houston, Texas, 68(2), 41-42.

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