Lamb to the Slaughter

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• havo
• Leerjaar 4

Learning goals:

- You can analyze a short story.

- You understand and know how to use the correct terminology for the analysis. 

At the end of the lesson I can:

- Evaluate and analyze a fictional character that I have read about in a short story. 

- Select evidence from the text to support my evaluation. 

Lamb to the slaughter

Roald Dahl

British author

Wrote both children's and adult books and stories

Children's often funny

Adults often bizar. 

What tragic news does Patrick give Mary at the beginning of the story? How do you think this impacts her emotionally? How does she react?

What does Patrick Maloney tell Mary before she kills him?

1. He does not like her cooking.
2. That he is not happy with his job.
3. That he is leaving her (maybe has an affair)
4. That he wasn't hungry.

Write your impression of Mary Maloney as a wife. Multiple answers are possible.

What is the significance of Patrick's profession and Mary's interaction with the police?

Justify the title of the story "Lamb to the Slaughter."

The origin of this phrase occurs in the Bible, both in the book of Isaiah, and the book of Jeremiah. In Jeremiah, it states, “But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter; And I did not know that they had devised plots against me, saying, “Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, And let us cut him off from the land of the living, That his name be remembered no more” (Ch 11, verse 19).

The title "Lamb to the Slaughter" has multiple layers of meaning. On a literal level, a frozen leg of lamb "slaughters" or kills Mr. Malone when his wife Mary whacks him on the head with it, but "lamb to the slaughter" is also a phrase meaning an innocent person who is sacrificed to serve the needs of others.

One could say the innocent Mary, who is likened as the story opens to a gentle, loving Madonna, has been the lamb metaphorically slaughtered to serve her husband's needs. Although she is heavily pregnant, her husband tells her is going to divorce her. This is a blow Mary didn't see coming and could be considered a death knell to all her dreams. He tells her he doesn't expect her to make a fuss but merely to step aside to suit his desire for a new life.

Mr. Malone could also be understood as the lamb to the slaughter as he has absolutely no idea his wife is about to murder him.

Finally, the policeman could be characterized as lambs to the slaughter as they innocently eat the murder evidence when Mary serves them the leg of lamb that she used to murder her husband for dinner. She "plays" them for all they all worth, then laughs when they are gone. The title encompasses the many ways people are used or duped in this story.

Conflict: protagonist and antagonist

Who is the protagonist (main character) in "The Lamb to the Slaughter?"

1. Jack Noonan, the detective
2. Mary Maloney
3. Patrick Maloney
4. Sam, the greengrocer

Who is the antagonist in the story?

1. Mary Maloney
2. Patrick Maloney
3. Jack Noonan
4. the detectives

Dynamic character

Character that changes during the story (narrative) and learns from the changes. 

e.g. through conflict, challenges, experience.

Character analysis: Write down the evidence from the text about Mary's loyalty to her husband.

Situational Irony

when one’s efforts produces the opposite results of what was expected 

or

difference between what you expect can/will happen and what actually happens

What is an example of situational irony in 'Lamb to the slaughter'?

1. Mary 's personality
2. Patrick's personality
3. The police looking for the murder weapon
4. Mary going shopping for supper.

Dramatic Irony

when the audience/reader knows things the characters do not. Because of this the audience may foresee the outcome. 

Name a situation in the story that could be seen as dramatic irony.

What happens to the murder weapon?

1. Mary threw it away.
2. Mary puts it back into the freezer.
3. Jack Noonan found it under the sofa.
4. The detectives ate it.

Plot

What points can be seen as the climax of this story.

1. Patrick being murdered
2. The police giving their estimation about the murder weapon and that it is still in the house.
3. The detectives eating the murder weapon.
4. Mary calling the police to report her husband's murder.

In order to understand what happens after the climax, one must first be able to pinpoint the point of maximum tension in the story. In the case of "Lamb to the Slaughter," there are in some ways two climaxes. The first of these is at the point in which Mary attacks her husband and kills him. This is the culmination of everything that has happened to this point in the story. The story then pulls back and allows the action to fall.

• The second and main climax of the story occurs when the detective notices that the oven is still on with the leg of lamb cooking. This is the point at which the detectives are closest to discovering the murder weapon and Mary has to keep from being caught. The conflict then begins to rise again as she creates an alibi and brings in the police to catch the murderer.

What is the rising action in the story?

1. When Patrick tries to work up enough courage to deliver the bad news.
2. When the policemen arrived.
3. When Mary gets the leg of lamb from the freezer after being in shock.
4. When Mary called the police.

What is the resolution / falling action in the story?

1. Mary crying to the police.
2. Mary giggling.
3. The policemen eating the evidence.
4. When Mary cooks the lamb, goes to the store to buy vegetables and rehearses.

What are some themes of Lamb to the Slaughter?