What happens when you act in a moment of rage and you can’t take back those things you have said or the frustrating way you reacted? What happens if your actions in that moment have the ability to drastically change your future for the worse? In “Lamb to The Slaughter” by Roald Dahl, Mary Maloney makes a choice in the heat of the moment that will completely change her life.
(Mary Maloney sitting across from her husband Patrick Maloney)
So what happened, what did Mary do?
“Lamb to the slaughter” by Roald Dahl starts off by following a pregnant housewife’s daily routine. She, Mary Maloney, sits calmly sewing and waiting for her husband, detective Patrick Maloney, to come home from work. Once he returns from work she offers to get him a drink and continues to fuss over him.
Patrick abruptly tells her that he wants a divorce.
She is so dazed and heart broken that she tries to continue her routine like normal. She is doing a good job at this as she goes to find something for dinner. She finds the perfect dinner, frozen lamb. And just as abruptly as Patrick had ended their marriage, Mary ended his life. Although Mary seemed so innocent before, she quickly creates the perfect plan for how she can protect herself, and more importantly to Mary, her unborn baby.
What could have inspired Dahl to write something like this?
(Roald Dahl when he was an ace fighter pilot)
Roald Dahl did not have an easy and simple childhood that we like to think that everyone has. As a young boy, his father and his sister passed away, leaving some deep emotional scars. Furthermore, he joined the Royal Air Force at 23. This exposed him to more violence and aggression. I think that these experiences led him to have a strange interest in violence and aggression.
Despite that fact that he was exposed to all this violence and hardships, he still chose to make his life, and stories, playful. This story, though definitely dark, is filled to the brim with pure irony.These experiences changed him, but his goofy personality never changed.
Although Dahl may not have written with these particular ideals in mind, I choose to believe that this story is more than an angry housewife getting revenge on her husband. Instead I believe that his ideas for his story stemmed from these times in his life where he was exposed to hardship and exposure to loss at such a young age.
The irony…
The irony in this short story is almost too much to bear and even hard to believe. How can a four page story contain this much irony??
Even the title is significantly ironic, unknowingly to readers setting the tone for the short story. Lamb to the slaughter implies that an innocent and unknowing animal is about to be killed or hurt.
At the beginning of the story that label could very easily be applied to Mary. She waited calmly for her husband to return and when he does, she does not question the fact that he is acting… strange. But if you continue to read you find out this term that depends on the innocence of the subject, can no long be applied to Mary…
The title is just the tip of the iceberg. The irony takes an even darker turn as Mary tricks the detectives into disposing of the murder weapon. She creates a situation in which these men, the detectives and friends of Patrick, are almost forced to eat this dinner that she made.
By convincing them that she put so much time and effort into this wonderful dinner with her husband, that was then ruined and derailed by his death, she makes the detective pity her. She tells them to eat, she doesn’t want to have to worry about there being left overs, as there is too much for just her.
Detectives unknowingly dispose of the murder weapon, all the while assuring Mary that they will be able to catch the murderer- as soon as they find the weapon that killed him.
I told you, the irony is almost too much…
Theme- there is more than just murder
Gender and expectations, we have all felt the pressures of other expectation of us, whether this is due to gender or anything else. In “Lamb to the Slaughter” Mary is expected to play the role of dutiful wife and gentle woman. When Patrick tells her about the divorce, he expects her to immediately understand and react in a calm and collected manner.
(Representation of how women were expected to be in 1950’s)
Due to the fact the this story was written in 1953, women were expected to be submissive. To not have their own opinions and if they do to keep them quiet. Mary originally fulfills her role perfectly. She gets him a drink and attempts to make dinner for him.
Instead of simply remaining so calm as expected, she reacts with violence and aggression that readers, much less Patrick, knew she had.
Mary Maloney’s personality and actions do a complete one 180. After she hits him, even she is stunned by her quick change of character.
For this reason, detectives immediately rule Mary out as a suspect. Women are not expected to possess this kind of violent and criminal ability. The detectives had this preconceived notion so they never even refer to the suspect as they or them, only he and him. From the minute they walked in, the detectives already decided that their culprit was male.
There is so much more that I could tell you about “Lamb to the Slaughter” but the only way you will be able to catch all the intricate details is by reading it yourself.
Sources:
https://www.roalddahl.com/roald-dahl/about
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/pill-mrs-america-womens-roles-1950s/