Summary of Lamb To The Slaughter

LAMB TO THE SLAUGHTER BY ROALD DAHL

Genre: Critics consider that this short story is a mix of black humor comedy and crime fiction.

Theme: Somebody committing a perfect crime. Also it shows that ANGER can reveal our true nature and DRASTIC EVENTS can provoke irregular behavior.

Plot: Mary Maloney, a housewife devoted to making a home for her husband, and heavily pregnant, waits for her husband Patrick's return home from his job as a local police detective. Mary is very happy in her marriage, and believes her husband to be happy as well. When he returns, Mary notices that he is strangely distant and assumes that he is tired from work. After having more to drink than usual, Patrick reveals to Mary what is making him act strangely. The reader is told part of their conversation, only learning that Patrick will ensure that Mary will be "looked after," but the clear implication is that he will be leaving her (and their unborn child) for another woman. Seemingly in a trance, Mary fetches a large leg of lamb from the deep-freezer in the cellar to cook for their dinner. Patrick, his back to Mary, angrily tells her not to make him any dinner, as he is going out. While he is looking out the window, quite suddenly, as if she is acting without thinking, Mary strikes Patrick in the back of the head with the frozen leg of lamb, killing him. Mary realizes that Patrick is dead and begins, rather coldly and practically, to think about what must happen now. There is the baby to consider; she does not know what the law does with a pregnant murderer; she will not risk the child's sharing her fate, which could be prison and death by hanging. She prepares the leg of lamb that she used as a weapon and places it in the oven to destroy the evidence. Then she considers an alibi. After practicing an innocent face and some remarks to make in conversation, she visits the grocer and chats blandly with him about what to make for Patrick's dinner. Upon her return to the house and to the room where her husband lies dead on the floor, she acts surprised and meaningfully cries. Then she calls the police. When the police (who are all friends of her husband) arrive, they ask Mary questions and look at the scene. Considering Mary above suspicion, the police conclude that Patrick was killed by an intruder with a large blunt object, likely made of metal. After they make a fruitless search around the house and surrounding area, Mary realizes that the leg in the oven is just about done, and offers it to the policemen, pointing out that they have already been working through and past dinner hour and that the meat will otherwise go to waste; they hesitate, but accept. During the meal, as Mary sits nearby but does not join them, the policemen discuss the murder weapon's possible location. One officer, his mouth full of meat, says it is "probably right under our very noses". Mary, overhearing, begins to giggle.

Characters: Mary Maloney is the main character of the story, a character that Dahl is extremely careful to establish in detail at the beginning of this excellent short story. Mary is clearly a devoted wife to her husband, Patrick. Dahl takes time to explain her care and love for her husband - her desire for everything to be ready for Patrick's return, her generosity (in spite of being pregnant) in serving him and so on. What this carefully constructed portrait clearly does not prepare us for,  is the situational irony that comes when Mary kills her husband, her ability to plan the "perfect murder" and also her "giggle" at the end of the story, which disturbingly suggests a darker side to human nature that is in all of us, even in the most "perfect" of people.

Patrick Maloney, Mary's husband, is a character who we are made to feel dislike for. He treats his wife with disregard, and his act of leaving Mary, who we know is devoted to him, definitely does not make him likeable to the reader, so the reader sympathizes with Mary and is secretly pleased that Mary gets away with her crime at the end of the story.

Other minor characters include the policemen who come to Mary's house to investigate the murder and are easily fooled into believing Mary's story and (a classic example of dramatic irony) eating the murder weapon, consequently ensuring Mary's freedom.

Climax: There are 2 moments of great tension and revelation to the reader. The first one is when Mary kills her husband. The reader doesn´t expect that a woman who is so much in love with her husband should unexpectedly decide to kill him. The second one is when the policemen accept Mary´s invitation to have dinner and innocently eat the murder weapon.

Symbol: The lamb, which is a biblical reference to sacrifice.

The leg of lamb shows the wife´s good intentions but becomes a murder weapon.

There´s a lot of irony in the story. We know that Mary has murdered her husband but the police don´t since they are fooled by her innocent appearance. While having dinner the policemen say that may be the weapon is under their noses.

Mary Maloney offering dinner to the police officers.