Lamb To The Slaughter

“Lamb to the Slaughter” employs satire and irony to challenge the traditional gender roles ubiquitous in the 1950s. By portraying an archetypal homemaker betrayed by her husband, the story highlights the insidious power imbalance created by a “conventional” marriage. Entirely dependent on her husband, Mary Maloney is stripped of her identity, purpose, and social role by her husband’s intended abandonment of her. Within this context, her extreme reaction of murdering her husband seems not only plausible but inevitable. Patrick Maloney’s murder, and the domestic events preceding the murder, develop the themes of Loyalty and Betrayal and The Imbalance of Traditional Gender Roles. The murder weapon—a leg of lamb—is an important symbol that supports the text’s central themes. The theme of Food, Drink, and Domesticity punctuates the text.

Dahl establishes an atmosphere of peaceful domesticity only to subvert it. The story opens with a setting suggestive of serenity and order. The limited third-person narrator describes an immaculate living room in a comfortable, middle-class home. The repetition of pairs—two chairs, two lighted lamps, and two glasses on the table—portray an intimate scene of domestic harmony. Although Mary sits alone, her preparation of two drinks indicates an impending arrival, and the theme of Food, Drink, and Domesticity as well as the symbol of ice cubes emerge from the opening scene. Mary’s demeanor informs us that she is a homemaker anxiously awaiting her husband’s return from work, solidifying that the couple conforms to the traditional gender roles of the 1950s. However, Mary’s overzealous anticipation creates a suspenseful mood. Dahl undermines the social belief that confining women like Mary to the home creates domestic bliss. The suspense is heightened when Mr. Maloney arrives home and disrupts the couple’s marital routine by deviating from his usual habits.

Mr. Maloney’s behavior foreshadows the story’s first major conflict. He fails to return his wife’s endearments, and readers become increasingly aware of the power disparity in the marriage. While Mary privately reflects on how much she loves her husband, he is ominously silent, suggesting Mary’s love is not reciprocated. He behaves in an “unusual” way (23), pouring himself another drink and refusing his wife’s repeated food offerings. In these actions, Mr. Maloney is essentially rejecting his wife. Deprived of her regular role as nurturer, Mary becomes disoriented and unsettled. Her declaration, “But, darling you must eat!” (24), reveals a growing sense of desperation. Mr. Maloney also unconsciously reveals trepidation through the “little muscle moving near the corner of his left eye” (25). Narrative tension is created as Mary becomes “frightened” (25).

When Mr. Maloney announces, “This is going to be a bit of a shock to you, I’m afraid” (25), he hints at the nature of his forthcoming revelation. However, the narrator omits the exact words Mr. Maloney uses to tell his wife he is leaving. This omission conveys the scene from Mary’s point of view. In shock, she understands the essence of her husband’s speech but cannot absorb his exact words. The announcement, and Mary’s subsequent devastation, build up to the first climax of the story. The theme of Loyalty and Betrayal encompasses several key betrayals, the first of which is Mr. Maloney’s shocking declaration.

At first, Mary’s response to Mr. Maloney’s announcement seems to confirm her submissive character. In denial, she reverts to domestic routine, reflecting, “Maybe, if she went about her business and acted as though she hadn’t been listening, then later, when she sort of woke up again, she might find none of it had ever happened” (26). Mary’s fixation on providing her husband with dinner is an attempt to hold onto the fantasy of their blissful married life, which develops the theme of Food, Drink, and Domesticity. However, in the first climax of the story, Mary kills her husband with the leg of lamb she intended to cook for his supper. This dramatic turn of events illustrates how quickly the Maloneys’ apparently perfect life dissolves into betrayal and violence. Mary’s murderous actions also cement the story’s second key betrayal and resolve the story’s first conflict.

Thematically, Mary’s murder of her husband reverses the gendered power dynamics of the Maloneys’ marriage. She displays the traditionally masculine qualities of physical strength, ruthlessness, and a capacity for violence. Meanwhile, divested of his power, Mr. Maloney takes on the traditionally feminine role of the helpless victim. Through the reversal of his main characters’ positions, Dahl explores the metaphorical implications of the story’s title. By killing Mr. Maloney, Mary rejects her proverbial role as a “lamb to the slaughter,” displacing it onto her husband. Her use of a leg of lamb as a weapon adds a further layer of irony to the scenario. By demonstrating how easily—and quickly—the power balance between the Maloneys changes, the narrative highlights the empty nature of their ascribed gender roles. The entire story takes place from approximately 4:50 p.m. to sometime after 9:00 p.m. The motif of time develops the theme of The Imbalance of Traditional Gender Roles by showing us just how quickly these roles can be subverted.

The third-person narrative perspective is limited to Mary’s thoughts and feelings. Throughout the story, the narrator maintains a detached, understated tone. Mary’s attack on her husband is described as if observed from a distance:

At that point, Mary Maloney simply walked up behind him and without any pause she swung the big frozen leg of lamb high in the air and brought it down as hard as she could on the back of his head (26).

The climactic event is recounted with no more emotion than Mary’s mundane domestic rituals. However, readers can only surmise Mr. Maloney’s thought processes through his actions. It is also significant that we do not learn Mr. Maloney’s first name until after his death when Mary refers to herself as “Mrs. Patrick Maloney” (29). Later in the story, he is simply referred to as “the corpse” (30). These narrative techniques combine to distance the reader from Mr. Maloney emotionally. As he is portrayed unsympathetically, readers are encouraged to empathize with Mary’s character and be morally complicit in her actions. In this way, Mary is a sympathetic character, or a character designed to elicit the reader’s compassion and loyalty.

Once Mary kills Mr. Maloney, the story’s tone becomes darkly humorous and ironic. Dahl’s use of dark humor, combined with elements of the macabre, is intended to have an unsettling effect on the reader. The juxtaposition of the domestic and gruesome and the story’s plot twists are equally shocking and amusing. Much of the humor derives from dramatic and situational irony. The arrival of the police signals the story’s second major conflict—how will Mary evade arrest—as well as crux for the story’s dramatic irony.

During the murder investigation, readers share a sense of dramatic irony with Mary as she misleads and manipulates those around her. Exploiting the investigating police officers’ gendered assumptions, Mary presents herself as a helpless victim, sobbing and “weeping hysterically” (29). She also persuades the officers to imbibe alcohol, the third key betrayal, even though doing so violates their code of conduct. In yet another play on the story’s title, the policemen are led by Mary, like innocent lambs, to eat the murder weapon, the fourth key betrayal. The police’s consumption of the lamb is the story’s second climax and provides a swift resolution to the second conflict. By the story’s end, readers are placed in the uncomfortable position of fellow conspirators in Mary’s crime, laughing with her at the irony of the situation.