Assignment #3

dramatic irony: created when the reader/audience knows more about the plot of a work of literature than the characters do

situational irony:when what actually happens is the opposite of what was expected by the reader/audience and/or characters

verbal irony:contrast between what is said and what is meant by a character or characters

ambiguity:the "WHAT THE HECK?!" feeling experienced after reading a vague and uncertain ending that is open to interpretation. <:


Dahl introduces the character of Mary Maloney, a devoted housewife and expectant mother who's favorite time of everyday is spent sitting quietly in the presence of her husband while he enjoys a drink after a long day at work. Daul uses dramatic irony by describing Mr. Maloney's actions first as out of the ordinary, then having Mary kill her husband afer he tells her he wants her to leave him.The dramatic irony was stronger than the situational in this case because of the title's foreshadowing. The lamb in the story was dead and frozen so "Lamb To The Slaughter" didn't hint at a lamb's death, but it did hint at "slaughter". An attentive reader could figure out what scene would follow after a dazed Mary took the lamb from the freezer.

Verbal irony is used when Mary maloney asks the policemen to do her a 'small favor' and eat the freshly cooked lamb. The policemen were at the Maloney home for such a long time because they were searching for the object that cracked Patrick Maloney's skull. Mary Maloney knew that if the men were tired, famished, and mildly intoxicated, she could easily persuade them to eat the leg of lamb before it could be percieved as a murder weapon.

The expression of lambs to the slaughter , describes how lambs fall in line unaware that they walk to their own death instead of a haircut. The title of "Lamb To The Slaughter" expresses the story's main plot of an impulsive and ironic murder. Patrick Maloney's murder by his wife Mary is unexpected because her adoration for Patrick, "how he sat loosely in a chair..or moved slowly across the room with long strides." is Dahl's main focus throught the introduction.