Lamb to the slaughter, a short story by Roald Dahl is very interesting and mysterious. The story is about a loving and caring woman, named Mary, who is asked for a divorce by her husband. Ironically, she kills her husband with a leg of lamb, and makes up a story to protect her baby, who she is pregnant with. Police Officials and detectives come, but they are unable to find the murderer, or the weapon. Irony impacts this story because it creates the suspense and adds a twist/turn to the story. Roald Dahl uses Irony in this short story for that reason. First, Mary’s husband, Patrick, comes home from work, asks for a divorce, and will not cooperate with Mary. Since she is caring and loving, Mary goes downstairs and grabs a leg of lamb to cook for dinner. Mary Maloney walks up behind her husband and “ without any pause,” she swings the big, frozen leg of lamb high in the air and brings it down as hard as she can on the back of his head. This is Ironic because before she murdered her husband, she loved him, cared for him, and did everything for him. “She took his coat and hung it in the closet. Then she walked over and made the drinks, a strongish one for him, a weak one for herself,” (Dahl, 1). This establishes situational irony because it …show more content…
Mary knows she needs to destroy the evidence that she killed her husband with the leg of lamb. Mary begs the police to eat the leg of lamb saying, “It’d be a favor if you’d eat it up,”(9). The reader knows that Mary killed Patrick. However, the officers do not recognize this, and eat the meat, which is the evidence. “The woman stayed where she was listening to them speaking among themselves, their voices thick and sloppy because their mouths were full of meat,” (9). This shows situational Irony, because we know they are eating the weapon, while they believe it is a leg of lamb. Irony makes this interesting, and leads to Mary not being caught for