LAMB TO THE SLAUGHTER

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Roald Dahl His parents were from Norway, but he was born in Wales, 1916. In 1942, he went to Washington as Assistant Air Attach. There, he started writing short stories. In 1943, he published his first children's book "The Gremlins " with Walt Disney and in 1945 his first book of short stories appeared in the US. His marriage with the actress Patricia Neal was unhappy. He got divorced in 1983 and married Felicity Crosland. He received several awards, such as the Edgar Allan Poe Award. Roald Dahl died in November 1990.

AUTHORS WORKS

SYNOPSIS
Mary Maloney is a devoted wife and expectant mother. She waits happily each night for the arrival of her husband Patrick, home from work at the police station. On this particular night, though, she can tell something is wrong. In disbelief, she listens as Patrick tells her that he is leaving her for another woman. Dazed, she goes into the kitchen to prepare their supper and pulls a large frozen leg of lamb from the deep freeze. Still numb, she carries it into the living room and without warning bashes her husband over the head with it.

As she looks at Patrick lying dead on the floor, she slowly begins to come back to her senses. Immediately she realizes the ramifications of what she has done. Not wanting her unborn child to suffer as a result of her crime, she begins planning her alibi. She places the leg of lamb in a pan in the oven and goes down to the corner grocery to get some food for "Patrick's dinner" (making sure the grocer sees her normal and cheerful state of mind). She returns home and screams when she finds Patrick lying on the floor.

She calls the police and informs them that she found her husband lying dead on the floor. Within hours swarms of officers are searching the house and conducting an investigation. Mary's story of coming home from the grocer and finding him is corroborated as she had planned. While the police are searching fruitlessly into the night for the murder weapon, Mary offers them some lamb that she had prepared for dinner. They are happy to oblige. While they lounge in the kitchen and discuss the case (their mouths "sloppy" with meat), Mary Maloney sits in the living room and giggles softly to herself.

LITERARY EXPECTS

The

irony

The cops cant find any clues because they think an intruder committed the murder. It was ironic because the murder weapon was literally right under their noses because they were eating it.

Black humor is the use of the grotesque, morbid, or absurd for darkly comic purposes.

The image of the cheerful housewife suddenly smashing her husbands skull with the frozen joint of meat intended for their supper and then being eaten by the policemen is the ultimate use of black humor.

RESPONSES & CRITICTISM

In the story Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl. The author made us shiver at the behaviour of the character because both the main characters are two faced and cold blooded. This story is about a Lady who kills her husband with a leg of lamb and gets away with killing him.At the beginning of the story the atmosphere seems warm and cosy. The curtains were drawn, lamps alight, whisky ready on the table with two glasses. Mary Maloney was waiting for her husband to come home from work. She was knitting patiently looking at the time when he would come; Now and again she would glance up at the clock. There was always something cheerful about her and in everything she did. Her whole body had a new placid look. This was her sixth month with the child. She was tremendously blissful about it. When Patrick, Marys husband came home she treated him with a smile on her face and made him a strong drink of whisky and a weak one for herself. She was back again in the chair sewing again. He was sitting opposite to her holding the glass. She was observing him; She loved him for the way he sat loosely in a chair, for a way he came in a door, or moved slowly across the room. This shows how much she loved him and cared for him. However the atmosphere changed from dreamy and loving to tense and frustrating. He wasnt his usual self. He drank more strong whisky than usual; She noticed that the new drink was dark amber with quantity of whisky in it.This proves that the drink was stronger and that he was stressed.

LAMB TO THE SLAUGHTER CRITICAL OVERVIEW

The critical reception of Dahl's story "Lamb to the Slaughter" needs to be put in the context of his critical reception generally. First of all, Dahl achieved commercial success, and after a period of struggle, became wealthy on the basis of his writing. For this to happen, a writer must have talent and he must have a sense of how to make that talent appeal to large numbers of ordinary readers. There is, moreover, often a difference between what a large segment of the literate public wants and what academically trained editors, who stand between authors and the public, think that the public wants or what the public ought to want. Once his writing reached its audience, Dahl never experienced any difficulty; before reaching his audience, at the editorial level, however, Dahl often confronted obstacles. "Lamb to the Slaughter" was originally rejected by The New Yorker in 1951.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://www.roalddahlfans.com/shortstories/lamb.php
http://www.poemhunter.com/roald-dahl/poems/ http://www.scribd.com/doc/37851624/Lamb-to-theSlaughter-Critical-Summary

http://www.bookrags.com/studyguidelambslaughter/crit.html