“Lamb to the
Slaughter”
by Roald Dahl
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
R1E: Develop vocabulary through
text.
Use context clues.
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
R1F: Apply pre-reading strategies to
aid comprehension.
Make predictions based on title.
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
R1G: During reading, utilize
strategies to self-question and
correct, infer, visualize, predict, and
check using cueing systems:
meaning, structure, visual.
Make predictions.
Revise predictions.
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
R1H: Apply post-reading skills to
comprehend and interpret text
questions to clarify, reflect, analyze,
draw conclusions, summarize, and
paraphrase.
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
R1I: Compare, contrast, analyze,
and evaluate connections.
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
R2A: Locate, interpret, and apply
information in title, table of contents,
and glossary, and recognize the text
features of fiction, poetry, and drama
in grade-level text.
Understand situational and dramatic irony.
Analyze situational and dramatic irony.
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
R2C: Use details from text to analyze
character, plot, setting, point of view, and
development of theme; evaluate
proposed solutions; analyze the
development of a theme across genres;
evaluate the effect of author’s style and
complex literary techniques.
Write a character analysis.
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
ambiguity
Ambiguous situations have different
possible results.
Origin of the title
Origin of the title
Excerpt from a 1950s Home Economics
Textbook
Compiled by Ms. Leslie Blankship
Columbus, Ohio

Have dinner ready: Plan ahead even
the night before to have a delicious
meal on time. This is a way of letting
him know that you have been thinking
about him and are concerned about his
needs. Most men are hungry when they
come home and the prospects of a
good meal are part of the warm
welcome needed.

Prepare yourself: Take 15 minutes to
rest so you will be refreshed when he
arrives. Touch up your makeup, put a
ribbon in your hair and be fresh looking.
He has just been with a lot of work-wary
people. Be a little gay and a little more
interesting. His boring day may need a
lift.

Clear away the clutter: Make one last
trip through the main part of the house
just before your husband arrives,
gathering up school books, toys, paper,
etc. Then run a dust cloth over the
tables. Your husband will feel he has
reached a haven of rest and order, and
it will give you a lift, too.

Prepare the children: Take a few
minutes to wash the children's hands
and faces (if they are small), comb their
hair, and if necessary, change their
clothes. They are little treasures and he
would like to see them playing the part.


Minimize all noise: At the time of his
arrival, eliminate all noise of washer,
dryer, dishwasher, or vacuum. Try to
encourage the children to be quite. Be
happy to see him. Greet him with a
warm smile and be glad to see him.
Some don'ts: Don't greet him with
problems or complaints. Don't complain
if he's late for dinner. Count this as
minor compared with what he might
have gone through that day.

Make him comfortable: Have him lean
back in a comfortable chair or suggest
he lie down in the bedroom. Have a cool
or warm drink ready for him. Arrange his
pillow and offer to take off his shoes.
Speak in a low, soft soothing and
pleasant voice. Allow him to relaxunwind.

Listen to him: You may have a dozen
things to tell him, but the moment of his
arrival is not the time. Let him talk first.

Make the evening his: Never complain if
he does not take you out to dinner or to
other places of entertainment. Instead,
try to understand his world of strain and
pressure, his need to be home and
relax.

The goal: Try to make your home a
place of peace and order where your
husband can renew himself in body and
spirit.
Source: http://www.coax.net/people/lwf/TEXTBOOK.HTM
Now it’s time to read…
Dark Humor
Dark humor is the use of the grotesque,
morbid, or absurd for darkly comic
purposes.
Dark Humor
Dark humor became widespread in
popular culture, especially in literature and
film, beginning in the 1950s; it remains
popular toward the end of the twentieth
century.
Joseph Heller’s novel Catch-22 (1961) is
one of the best-known examples in
American fiction.
Dark Humor
The image of the cheerful housewife
suddenly smashing her husband’s skull
with the frozen joint of meat intended for
his dinner is itself darkly humorous for its
unexpectedness and the grotesque
incongruity of the murder weapon.
Dark Humor
There is a morbid but funny double
meaning, too, in Mary’s response to her
grocer’s question about meat: “I’ve got
meat, thanks. I got a nice leg of lamb from
the freezer.”
Dark Humor
She did indeed get a leg of lamb from the
freezer, and after she used it as a club,
she found herself with a rather large
portion of dead meat on her living-room
floor.
Dark Humor
Also darkly funny is the grocer’s question
about what she plans to give her husband
“afterwards,” that is, for dessert. From
Mary’s point of view, Patrick has already
gotten his “just desserts,” and there will be
no more “afterwards” for him!
Dark Humor
The ultimate example of dark humor in
“Lamb to the Slaughter” is, of course, the
spectacle of the policemen and detectives
sitting around the Maloney kitchen table,
speculating about the murder weapon
while they unwittingly devour it.
Setting
The setting is symbolic: Its domestic
primness implies Mary’s having bought
into a rather boring version of middle class
happiness.
Symbols
The frozen leg of lamb is also symbolic
and indeed constitutes the central symbol
of the story. The piece of meat is already a
token of violence: an animal traditionally
viewed as meek and gentle slaughtered
for carnivorous consumption.
Symbols
The notion of a lamb, moreover, resonates
with biblical symbols, such as the
scapegoat mentioned in Leviticus, the ram
that substitutes for Isaac in the tale of
Abraham and Isaac, or Jesus himself, “the
Lamb of God.”
But Dahl’s story reverses the connotation
of these biblical images.
Themes
BETRAYAL
Patrick Maloney’s unexplained decision to
leave his pregnant wife. This violation of
the marriage-vow is obviously not the only
betrayal in the story, however.
Mary’s killing of her husband is perhaps
the ultimate betrayal.
Her elaborately planned alibi and
convincing lies to the detectives also
constitute betrayal.
Themes
IDENTITY
At the level of popular psychology, Dahl
makes it clear through his description of
the Maloney household that Mary has
internalized the middle class ideal of a
young mid-twentieth-century housewife,
maintaining a tidy home and catering to
her husband; pouring drinks when the
man finishes his day is a gesture that
comes from movies and magazines of the
day.
Themes
IDENTITY
Mary’s sudden murderous action shatters
the image that we have of her and that
she seems to have of herself. Dahl
demonstrates, in the deadly fall of the
frozen joint, that “identity” can be fragile.
Themes
IDENTITY
Once she shatters her own identity, Mary
must carefully reconstruct it for protective
purposes, as when she sets up an alibi by
feigning a normal conversation with the
grocer.
Themes
IDENTITY
Dahl appears to suggest that, in essence,
human beings are fundamentally nasty
and brutish creatures capable of
precipitate and bloody acts.
Themes
IDENTITY
Then there are the police detectives, who
pride themselves on their ability to solve a
crime, but whom Mary sweetly tricks into
consuming the main exhibit.
Their identity, or at least their competency,
is thrown into doubt.
Themes
LOVE AND PASSION
At the beginning of “Lamb to the Slaughter,”
Mary Maloney feels love and physical
passion for her husband Patrick.
She luxuriates in his presence, in the “warm
male glow that came out of him to her,” and
adores the way he sits, walks, and behaves.
Themes
LOVE AND PASSION
Even far along into her pregnancy, she
hurries to greet him, and waits on him hand
and foot — much more attentively, it appears
from his reactions, than he would like.
Themes
LOVE AND PASSION
Patrick is presumably motivated to leave his
wife by an overriding passion for something
or someone else.
Mary’s mention of his failure to advance at
work, and his own wish that she not make a
“fuss” about their separation because “It
wouldn’t be very good for my job” indicate
that it may be professional success that he
desires.
His treatment of his wife does not suggest
that he loves her.
Themes
PASSIVITY
The concept of passivity figures in the story.
The first pages of the story portray Mary’s
existence as almost mindlessly passive: she
sits and watches the clock, thinking that each
minute brings her husband closer to her.
Themes
PASSIVITY
She is content to watch him closely and try to
anticipate his moods and needs.
Patrick’s predictability up to this point is part
of this passivity.
The two are living a clockwork life against
which, in some way, each ultimately rebels.
Passivity appears as the repression of
passion, and passion finds a way to reassert
itself.
Themes
JUSTICE AND INJUSTICE
The question of justice and injustice is
directly related to the question of revenge.
“Lamb to the Slaughter” narrates a train of
injustices, beginning with Patrick’s betrayal of
Mary and their marriage, peaking with Mary’s
killing of Patrick, and finding its denouement
in Mary’s deception of the investigating
officers.
Themes
JUSTICE AND INJUSTICE
Patrick acts unjustly (or so it must be
assumed on the basis of the evidence) in
announcing his abandonment of Mary, for this
breaks the wedding oath; Mary acts unjustly,
in a way far exceeding her husband’s
injustice, in killing Patrick, and she
compounds the injustice by concealing it from
the authorities.
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
ambiguity
A wolf is trapped near town. Wildlife
rescuers set it free in the mountains
so it won’t bother the townspeople.
Will the wolf eventually cause trouble
for these townspeople?
ambiguous
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
ambiguity
A student needs at least a B on a test
to pass a class and stay on the
basketball team. He studies hard and
gets a 90 on his test. Does he stay on
the basketball team?
unambiguous
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
ambiguity
A quality that allows readers to
interpret a story or other work in more
than one way.
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
Academic vocabulary
verbal
irony
verbal irony
(saying
something)
(the
opposite of
what is
expected)
(saying
something
that is the
opposite of
what is
expected or
true)
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
Academic vocabulary
situational irony
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
Academic vocabulary
dramatic irony
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
Academic vocabulary
verbal irony
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
Academic vocabulary
contradiction
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
Academic vocabulary
ambiguous
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
Academic vocabulary
subtleties
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
Academic vocabulary
mood
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
Academic vocabulary
tone
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
Academic vocabulary
reliability of sources
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
Academic vocabulary
bias
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
Academic vocabulary
analogy
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
Academic vocabulary
prefix
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
Academic vocabulary
suffix
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
Academic vocabulary
root word
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
Academic vocabulary
plot
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
Academic vocabulary
synonym
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
Academic vocabulary
text structure
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
Academic vocabulary
inference
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
Academic vocabulary
cause and effect
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
Academic vocabulary
antonym
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
Context clues
When you come across an
unfamiliar word, look for clues
in the context—the words
surrounding the unknown
word.
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
Context clues
In the following examples, the
context clues help you figure
out the meaning of the
unknown word.
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
Context clues
Similarly, when you are asked
to write a sentence using a new
word, you should include a
context clue to demonstrate
that you understand the word.
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
Context clues
DEFINITION
Her instinct, or automatic
response, is to run away.
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
Context clues
RESTATEMENT
She knows what the penalty is
and will accept her
punishment.
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
Context clues
EXAMPLE
Her action might bring relief—
for example, it would end the
anger she felt.
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
Context clues
COMPARISON
Ice cubes clinking in a glass
sound like pencils tapping on a
table.
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
Context clues
CONTRAST
Although she looks tranquil,
she doesn’t feel peaceful.
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
Vocabulary
administered
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
Vocabulary
premises
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
Vocabulary
luxuriate
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
Vocabulary
placid
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
Vocabulary
precinct
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
Vocabulary
hospitality
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
Vocabulary
anxiety
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
Vocabulary
consoling