“It wasn’t till then that she began to get frightened “what finally frightened Mrs Maloney?Īns. He told her that he thought about it a good deal and has decided to tell her right away.ģ. He knew very well that it would be a shock for her. Before he disclosed about his intention to leave her, he kept his head down and was nervous. Whenever Mrs Maloney asked about the fetching the food or slippers he just told her to sit down. He lifted his glass and drained it in one swallow although there was still half of it. Patrick was uneasy as he did an unusual thing. Pick out the evidence from the story to show that Patrick is uneasy about revealing to his wife that he is leaving her?Īns.
The probable reasons are Patrick might have fallen in love with another woman or may be blackmailed or might be chased by enemies.Ģ. What might be the probable reasons for Patrick to leave his wife? II.Answer the following questions in a sentence or two eachġ.
She thinks that if she goes back to her business then things would turn normal What was Mrs Maloney’s intention in getting the lamb from the freezer?Ī. She needs an alibi to prove that she was not at home.ģ. Why does Mrs Maloney go to the store to purchase groceries?Ī. Once the policemen are called to investigate Patrick’s murder, then, the lamb comes to represent both a sacrifice for the detectives (as food) and a weapon against them (as that sacrifice as food entails the destruction of evidence). The transformation of the lamb from an object of sacrifice to a tool of violence signals Mary’s transformation from submissive housewife to violent killer, and resonates in the double meaning and black humour of the story’s title: whereas the Maloneys are both lambs to be slaughtered figuratively or literally, the lamb, or rather the frozen leg of lamb, is also used as an instrument of slaughter. However, while Patrick sacrifices Mary’s role as his wife by leaving the marriage, Mary sacrifices Patrick’s life, killing him with a frozen leg of lamb. Both Mary and her husband Patrick take on the roles of figurative lambs as they sacrifice each other. In this story, the figure of the lamb takes on two roles: as both a victim and a source of violence or sacrifice. The lambs are oblivious of the imminent catastrophe that awaits them, lambs are also supposed to be helpless. The allusion refers to the helplessness of the innocent lambs that are being led to the slaughter. Lamb to a slaughter is a phrase from the Bible that means in an unconcerned manner. The story ends with a final ironic twist as the police officers consume the leg of lamb, all while discussing the mysterious disappearance of the murder weapon. Hours later, as the police search for the murder weapon, Mary begs them all to eat the leg of lamb she has cooked so that it won’t go to waste. When she returns home, she calls the police, pretending to have just discovered her husband’s body. To establish an alibi, she goes out to the market and calmly asks the shopkeeper for potatoes and peas for her husband’s dinner.
Then she places the leg of lamb into the hot oven. She walks up behind her husband and hits him on the head with the frozen meat, killing him. She grabs a large leg of lamb from the freezer. Shocked beyond reply, Mary begins cooking dinner. He tells his wife that that he is leaving her. When he finally arrives, it is obvious that something is wrong. Mary Maloney eagerly awaits her husband Patrick’s arrival home from work. This darkly humorous story is a modern, yet classic tale of irony and suspense. His first published work A Piece of Cake, in the Saturday evening post was an account of the incident when he was at the Royal Air force. Roald Dahl(1916-1919) was a British novelist, short story writer and poet. Text-Based Questions Lamb to the Slaughter.
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