Analysis of Literary Texts

Eva^{[a][b][c][d][e][f][g][h][i][j]} Arribas Peinado

Mari Carmen Muñoz de Luna Simón

Andrea Contreras Romo

Abel Calero Atienza

Professor: Ángel Mateos Aparicio Martín Albo

Subject: Analysis of Literary Texts

09 May 2016

Lamb to the Slaughter: Roald Dahl

The short story that we are going to analyze was written in 1953. We have decided to deal with the themes because of the content and the author's writing way. We will talk about the different themes that we have found, developing several interpretations.

Roald Dahl was a famous British novelist and a tale writer. He became famous due to his desire of inventing an amazing chocolate bar which inspired him to write his well-known novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The analyzed short story, “Lamb to the Slaughter”,  shows his passion with the horror genre. Also,while reading the tale, the reader realizes that there are darkly comic elements such as the mystery atmosphere, twisted characters and   gothic themes. This story can be related to other works, like “The Purloined Letter” by Edgar Allan Poe or a TV series called The Unexpected Tales (Alfred Hitchcock's episode).

After a close reading exercise, the reader should have noticed that one of the main characteristics of the story is the huge variety of themes. We, as a group, have made our own conclusions, and agree that the main theme is betrayal. We can read: “And he told her. It didn’t take long, four or five minutes at most, and she sat very still through it all, watching him with a kind of dazed horror as he went further and further away from her with each word.” (Dahl, 1953: 49). In this extract, the reader must be the witness of the bipolar change which Mary suffers. Since the moment Patrick went into the house, showing an unusual behaviour with his wife, Mary started to suspect. As she thought that he was going to break up their marriage, suffering from change of personality in that specific moment, she took the lamb leg and killed him.

We can break down this theme into two more: love and jealousy. Both of them have been very recurring themes through the history of literature, as we see in some works such as Othello by William Shakespeare. One of the reasons that moves Mary to kill Patrick is the deep love that she feels for him. “She loved to luxuriate in the presence of this man…” “She loved him for the way he sat loosely in a chair…” “She loved the intent, the funny shape of the mouth, and especially the way he remained silent about his tiredness…”(Dahl, 1953: 47) As we see, Mary loved everything about Patrick, even the most irrelevant details. The receiver can perceive that this feeling can even turn out to be depraved. When the main character knows the terrible news Patrick tells her, Mary does not want to believe it and she acts as if nothing had happened, as we can see in these lines: “Her first instinct was not to believe any of it, to reject it all. It occurred to her that perhaps he hadn’t even spoken, that she herself had imagined the whole thing.” In fact, she wants to prepare the dinner as usual: “I’ll get the supper- she managed to whisper, and this time he didn’t stop her.”

The reason why Patrick breaks up with Mary is not clear at all in the story, therefore, it depends on each one’s interpretation. According to the ours, Mary suspects that her husband  is leaving her for another woman, which makes her feel jealous. We consider it as a selfish act because Mary wants Patrick only for herself and not for anyone else. Also she was afraid as her son could live with the only care of his mother. Are all these feelings and passions what lead Mary to kill her husband.

 Afterwards, she called the police, pretending to be shocked and surprised, in order to seem a victim. In this part of the story appears another different theme: victimhood.

This theme only involves Mary because she  pretends to be someone who does not know what has happened. She thinks this is the best way not to be arrested and to continue with her everyday life near her future child. An evidence which supports our interpretation is when the police arrive to Mary’s house: “Briefly, she told her story about going out to the grocer and coming back to find him on the floor. While she was talking, crying and talking, Noonan discovered a small patch of congealed blood on the dead man’s head. He showed it to O’Malley who got up at once and hurried to the phone” (Dahl, 1953:54). In this way, Mary wants her child to have a peaceful childhood because if the policemen figure out that it was Mary who killed her husband, they will arrest her. As a consequence, the child will grow up without his parents’ affection.

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