Lamb to the Slaughter Essay

In the short story, Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl, Dahl uses the literary

devices of dramatic irony, foreshadowing, and imagery to depict a dark comedy by

grasping the idea of a tragedy becoming humorous.

There are multiple uses and examples of irony throughout this short story that

relate to the idea of a dark comedy. One key quote of dramatic irony comes from the

end of the book stating, “Personally, I think its right here on the premises.” “Probably

right under our very noses. What do you think, Jack?” (pg. 324)This quote here shows

us as that the detectives have no idea that they are actually eating the evidence of the

murder right then and there. We, as the audience, obviously know what is going on and

by Mary Maloney chuckling at that statement shows us that Dahl turned something as

horrible as murder into something that she laughs at in the end referring to the idea of

dark comedy. Verbal irony is also represented in this piece of literature. When she goes

to the market, she talks to the grocer and states, “No, I’ve got meat, thanks. I got a nice

leg of lam, from the freezer.” (pg. 320) This is verbal irony because it shows that what

she is saying is basically telling the grocer what she used for the murder of her

husband. The irony here is amusing, knowing the fact that killed the supposed love of

her life and can so easily lie about it. So again, the verbal irony really catches the tone

of the dark comedy that Dahl is trying to capture here. Both dramatic and verbal irony

relate to each other in the sense that the audience feels the ideas of a tragedy as

something funny therefore, relating back to the overall picture of the piece of literate as

a dark comedy.
 Foreshadowing is a device used to give the reader clues as to what is expected

to happen in the story and is a key element when writing about a dark comedy. An

author wants one to feel the crude humor that is going to happen, but to do that, they

must put in ideas beforehand to make it as suspenseful as possible. An example of

foreshadowing the murder that was about to come would be, “She lifted it out, and

looked at it. It was wrapped in paper, so she took off the paper and looked at it again. A

leg of lamb.” (pg. 319) This foreshadows Mary Maloney’s murder of the husband

because nothing was expected to come from her going down to the freezer to get a

piece of meat to cook for dinner. The idea of a “leg of lamb” would never be thought of

as a deadly weapon which is why it is thought of as to be comical, again, going back to

the idea of a dark comedy. A second idea of foreshadowing comes from something one

reads at the beginning of the book, the title. The title “Lamb to the Slaughter” (pg. 317)

basically sums up what is going to happen through the story. As a reader of this story,

one would never expect something as simple as the title to explain and foreshadow so

much of the literature. The great amount of foreshadowing put into this text creates the

mood of satiric humor which is exactly what the author had intended for.

Imagery is a crucial device used by the author to set the scene of this nasty

humor. In just about every scene imagery was used, making it one of the most common

devices in the story. There were a few examples more significant then others such as

when the cops were searching Mary Maloney’s house stating, “She could hear their

footsteps on the gravel outside, and sometimes she saw the flash of a torch through out

a chink in the curtains. It began to get late, nearly nine she noticed by the clock on the

mantel. The four men searching the rooms seemed to be growing weary, a trifle
exasperated.” (pg. 323) This setting here depicts the idea of the worry that Mary

Maloney might have while they are searching her house so she sees that they are

getting exhausted and she decides to take advantage of this. This piece is important

due to the fact that the idea of her thinking she is going to get away with murder shows

the cruelness in her but making it out to be a humorous act. An additional piece of

imagery represented in the text comes from the beginning of the book saying, “The

room was warm and clean, the curtains drawn, the two old table lamps alight- hers and

the one by the empty chair opposite. On the sideboard behind her, two tall glasses,

soda water, whisky. Fresh ice cubes in the Thermos bucket.” (pg. 317) Just by reading

the first three sentences, only describing what is going on in the room, we could infer

that the setting here isn’t happy and pleasant, therefore making it weary and maybe

even having a suspicious vibe. This is very important to making the idea of a strange

environment come through to the reader. There are so many uses of imagery

throughout this piece of writing that make the dark comedy idea clear and fulfilling the

intentions that Dahl had for the crude humor.

Each one of the literary devices stated above contribute to the idea that “Lamb to

the Slaughter” is a dark comedy. Different example support this idea and make it come

clear throughout the short story. Dahl’s success of making this story a dark comedy is

what made the literature such an interesting piece to read.