«Ягня на забій» Роальд Даль

В кімнаті тепло та чисто, фіранки засмикнені, дві настільні лампи

горять – одна поряд з нею та інша біля пустого крісла, напроти. У буфеті
позаду неї два високих стакани, содова, віскі. Свіжі кубики льоду в термосі.
Мері Мелоні чекає, коли її чоловік прийде з роботи.
Час від часу вона поглядає на годинник, але без хвилювання, а лише
щоб потішити себе думкою про те, що кожною хвилиною плине час
очікування, коли він прийде. Умиротворення та ласка панують в її
зовнішності та в усьому, що вона робить.
Те, як вона схиляє голову, коли займається шиттям, наповнене
неймовірним спокоєм. Її шкіра – зараз Мері на шостому місяці вагітності –
набула неймовірної прозорості, рот пом’якшав, тепер безтурботні очі
здаються вже більшими та темнішими, ніж раніше. Коли на годиннику було
за десять хвилин п’ята, вона почала прислуховуватися, та за декілька хвилин,
як завжди вчасно, вона почула як колеса машини наїхали гравій, як двері
зачинилися, під вікнами пролунали кроки, і ключ відімкнув замок. Вона
відклала шиття, встала та підготувалась поцілувати його, як тільки він зайде.
«Привіт, любий», - промовила вона.
«Привіт, люба», - відповів він.
Вона взяла його пальто та повішала його у шафу. Далі вона підійшла у
інший бік і зробила напої – міцніше для нього, і слабкіше для себе; і
незабаром вона знову опинилася на своєму кріслі з шиттям, а він в іншому,
навпроти, тримаючи високу склянку обома руками, гойдаючи її, щоб кубики
льоду билися об скло.

Analysis
The text under consideration is “Lamb to the Slaughter” by a well-known
British novelist, short story writer, poet, screenwriter, and wartime fighter pilot
Roald Dahl. Dahl's short stories are known for their unexpected endings, and his
children's books for their unsentimental, macabre, often darkly comic mood,
featuring villainous adult enemies of the child characters. His books champion the
kindhearted and feature an underlying warm sentiment.
The given short story is about a pregnant woman who committed a crime by
killing her husband and hid all the evidence. History combines the absurdity of the
situation, because she loves her husband, but at the same time she kills him in cold
blood and pretends that nothing happened. The reason for the crime was that one
evening her husband came home and told Mary that he was breaking up with her.
This short story belongs to the emotive prose and as such represents the
belles-lettres functional style, the main aim of which is to give aesthetic pleasure to
the reader.
As to the plot structure of this fragment, it is open, because we have only the
fragment of the story, and here we don’t have any falling actions and denouement.
But there is also exposition, represented by the first paragraph and ended by the
sentence “Mary Maloney was waiting for her husband to come him from work. ” Then we have
rising action until the culmination, which is represented by the moment, when the
husband tells her he breaks up with her. “So there it is,” he added. “And I know it’s kind of a
bad time to be telling you,bet there simply wasn’t any other way. Of course I’ll give you money and see
you’relooked after. But there needn’t really be any fuss. I hope not anyway. It wouldn’t bevery good for

my job.” As I said, there is no falling action and denouement, the last paragraph is
the continuing of the culmination, because there are some Mary’s thoughts and
feelings which are described: “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. ” As
the denouement of the story is implied, the analyzed text can be considered as one
having an open plot structure.
As to the place of action, there is direct spatial marker – the house of Mary
and her husband. As to the time of the action, we have some temporal markers, so
we only know that described events are happened in the evening on Thursday:
“When the clock said ten minutes to five, she began to listen, and a few moments later,
punctually as always, she heard the tires on the gravel outside”, “I haven’t made any supper

because it’s Thursday.” The time of action is stated directly.

 As to the types of narration, there are author’s narrative proper and dialogue
speech. Function of dialogue – self-characterization of the personages – is
achieved by some details, which are described in the dialogues. For example,
reader gets to know that Mary’s husband is policeman exactly from the Mary’s line
in the dialogue: “I think it’s a shame,” she said, “that when a policeman gets to be
as senior as you, they keep him walking about on his feet all day long.” And also
we can assume what character Mary's husband had. According to his remarks, the
reader can understand that he is indifferent to Mary and that he is domineering and
has propensity for aggression.
As to the narrative compositional forms, narrative proper, interior
description: “The room was warm and clean, the curtains drawn, the two table lamps alight –
hers and the one by the empty chair opposite. On the sideboard behind her, two tall glasses, soda
water, whiskey”, portrait: “She loved intent, far look in his eyes when they rested in her, the

funny shape of the mouth, and especially the way he remained silent about his tiredness… ” are

used in the text. There is no argumentation.

The author employs different SDs and detail to depict the place of action and
the participants. Author uses parallelism to show the description of the room: “The
room was warm and clean, the curtains drawn, the two table lamps alight”,
inversion: “On the sideboard behind her, two tall glasses, soda water, whiskey”.
Also there are some other SDs, for example: epithet: “There was a slow smiling
air about her…”, “Her skin… had acquired a wonderful translucent quality”,
“The drop of a head… was curiously tranquil”, “new placid look”, “a blissful
time”, “the funny shape of the mouth”, “little oily swirls”, personification: “the
clock said”, “the light… fell across… leaving the chin and mouth in shadow”,
metonymy: “she heard the tires on the gravel outside”, “Her eyes waited”,
asyndeton and parallelism: “ …she heard the tires on the gravel outside, and the
car door slamming, the footsteps passing the window, the key turning in the lock.
She laid aside her sewing, stood up, and went forward to kiss him as he came in.”
“Her eyes waited on him for an answer, a smile, a little nod”, graphon: “Hullo
darling”, inversion: “For her, this was always a blissful time of day”, “I’ve
decided the only thing to do is tell you right away”, “But there needn’t really be
any fuss”, simile: “almost as a sunbather feels the sun”, metaphor: “that warm
male glow”, “intent, far look in his eyes”, repetition: “She loved him for the way
he sat loosely in a chair, for the way he came in a door”, ellipsis, mostly in
dialogues: “Tired darling?”, anadiplosis: “although there was still half of it, at
least half of it left.”, pleonasm: “sitting still with himself”, framing repetition:
““Sit down,” he said. “Just for a minute, sit down.””, periphrasis: “But I’ve
thought about it a good deal”, attachment: “And he told her.”, hyperbole: “dazed
horror”, litotes: “It wouldn’t be very good for my job”, suspense: ““This is going
to be a bit of a shock to you, I’m afraid,” he said. “But I’ve thought about it a
good deal and I’ve decided the only thing to do is tell you right away. I hope you
won’t blame me too much.””
Also, the author uses some artistic details, for example, “her large eyes”
sometimes mentioned in the text, we can suppose the author uses it to emphasize
that Mary is really naive and looks at the world through rose-tinted glasses.
“Sewing” is a symbol of homeliness and calm. “Whiskey” is a symbol of a high
status of this family.
The thematic vocabulary of the text is lamb, pregnancy, wife and husband,
evening, whiskey.
As for the title words, they belong to the key vocabulary of the text which
reveals the author’s concept of biblical origin of this phrase and its connection with
described events. The phrase refers to a person who goes unconcernedly and
innocently into a life-threatening or dangerous situation, or it means ignorance and
innocence. The author shows the reader that even the “meekest lamb" can commit
a cold-blooded crime.