Discuss the difference between The Withered Arm and Lamb to the Slaughter.

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The Withered Arm and Lamb to the Slaughter

        This essay is aimed at discussing the difference between the short stores, called The Withered Arm and Lamb to the Slaughter. These stores have similar plots and both deliver and contrast these in their very own clever ways. They are both based on the idea of revenge, involving two women and a man. In the story Lamb to the Slaughter there is a couple named Mr and Mrs Maloney, when Patrick comes home from work he wants to tell Mary Maloney something, Mary knew that Patrick was seeing another woman so she takes her revenge on him. The Withered Arm is about a middle aged couple called Farmer Lodge and his wife Gertrude. Another main character is Rhoda Brook a lady who takes revenge on Farmer Lodge because Rhoda has Farmer Lodge’s child and he does not help her bring him up.

The author of ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ is Roald Dahl who was from a poor background he was born in 1860. His books are mostly fantasy, and full of imagination. Roald Dahl wrote a collection of 18 short stories called ‘Someone like you’. In these stories he examines the dark side of human nature or mental illness in characters that initially appear to be normal. For example In ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’, Mary Maloney appears to be like a normal housewife. Patrick her husband, is a policeman. Their life is boring and repetitive; they have drinks each night before cooking dinner. Until one day Patrick comes home and tells Mary he is having an affair and wants a divorce. Mary kills Patrick by hitting him over the head with a frozen leg of lamb that they were going to eat that night. Later she cooks the frozen leg of lamb and feeds it to the policemen investigating the case.

        Thomas Hardy the author of ‘The Withered Arm’ who lived in a town called Wessex from 1840 to 1928. During his life he wrote fifteen novels including one, which went unpublished. He had a great passion for poetry and wrote thousands of poems in his lifetime. He also published four volumes of short stories, which is where the story ‘The Withered Arm’ is from. Many of his stories were based in his home town of Wessex. In fact the character Rhoda Brook from ‘The Withered Arm’ was based on one of his former partners!

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        Lamb to the Slaughter is about a married couple named Mr and Mrs Maloney. The story revolves around the character of Mrs Mary Maloney a loving housewife and psychopathic killer. The basic

Theme of the story is revenge. One day when Patrick Maloney comes home from work, Mary Maloney is waiting for him. He starts to tell Mary that he has done something very bad and hopes Mary doesn’t blame him too much for it. Mary already knew that he had been cheating on her. So she murders him with a piece of lamb and then calls the ...

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