Lamb to the Slaughter
There is a great play on words in the title as it could be perceived two ways, either, in the way that a lamb goes to slaughter to be killed and this is what happens to Mr Maloney. Also, he is killed with a leg of lamb and this could be suggested that he was slaughtered. This gives the title a good twist for the reader to think about after they have finished reading the story.
There is a very interesting narrative perspective in this story as it is really third person, but when she is thinking to herself it is a bit of third person and a bit of first person. It is certain that it is all in the past tense, this adds great character and individuality. ‘No, she said, she’d like to stay right where she was, in this chair. A little later perhaps, when she felt better, she would move.’
The characters are portrayed very well in this story. Mary Maloney seems to be a very reserved woman at the beginning of the story and seems to dote upon her husband and uses him for company. You take this idea from the story when it is said that she waits for her husband to get home from work. ‘Now and again she would glance up at the clock, but without anxiety, merely to please herself with the thought that each minute gone by made it nearer the time when he would come.’ There seems to be a very clear routine about this, as if it happens everyday. She waits for him to come home to stop her from being so lonely. She likes the idea that there is a man there for her protection. Mr Maloney doesn’t seem to be as mad about her as she is about him and you get the picture that he doesn’t really appreciate her and has probably got fed up with her over the years that they have been together. Also the thing that he tells her that the reader doesn’t actually learn is probably about his infidelity, I come to this conclusion because of the way that Mrs Maloney reacts, she is a very quite woman at the start of the story but the something happens to make her so angry that she murders her husband, I would guess he just told her either about another woman or that he doesn’t want to be with her anymore. A lot more focus is based on Mrs Maloney than Mr Maloney as she is the protagonist and she is the one whose character changes the most throughout the story.
