When Billy goes to the house the landlady appears very quickly, ‘like a jack-in-the-box’. This indicates that she was waiting for him to arrive. Furthermore it seems as if she has prepared everything for him in advance. In other words she knew the point when he was going to arrive. The landlady says ‘we have it all to ourselves’. She also talks about her guests in the past tense. Therefore it is suggested that the guests are no longer there.
The landlady is an unconventional monster in this horror story. ‘She looked exactly like the mother of one’s best school-friend’ explains that this woman seemed sweet and familiar to Billy. Her role in the story is reversed when it is revealed that she is in fact a cold killer.
The landlady acts very strangely towards Billy, ‘her blue eyes travelled slowly all the way down the length of Billy’s body’. The landlady’s ayes are described as blue. Blue eyes are not usually associated with evil so this makes her seem an irregular villain in the story. The way she looks at him suggests a wicked look but the ‘blue eyes’ eliminates the evil. Also the way she watches him creates an eerie image, ‘he could feel her eyes resting on his face, watching him over the rim of her tea-cup’.
Lamb to the Slaughter tears way from the stereotypical horror genre. The opening is very unconventional, ‘The room was warm and clean’. Everything in the house is so normal and natural until Patrick Maloney comes home.
Mary Maloney is a totally irregular horror story felon. She is pregnant, you do not expect a murderer to be a mother-to-be because children and babies are not associated with evil and murder.
The beginning of the story talks about an empty armchair. This is a symbolisation of the future when Mary’s husband will no longer be there, ‘the empty chair opposite’.
Mary looks after her husband meticulously, ‘She took his coat and hung it in the closet’. It states that ‘she loved to luxuriate in the presence of this man’, this shows how much she loves him. Mary only wanted to look after him and tend to his every need. Their life at home in tense and Mary is trying to disguise the problem.
Patrick is very cold towards Mary because he feels guilty about leaving her. It is never said what he needs to tell her but it is subtextually communicated to the reader.
The whisky is used to build up the tension. It is used throughout the story. When Patrick first goes home Mary makes him a drink and after she kills him the police get Mary a drink. Patrick also downs his drink in one, ‘he did an unusual thing. He lifted his glass and drained it.’
Mary uses a frozen leg of lamb to kill her husband. The fact that it is frozen symbolizes death because a cold temperature is subtext for death. After she kills her husband Mary knits. The knitting needles represent weapons subtextually.
Both murderers have similarities. Mary and the Landlady both have very feminine features. They both have blue eyes. They are also both innocent on first impressions and are neat and tidy and very precise.
Their body language is comforting and they seem unthreatening because they both have connections to children. Mary is pregnant and the Landlady is linked with children because ‘she seems like the mother of one’s best school friend’. It lures you into a false sense of security.