Symbol of the Lamb in Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl
In Lamb to the slaughter written by Roald Dahl in 1953, the symbol lamb means meek, innocent and pure also Victory of life and death. Both Mary and her husband Patrick take on the roles of figurative lambs as they the roles of figurative lambs as they sacrifice one another. While Patrick sacrifices Mary’s role as his wife by leaving the marriage, Mary sacrifices Patrick’s life, killing him with a frozen leg of lamb.
The wife gives the meekness, innocence and timidness of the lamb and timidity of the lamb a superb portrayal of that. For instance Once Marys husband, Patrick came home she wanted to make sure everything was perfect and comfortable. Mary Maloney was at Patricks every beck and call, even after her husband told her some seemingly terrible news, she continued on being a gentle and caring wife by trying to make dinner for him as if nothing is wrong. Or perhaps happened. Another way Mary has represented a lamb is Victory of Life, this conveys that the wife, Mary Avoided death. How she avoided the death penalty, how she did this was she convinced the detectives to eat the lamb, which is also the murder weapon. So by the detectives eating the murder weapon (lamb), They ate the evidence so now there is no murder weapon to be found so that is how she “Won Life”.
As for the husband Patrick represents a figurative lamb, as the lamb also means death, And unexpectancy. In the story the husband broke some heartbreaking news to his wife, Mary. In the story he has stated that he would want a divorce even though she is heavily pregnant with his child, he also asked if they can make this not a big deal because he doesn’t want it to be this big thing at work. In the story, the lamb to the slaughter the husband also stood up about to walk out as he was quite mad that she was acting as if nothing was happening and turned around not facing her that is when the unexpectancy comes into play. The unexpectancy of the story is that the wife comes up the stairs with a lamb, the wife hits the husband behind the head with the lamb killing him. Obviously the husband wasn’t expecting anything like that and that is also how he represents the other part of the Lamb death and this transitions into how the husband, Patrick, also represents the semblance Of death part of the Lamb which is pretty explainable by itself.
In the end both Mary and Patrick Maloney has represented the lamb. Mary seems to have represented the lamb more than Patrick has. To reiterate Mary has represented the timidness or timidity, the frail, the innocence and meekness. And we can’t forget how she also represented the victory Of Life on getting away with her act of crime. Patrick Maloney represented the unexpectancy and death of the Lamb. Thus showing that Patrick and Mary Maloney are one in the same when showing the symbolical link between the lamb and Mary and Patrick.
