32 pages • 1 hour read
Roald DahlLamb To The Slaughter
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1953A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Lamb
Lamb symbolizes both sacrifice and violence in “Lamb to the Slaughter.” It features in the story’s title and in the leg of lamb Mary Maloney uses to kill her husband. The title evokes the idiom “like a lamb to the slaughter,” meaning an innocent person or creature who is oblivious to their impending fate. The joint of meat Mary takes from the freezer embodies this concept literally as the lamb was slaughtered for human consumption. Dahl also uses the symbol of the lamb figuratively to reflect the changing roles of his characters.
Meek and submissive, Mary shares the traditional characteristics of a lamb at the start of the story and has no idea that a terrible event is about to befall her. When Patrick Maloney announces their marriage is over, she becomes a figurative lamb. Despite the sacrifices she has made for her husband, he metaphorically slaughters her with his rejection. Nevertheless, Mary prepares to cook supper. When Mr. Maloney rejects this offering, his wife uses the leg of lamb as a surprisingly effective weapon. The impact on Mr. Maloney’s skull is so hard Mary “might just as well have hit him with a steel club” (26). The plot twist reveals that neither Mary nor the leg of lamb are as innocuous as they look. Within seconds, the joint of meat turns into an instrument of violence, and Mary evolves into a vengeful murderer. At the same time, Mr. Maloney becomes the figurative “lamb to the slaughter.”
Dahl extends the verbal irony of his title into the murder investigation. Mary, who is not prepared to sacrifice her unborn child to the justice system, turns the murder weapon back into a benign form by cooking it. However, when she feeds it to the investigating officers, it once again becomes a weapon, preventing the men from solving the crime.
Time
The motif of time emphasizes how dramatically Mary Maloney’s world changes within a few hours. At the story’s beginning, it is clear that the events of Mary’s day are scheduled and repetitive. Rather than finding this restrictive, Mary is reassured by the knowledge that certain events occur at the same time each day. Before Patrick Maloney arrives home, Mary “glance[s] up at the clock” as she is happily anticipating her husband’s return (22). Knowing that she can rely on Mr. Maloney’s punctuality, she listens for the sound of his car pulling into the drive at precisely “ten minutes to five” (22).
Time takes on a different quality in the story when Mr. Maloney tells Mary he is leaving her. Continuing to measure time, the narrator reveals that the shock announcement takes “four or five minutes at most” (25). During those minutes, Mary’s world is shattered, and she can no longer rely on the unchanging rhythms of domestic routine. This point is highlighted when, shortly afterward, she finds herself clubbing her husband over the head with a leg of lamb.
From the point where Mary empowers herself by killing her husband, time seems to slow down in her favor. Before Mr. Maloney falls down dead, he sways “for at least four or five seconds” (26), as if in slow motion. Less than an hour after her husband’s arrival home, Mary arrives at the grocery store just before it closes to create her alibi. Similarly, when a detective checks her story with the grocer, it takes only “fifteen minutes” to establish her innocence (30). In the final time check of the story, Mary notices that it is “nearly nine” (32), and the four police officers have still not found any evidence. Seeing that the men are tired, Mary accomplishes her final feat of the day by feeding the murder weapon to the hungry officers. Liberated from her usual routines, Mary proves how much she can achieve.
Ice Cubes
Ice cubes are another symbol of change in the story, serving as an omen of the impending conflict in the Maloneys’ marriage. Before Mr. Maloney returns from work, Mary has “[f]resh ice cubes [waiting] in the Thermos basket” (22), ready to add to his whiskey and soda. Mary reveals that her favorite part of their domestic routine is sitting opposite her husband as he enjoys his first alcoholic drink. She associates the sound of ice cubes as they “tinkled against the side” of his glass with a “blissful” time of day (23).
When Mr. Maloney arrives, he does not adhere to his usual ritual. The unexpected sound of the ice cubes “falling back against the bottom of the empty glass” takes on an ominous tone for Mary (23). Rather than gently tinkling (a sound suggestive of harmony), the ice crashes against the glass as her husband drains his drink unusually quickly. Mr. Maloney’s uncharacteristic behavior foreshadows his declaration that he wants to leave Mary, thereby ending all their familiar routines.
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By Roald Dahl
