Analyzing Roald Dahl's 'Lamb To The Slaughter'

Addyson Akin
Mrs. Briscoe
English I Honors
7 September 2017 Summer Reading: “The Lamb to the Slaughter” During our summer reading we had to read four different short stories. Each of them included violence and death. I wasn’t expecting any of the violence at first, but after a couple of stories I saw the trend. Now I’ve chosen to write about the violence in “The Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl. In this story there’s a pregnant wife and a husband. When the husband arrived at the home he didn’t seem too happy. He was being awfully quiet, and kind of ignored her. His wife asked him if he wanted any dinner, and he didn’t. He later told her something, but the author didn’t exactly tell us what he said. Although by her reaction it seemed like he told her he thinks they should split up. “This is going to be a big shock to you, I’m afraid.” he said. “But I’ve thought about it a good deal and I’ve decided that the only thing to do is to tell you immediately.”
Her reaction and what she did next wasn’t a wise idea in my opinion.
She grabbed a lamb leg, which she had planned to cook for dinner, and hit him in the head with all of her might. He was dead. But what does the author want us to understand about this violence? I think that they should’ve at least tried to discuss the situation, and that murdering your husband, and violence is definitely not the answer. Maybe the author wants us to understand that she was furious with what he had told her, and couldn’t hold back her rage. Although murdering him created more problems. Now she has to lie, and get rid of the evidence, which she does by cooking the lamb leg and feeding it to the police. The police didn’t even realize they were eating the evidence! “Personally I think the weapon has to be near the house” said one officer. “It’s probably right under our noses. What do you think Jack?” said the
other. The author might want us to understand that she was pregnant. She was six months into carrying their baby, and then he just decided to leave. Now we all know that a pregnant woman’s hormones are all over the place and that she can’t really control herself, which is why you should never upset a pregnant woman! I think she also wanted revenge on him. It kind of seemed like he disrespected her, and maybe she got tired of it and just decided that she might as well kill him. When she offered him supper he told her “Forget it.” when he could’ve said “No thanks, not right now.” In the end she got away with murder, and lost her husband. This goes to show that violence is never the answer. Who knows? They might have worked things out if she wouldn’t have done that.