How Does Dahl Use Situational Irony In Lamb To The Slaughter

Has anyone ever been so disoriented that they’ve killed someone? In this case, the husband isn’t so lucky. In Roald Dahl’s “Lamb to the Slaughter” a short story thriller, he writes about a husband that meets his untimely end and detectives that are deceived by the person they least expect. At the start, Mr. and Mrs. Mary Maloney seemed perfect and happy, but things take a malicious turn when Mr. Maloney presents the idea of divorce. Mary, failing to compose herself, obtains a lamb leg raising it towards her husband's head striking it as hard as she could, killing him. Trying to cover her tracks she appears cheerful at the grocer, returning home she acts as if she had just found her husband dead, later on deceiving detectives. Situational irony,
Throughout the story, situational irony is used throughout the choices and actions that Mary commits. Dahl’s use of situational irony and the relationship between Mr. and Mrs. Maloney, emphasizes how deception can lead to unexpected consequences that later on can reveal the true malicious side of human nature. Following the story’s dramatic turn of events, Mr. and Mrs. Maloney’s relationship dynamic changes from a loving relationship to a violent one. Dahl displays Mary and Patrick’s loving relationship when the story states, “She loved him for the way he sat loosely in a chair, for the way he came in a door, or moved slowly across the room with long strides”(Dahl 1). This detail shows how Mary admired her husband just by the way he sat in a chair and walked. This shows that their loving relationship is formed based off their habits, actions and loving the person for who they are. After a major turn of events Dahl uses Mary’s action stating,”...and she stood there for a while blinking at the body, still holding the ridiculous piece of meat...she told