Lamb to the Slaughter

“Lamb to the Slaughter” written by Roald Dahl is classified under fiction and inspires us to look more closely at the representation of gender. “Lamb to the Slaughter” is about a wife who is fed up with her husband who was going to leave her for another man, which therefore ends up with her killing him with a leg of lamb. The three main points that outline this story are: when they assumed that the murderer was a man, how they are showing that women do things for their husband, and also how she stayed home and sewed, while her husband went out to work and earn money.

The murder of Patrick Maloney was considered to be done by a man. The police thought that it was a man that killed Patrick since most men do the killing of people. An example from the text is, “The murderer may have taken it with him, but on the other hand he may have thrown it away or hidden it somewhere on the premises.” You can tell that the police think that it was a man who killed Patrick Maloney because in the example they use pronouns such as him and he. This shows that the police think that women aren’t capable to kill someone, whereas a man is most likely able to do that.

In this story, women are illustrated to be the ones who always have to do things for their husband. Mary was portrayed like that because most women are thought of to be the one who cooks, cleans and does nearly everything for a man. An example of this from the text is, “She took his coat and hung it in the closet. Then she walked over and made the drinks…” The example shows that she would do things for him and would make him relax. As you can see Mary would do things for Patrick, while he would just be able to relax and do nothing.

The final point that I am going to outline is how Mary would have to stay home and sew, while Patrick would go out and work. Most men were expected to go out and work, to earn money to support his family. An example is, “…and soon she was back again in her chair with the sewing…” By