Analysis

In the following sections, we will guide you through an analysis of "Lamb to the Slaughter" by Roald Dahl.

We will first consider the structure of the story, noting the early climax and the darkly humorous ending. In this section, we will also focus on the interesting title, which can be applied to the story on a number of different levels.

Next, we will take a look at the characters of the story, focusing especially on Mary Maloney, the main character, but also including information about her husband, Patrick, and the policemen.

We will briefly consider the story's setting of America around the 1950s, before moving to to study the third person narrator.

Finally, we will look into the language of the story, as well as its most important symbols. 

You can read the full analysis in the following pages.