Lamb To The Slaughter

At the beginning of the story, Mary and Patrick Maloney fulfill traditional feminine and masculine roles. Dahl subverts these conventional gender tropes as the plot progresses by reversing the power dynamics between the male and female characters. In doing so, the author challenges rigid gender roles, suggesting they are the product of a patriarchal society that favors men.

Mary initially embodies the 1950s homemaker. Confined to the domestic sphere, her life revolves around her husband. While Mr. Maloney is at work, she ensures the house looks welcoming, then sits with her sewing. The way Mary listens for “tires on the gravel outside” illustrates her eagerness for her husband’s return (22). Once Patrick Maloney is home, Mary endeavors to meet his every need. Although six months pregnant, she performs the role of a domestic servant, hanging up Mr. Maloney’s coat, preparing him a drink, offering to fetch his slippers, and insisting on making supper. She also provides emotional support, reflecting on how tired her husband must be after his day at work. Entirely submissive to Mr. Maloney, Mary performs these tasks without resentment, as she has fully embraced the role of the “good wife.”

Mary’s pampering of Mr. Maloney meets all the advice proffered in women’s magazines of the 1950s. However, her actions do not result in the domestic bliss promised by such publications. On her husband’s return, the lack of reciprocity in the marriage is immediately apparent. While she lives for her husband, he is cold toward her and ungrateful for her efforts. When Mr. Maloney announces he is leaving Mary, his choice of words is callous and insensitive. He assures her that she will be “looked after” financially, but in return, he wishes to avoid any “fuss” (25). Patrick Maloney’s belief that his only responsibility to his wife is financial demonstrates his uncaring nature. However, his stance also conforms to societal norms, casting husbands as breadwinners and wives as the source of all emotional support.

Mary emerges as the victim of a patriarchal society where men hold all the social and economic power. Having devoted her life to her marriage, she faces the prospect of social disgrace as a divorced single mother. Her dilemma emphasizes the social vulnerability of women in a society that does not truly value them. However, when Mary clubs her husband to death with a leg of lamb, her position in the social hierarchy immediately changes. By violently attacking her husband, she subverts gender stereotypes that categorize women as weak victims. Adopting the conventionally masculine role of murderer, she reverses the power dynamics in her marriage, reducing Mr. Maloney to the victim.

In the aftermath of Mr. Maloney’s murder, gendered assumptions are shown to work to Mary’s advantage. The characters involved in the investigation are all men, and Mary utilizes their blinkered perception of her to conceal her guilt. Sergeant Noonan responds with sympathy to Mary’s “large, tearful eyes” (32), perceiving her as a victim, and neither the police officers nor Sam the grocer believe she is capable of violence. Mary’s ingenuity in manipulating the investigation illustrates her intelligence and capacity for deceit: characteristics also usually associated with men. She not only diverts the police from the truth but also persuades them to eat the incriminating evidence, insisting they would be doing her “a favour” (33). By appearing to conform to the feminine ideal, Mary succeeds in deceiving all the men around her.

Ultimately, Dahl presents readers with gender stereotypes only to reveal them as reductive clichés. The story’s events take place over just a few hours, yet, in this time, the power balance between the main characters is reversed. By illustrating how easily the Maloneys swap places, the author satirizes traditional gender roles as empty societal constructs designed to maintain patriarchal authority.