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Definition of Irony
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this seems like a loose definition... read full definition
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this... read full definition
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how... read full definition
Irony
Explanation and Analysis—Patrick’s Murder:
The situational irony at the heart of “Lamb to the Slaughter” is the fact that Mary, a docile housewife who loves her husband Patrick deeply, brutally kills him in a fit of rage. Readers do not see this coming, especially after passages like the following from the beginning of the story:
[Mary] loved [Patrick] 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. She loved the intent, far look in his eyes when they rested on her, the funny shape of the mouth, and especially the way he remained silent about his tiredness, sitting still with himself until the whiskey had taken some of it away.
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Explanation and Analysis—Conversing with Sam:
The second half of the story—which comes after Mary kills her husband Patrick in a fit of rage—is full of dramatic irony, as readers and Mary know that Patrick is dead but the other characters do not. One of the scenes that best captures the dramatic irony in the story is when Mary goes to the grocery store and has a conversation with Sam, the grocer, about what she plans to make for Patrick for dinner that night, acting as if Patrick is still alive.
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Explanation and Analysis—Right Under Their Noses:
A key example of dramatic irony in “Lamb to the Slaughter” is the fact that Mary feeds her murder weapon (a previously frozen leg of lamb) to the detectives who are at her house looking for the weapon that killed Patrick. This is an example of dramatic irony because readers and Mary know that she is literally feeding the detectives evidence, but they are none the wiser, partially because Mary has concocted a strong alibi, and partially because they underestimate her based on sexist expectations.
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