1.9: Damage Control (Pg.

52)
Learning Targets
 Consider what telling details reveal about shifts in a main character's state of mind.
 Analyze a story's use of dramatic irony.
 Analyze how an author creates different effects for readers.

Objective: In this lesson, you will read the second half of “Lamb to the Slaughter” and analyze how
Dahl creates tension and humor in his writing.

DEFINE:
DRAMATIC IRONY -

AS YOU READ: “LAMB TO THE SLAUGHTER” (part 2) BY RAUL DAHL,

 Highlight examples of dramatic irony.

 Place a symbol */😀 next to places that reveal Mary’s state of mind.
 Underline unfamiliar words and phrases.

Lamb to the Slaughter (Part 2) by Roald Dahl

39 Her first instinct was not to believe any of it, to reject it all. It occurred to her that perhaps he hadn't
even spoken, that she herself had imagined the whole thing. Maybe, if she went about her business
and acted as though she hadn't been listening, then later, when she sort of woke up again, she might
find none of it had ever happened.
40 “I'll get the supper,” she managed to whisper, and this time he didn't stop her.
41 When she walked across the room she couldn't feel her feet touching the floor. She couldn't feel
anything at all—except a slight nausea and a desire to vomit. Everything was automatic now—down
the steps to the cellar, the light switch, the deep freeze, the hand inside the cabinet taking hold of the
first object it met. She lifted it out, and looked at it. It was wrapped in paper, so she took off the paper
and looked at it again.
42 A leg of lamb.
43 All right then, they would have lamb for supper. She carried it upstairs, holding the thin bone-end
of it with both her hands, and as she went through the living-room, she saw him standing over by the
window with his back to her, and she stopped.
44 “For God's sake,” he said, hearing her, but not turning around. “Don't make supper for me. I'm
going out.”
45 At that point, Mary Maloney simply walked up behind him and without any pause she swung the
big frozen leg of lamb high in the air and brought it down as hard as she could on the back of his
head.
46 She might just as well have hit him with a steel club.
47 She stepped back a pace, waiting, and the funny thing was that he remained standing there for at
least four or five seconds, gently swaying. Then he crashed to the carpet.
48 The violence of the crash, the noise, the small table overturning, helped bring her out of the shock.
She came out slowly, feeling cold and surprised, and she stood for a while blinking at the body, still
holding the ridiculous piece of meat tight with both hands.
49 All right, she told herself. So I've killed him.
50 It was extraordinary, now, how clear her mind became all of a sudden. She began thinking very
fast. As the wife of a detective, she knew quite well what the penalty would be. That was fine. It made
no difference to her. In fact, it would be a relief. On the other hand, what about the child? What were
the laws about murderers with unborn children? Did they kill them both—mother and child? Or did
they wait until the tenth month? What did they do?
51 Mary Maloney didn't know. And she certainly wasn't prepared to take the chance.
52 She carried the meat into the kitchen, placed it in a pan, turned the oven on high, and shoved it
inside. Then she washed her hands and ran upstairs to the bedroom. She sat down before the mirror,
tidied her face, touched up her lips and face. She tried a smile. It came out rather peculiar. She tried
again.
53 “Hallo, Sam,” she said brightly, aloud.
54 The voice sounded peculiar too.
55 “I want some potatoes please, Sam. Yes, and I think a can of peas.”
56 That was better. Both the smile and the voice were coming out better now. She rehearsed it
several times more. Then she ran downstairs, took her coat, went out the back door, down the
garden, into the street.
57 It wasn't six o'clock yet and the lights were still on in the grocery shop.
58 “Hallo, Sam,” she said brightly, smiling at the man behind the counter.
59 “Why, good evening, Mrs Maloney. How're you?”
60 “I want some potatoes please, Sam. Yes, and I think a can of peas.”
61 The man turned and reached up behind him on the shelf for the peas.
62 “Patrick's decided he's tired and doesn't want to eat out tonight,” she told him. “We usually go out
Thursdays, you know, and now he's caught me without any vegetables in the house.”
63 “Then how about meat, Mrs Maloney?”
64 “No, I've got meat, thanks. I got a nice leg of lamb, from the freezer.”
65 “Oh.”
66 “I don't much like cooking it frozen, Sam, but I'm taking a chance on it this time. You think it'll be all
right?”
67 “Personally,” the grocer said, “I don't believe it makes any difference. You want these Idaho
potatoes?”
68 “Oh yes, that'll be fine. Two of those.”
69 “Anything else?” The grocer cocked his head on one side, looking at her pleasantly. “How about
afterwards? What you going to give him for afterwards?”
70 “Well—what would you suggest, Sam?”
71 The man glanced around his shop. “How about a nice big slice of cheesecake? I know he likes
that.”
72 “Perfect,” she said. “He loves it.”
73 And when it was all wrapped and she had paid she put on her brightest smile and said, “Thank
you, Sam. Good night.”
74 “Good night, Mrs Maloney. And thank you.”
75 And now, she told herself as she hurried back, all she was doing now, she was returning home to
her husband and he was waiting for his supper; and she must cook it good, and make it as tasty as
possible because the poor man was tired; and if, when she entered the house, she happened to find
anything unusual, or tragic, or terrible, then naturally it would be a shock and she'd become frantic
with grief and horror. Mind you, she wasn't expecting to find anything. She was just going home with
the vegetables. Mrs Patrick Maloney going home with the vegetables on Thursday evening to cook
supper for her husband.
76 That's the way, she told herself. Do everything right and natural. Keep things absolutely natural
and there'll be no need for any acting at all.
77 Therefore, when she entered the kitchen by the back door, she was humming a little tune to
herself and smiling.
78 “Patrick!” she called. “How are you, darling?”
79 She put the parcel down on the table and went through into the living-room; and when she saw
him lying there on the floor with his legs doubled up and one arm twisted back underneath his body, it
really was rather a shock. All the old love and longing for him welled up inside her, and she ran over
to him, knelt down beside him, and began to cry her heart out. It was easy. No acting was necessary.
80 A few minutes later she got up and went to the phone. She knew the number of the police station,
and when the man at the other end answered, she cried to him, “Quick! Come quick! Patrick's dead!”
81 “Who's speaking?”
82 “Mrs Maloney. Mrs Patrick Maloney.”
83 “You mean Patrick Maloney's dead?”
84 “I think so,” she sobbed. “He's lying on the floor and I think he's dead.”
85 “Be right over,” the man said.
86 The car came very quickly, and when she opened the front door, two policemen walked in. She
knew them both—she knew nearly all the men at that precinct—and she fell right into Jack Noonan's
arms, weeping hysterically. He put her gently into a chair, then went over to join the other one, who
was called O'Malley, kneeling by the body.
87 “Is he dead?” she cried.
88 “I'm afraid he is. What happened?”
89 Briefly, she told her story about going out to the grocer and coming back to find him on the floor.
While she was talking, crying and talking, Noonan discovered a small patch of congealed blood on
the dead man's head. He showed it to O'Malley who got up at once and hurried to the phone.
90 Soon, other men began to come into the house. First a doctor, then two detectives, one of whom
she knew by name. Later, a police photographer arrived and took pictures, and a man who knew
about fingerprints. There was a great deal of whispering and muttering beside the corpse, and the
detectives kept asking her a lot of questions. But they always treated her kindly. She told her story
again, this time right from the beginning, when Patrick had come in, and she was sewing, and he was
tired, so tired he hadn't wanted to go out for supper. She told how she'd put the meat in the oven
—“it's there now, cooking”—and how she'd slipped out to the grocer for vegetables, and come back to
find him lying on the floor.
91 “Which grocer?” one of the detectives asked.
92 She told him, and he turned and whispered something to the other detective who immediately
went outside into the street.
93 In fifteen minutes he was back with a page of notes, and there was more whispering, and through
her sobbing she heard a few of the whispered phrases—“ … acted quite normal … very cheerful …
wanted to give him a good supper … peas … cheesecake … impossible that she … ”
94 After a while, the photographer and the doctor departed and two other men came in and took the
corpse away on a stretcher. Then the fingerprint man went away. The two detectives remained, and
so did the two policemen. They were exceptionally nice to her, and Jack Noonan asked if she
wouldn't rather go somewhere else, to her sister's house perhaps, or to his own wife who would take
care of her and put her up for the night.
95 No, she said. She didn't feel she could move even a yard at the moment. Would they mind awfully
if she stayed just where she was until she felt better? She didn't feel too good at the moment, she
really didn't.
96 Then hadn't she better lie down on the bed? Jack Noonan asked.
97 No, she said. She'd like to stay right where she was, in this chair. A little later perhaps, when she
felt better, she would move.
98 So they left her there while they went about their business, searching the house. Occasionally one
of the detectives asked her another question. Sometimes Jack Noonan spoke to her gently as he
passed by. Her husband, he told her, had been killed by a blow on the back of the head administered
with a heavy blunt instrument, almost certainly a large piece of metal. They were looking for the
weapon. The murderer may have taken it with him, but on the other hand he may've thrown it away or
hidden it somewhere on the premises.
99 “It's the old story,” he said. “Get the weapon and you've got the man.”
100 Later, one of the detectives came up and sat beside her. Did she know, he asked, of anything in
the house that could've been used as the weapon? Would she mind having a look around to see if
anything was missing—a very big spanner, for example, or a heavy metal vase.
101 They didn't have any heavy metal vases, she said.
102 “Or a big spanner?”
103 She didn't think they had a big spanner. But there might be some things like that in the garage.
104 The search went on. She knew that there were other policemen in the garden all around the
house. She could hear their footsteps on the gravel outside, and sometimes she saw the flash of a
torch through a chink in the curtains. It began to get late, nearly nine she noticed by the clock on the
mantel. The four men searching the rooms seemed to be growing weary, a trifle exasperated.
105 “Jack,” she said, the next time Sergeant Noonan went by. “Would you mind giving me a drink?”
106 “Sure I'll give you a drink. You mean this whisky?”
107 “Yes, please. But just a small one. It might make me feel better.”
108 He handed her the glass.
109 “Why don't you have one yourself,” she said. “You must be awfully tired. Please do. You've been
very good to me.”
110 “Well,” he answered. “It's not strictly allowed, but I might take just a drop to keep me going.”
111 One by one the others came in and were persuaded to take a little nip of whisky. They stood
around rather awkwardly with the drinks in their hands, uncomfortable in her presence, trying to say
consoling things to her. Sergeant Noonan wandered into the kitchen, came out quickly and said,
“Look, Mrs Maloney. You know that oven of yours is still on, and the meat still inside.”
112 “Oh dear me!” she cried. “So it is!”
113 “I better turn it off for you, hadn't I?”
114 “Will you do that, Jack? Thank you so much.”
115 When the sergeant returned the second time, she looked at him with her large, dark, tearful eyes.
“Jack Noonan,” she said.
116 “Yes?”
117 “Would you do me a small favour—you and these others?”
118 “We can try, Mrs Maloney.”
119 “Well,” she said. “Here you all are, and good friends of dear Patrick's too, and helping to catch
the man who killed him. You must be terribly hungry by now because it's long past your supper time,
and I know Patrick would never forgive me, God bless his soul, if I allowed you to remain in his house
without offering you decent hospitality. Why don't you eat up that lamb that's in the oven? It'll be
cooked just right by now.”
120 “Wouldn't dream of it,” Sergeant Noonan said.
121 “Please,” she begged. “Please eat it. Personally I couldn't touch a thing, certainly not what's been
in the house when he was here. But it's all right for you. It'd be a favour to me if you'd eat it up. Then
you can go on with your work again afterwards.”
122 There was a good deal of hesitating among the four policemen, but they were clearly hungry, and
in the end they were persuaded to go into the kitchen and help themselves. The woman stayed where
she was, listening to them through the open door, and she could hear them speaking among
themselves, their voices thick and sloppy because their mouths were full of meat.
123 “Have some more, Charlie?”
124 “No. Better not finish it.”
125 “She wants us to finish it. She said so. Be doing her a favour.”
126 “Okay then. Give me some more.”
127 “That's the hell of a big club the guy must've used to hit poor Patrick,” one of them was saying.
“The doc says his skull was smashed all to pieces just like from a sledgehammer.”
128 “That's why it ought to be easy to find.”
129 “Exactly what I say.”
130 “Whoever done it, they're not going to be carrying a thing like that around with them longer than
they need.”
131 One of them belched.
132 “Personally, I think it's right here on the premises.”
133 “Probably right under our very noses. What you think, Jack?”
134 And in the other room, Mary Maloney began to giggle.
Making Observations:
1. In what ways does Mary surprise you in this part of the story? Why are you surprised?
What surprised me was The fact that she is so calm
2. What assumptions do the police officers make about Patrick's murderer and the murder
weapon?
The assumptions made was that the murder got rid of the weapon
Working from the Text:
1. Do you think Mary stays in control throughout the story? If so, how? If not, where do you see
her sense of control shift?
Mary does stay in control through the whole story because she is calm for the most part and has a
sense of un-worriedness

Appreciating the Author's Craft: Dahl chose to end the story with the final detail: “And in the other
room, Mary Maloney began to giggle.” Use your annotations to respond to the following
prompt/questions:
1. How would the story be different if Dahl had chosen to end with Mary crying instead of
giggling?
If Mary was crying instead of giggling I think it would’ve showed that Mary had some ounce of
remorse but it shows she has none

2. What is telling about the detail that she is giggling?

Giggling says that Mary doesn’t care that she got someone else blame instead of herself