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Symbols
Traditionally the lamb is portrayed as a gentle submissive creature, associated with ritual or religious sacrifice (especially in Judeo-Christian tradition). In this story, the figure of the lamb takes on two roles: as both a victim and a source of violence or sacrifice. Both Mary and her husband Patrick take on the roles of figurative lambs as they sacrifice each other. However, while Patrick sacrifices Mary’s role as his wife by leaving the marriage, Mary sacrifices Patrick’s life, killing him with a frozen leg of lamb. The transformation of the lamb from an object of sacrifice to a tool of violence signals Mary’s transformation from submissive housewife to violent killer, and resonates in the double meaning and black humor of the story’s title: whereas the Maloneys are both lambs to be slaughtered figuratively or literally, the lamb, or rather the frozen leg of lamb, is also used as an instrument of slaughter. Once the policemen are called to investigate Patrick’s murder, then, the lamb comes to represent both a sacrifice for the detectives (as food) and a weapon against them (as that sacrifice as food entails the destruction of evidence).
Lamb/Leg of lamb Quotes in Lamb to the Slaughter
The Lamb to the Slaughter quotes below all refer to the symbol of Lamb/Leg of lamb. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Lamb to the Slaughter
Quotes
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.
She might just as well have hit him with a steel club.
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.
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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.
“It’s the old story,” he said. “Get the weapon, and you’ve got the man.”
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“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.”
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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.
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“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 sledge-hammer.”
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“Personally, I think it’s right here on the premises.
“Probably right under our very noses. What you think, Jack?”
And in the other room, Mary Maloney began to giggle.
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Get the entire Lamb to the Slaughter LitChart as a printable PDF.
Lamb/Leg of lamb Symbol Timeline in Lamb to the Slaughter
The timeline below shows where the symbol Lamb/Leg of lamb appears in Lamb to the Slaughter. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Lamb to the Slaughter
...has happened. Absently, she goes down to the cellar and grabs a frozen leg of lamb for dinner. When she returns, her husband tells her not to bother, as he is...
(full context)
...to her husband and bashes the back of his head with the frozen leg of lamb, which the narrator notes is as effective as a steel club. The husband’s body sways...
(full context)
To do so, Mary puts the murder weapon, the leg of lamb, into the oven and lets it cook. She then washes her hands, fixes her appearance,...
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Sergeant Noonan notices that the lamb is still in the oven and offers to turn it off for her. Mary then...
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...the narrator calls her, stays in the other room, listening to the men eat the lamb and talk about the murder weapon. When the men speculate that it is “right here...
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