How Does Susan Glaspell Use Irony In Lamb To The Slaughter

The Trifles of the Lamb

In “Lamb to the Slaughter” and Trifles the author uses irony to emphasize the men’s foolishness and intellectual invariability and highlight the women’s intelligence and mental flexibility.

In “Lamb to the Slaughter,” Roald Dahl uses situational irony to ridicule the male officers' foolishness within their positions of power. The men are officers who are currently investigating Mrs. Maloney's husband's murder. After having murdered her husband with a frozen leg of lamb, Mrs. Maloney tempts the men into the kitchen where the murder weapon has been cooked thoroughly: “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

Previously Mrs. Peters, the sheriff’s loyal wife, had been hard stuck on the idea that the law was just and served justice fairly. After the women find evidence that could convict Mrs. Wright and piecing the story together of her motive, the men begin to return and Glaspell writes, “Suddenly MRS. PETERS throws back quilt pieces and tries to put the box in the bag she is wearing. It is too big. She opens box, starts to take bird out, cannot touch it, goes to pieces, stands there helpless. Sound of a knob turning in the other room. MRS. HALE snatches the box and puts it in the pocket of her big coat” (Glaspell 12). This is situational irony because Mrs. Peters betrays her sheriff husband by hiding evidence that could convict a criminal. Because Mrs. Peters deliberately tries to hide evidence of Mrs. Wright's crime, she shows flexibility because as mentioned previously, she believed that the law was always just and administered justice fairly. But because she now sees the error of her ways after receiving context of the situation she quickly changes what she had believed for an extended period of time because the women in these stories have a powerful mental