Lamb to the Slaughter quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. Which genre label best captures "Lamb to the Slaughter"?

   • Correct answer: Dark Comedy / Crime Fiction
   • Gothic Horror / Ghost Story
   • Romantic Realism / Love Story
   • Psychological Thriller / Tragedy
   • Social Satire / Fable

   Dark Comedy / Crime Fiction fits perfectly: the story is built around a murder, yet Dahl treats the crime with macabre wit, culminating in a punchline that is simultaneously funny and horrifying.

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2. 2

   Question 2. How is Mary Maloney characterized at the opening of the story?

   • She is a cold and calculating woman who has planned everything in advance
   • She is an anxious wife who nervously watches the clock, dreading her husband's return
   • She is deeply unhappy in her marriage and openly hostile toward her husband
   • Correct answer: She is a loving, devoted wife who waits eagerly for her husband each evening

   Dahl opens by portraying Mary as the ideal devoted wife: she keeps the home warm, prepares Patrick's evening drink without being asked, and basks in his presence. This setup makes the murder all the more shocking and ironic.

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3. 3

   Question 3. What devastating news does Patrick deliver to Mary that evening?

   • He has gambled away all their savings on a bad investment
   • He has been fired from the police force for misconduct
   • Correct answer: He is leaving Mary and ending their marriage
   • He has been diagnosed with a terminal illness

   Patrick announces he is leaving Mary. Dahl never quotes his exact words, but the context — and Mary's shock — makes the meaning unmistakable. She is also pregnant, making the abandonment even more cruel.

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4. 4

   Question 4. What object does Mary use to kill Patrick?

   • A large glass whisky bottle from the drinks cabinet
   • Correct answer: A frozen leg of lamb from the deep freeze
   • A heavy brass candlestick from the mantelpiece
   • A cast-iron skillet sitting on the stovetop

   Mary goes to the deep freeze and retrieves a frozen leg of lamb, intending to cook it for dinner. Swinging it almost automatically, she strikes Patrick on the back of the head with it.

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5. 5

   Question 5. How does Mary dispose of the murder weapon?

   • She hides the lamb behind the furnace in the basement
   • Correct answer: She cooks the leg of lamb and feeds it to the investigating detectives
   • She buries the lamb in the garden before calling the police
   • She returns the lamb to the deep freeze before the detectives arrive

   Mary puts the lamb in the oven, establishes her alibi at the grocery store, then calls the police. When Patrick's colleagues arrive, she offers them dinner. They eat the murder weapon while searching for it.

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6. 6

   Question 6. What is the most famous moment of dramatic irony in the story?

   • Sergeant Noonan discovers the lamb in the oven and recognizes it as the missing weapon
   • Mary breaks down in front of Sergeant Noonan and confesses to killing Patrick with the lamb
   • Patrick survives the blow long enough to tell O'Malley that Mary was his attacker
   • Correct answer: A detective remarks the weapon is "probably right under our very noses" while literally eating it

   One detective says the murder weapon is "probably right under our very noses." He is literally eating it. This line delivers the story's darkest punchline and perfectly encapsulates Dahl's brand of macabre irony.

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7. 7

   Question 7. Where does Mary go to establish her alibi?

   • A butcher shop
   • A hardware store
   • Correct answer: A grocery store
   • A pharmacy

   Mary visits Sam, her local grocer, chatting normally and buying vegetables for dinner. This establishes that she was out shopping when the murder occurred — creating an alibi while behaving as the perfect housewife.

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8. 8

   Question 8. How does the theme of gender roles function in the story?

   • Correct answer: Mary weaponizes her role as a sweet, grieving housewife to avoid suspicion entirely
   • The detectives treat Mary with suspicion, believing a wife is always the obvious suspect
   • Mary rejects her role as a housewife and openly defies the police who question her
   • Mary's domestic role leaves her too helpless to act once Patrick announces he is leaving

   The detectives cannot conceive of a devoted, pregnant housewife as a murderer. Mary understands this and performs her role — weeping, offering food, playing the grieving widow — with calculated perfection. Her femininity is her alibi.

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9. 9

   Question 9. What does the leg of lamb symbolize in the story?

   • The innocence of rural life versus urban corruption
   • Wealth and social status in post-war suburban America
   • Correct answer: Both domesticity and lethal violence simultaneously
   • Patrick's failure as a provider for his growing family

   The leg of lamb is the perfect symbol of Dahl's central irony: the most domestic, nurturing object — food Mary planned to cook for her husband's dinner — becomes the murder weapon. It simultaneously represents the home and death.

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10. 10

    Question 10. On how many levels does the title "Lamb to the Slaughter" operate?

    • Correct answer: It refers to Patrick as an unknowing victim, the leg of lamb as the weapon, and possibly Mary as an innocent driven to violence
    • It is a direct reference to the Bible story of Abraham and the sacrificial lamb
    • It refers only to Mary's unborn child, the innocent lamb she worries about after killing Patrick
    • It refers only to the literal leg of lamb, an ordinary household item that Mary cooks for supper

    The title works on multiple levels: Patrick is the lamb led unknowingly to slaughter; the leg of lamb is literally the weapon of slaughter; and Mary herself might be seen as an innocent lamb destroyed by betrayal. Dahl loved layered wordplay.

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11. 11

    Question 11. In which magazine was "Lamb to the Slaughter" first published in 1953?

    • The New Yorker
    • The Saturday Evening Post
    • The Atlantic Monthly
    • Correct answer: Harper's Magazine

    The story was published in Harper's Magazine in September 1953. It had previously been rejected by The New Yorker. It was later collected in Dahl's second story collection, Someone Like You.

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12. 12

    Question 12. What point of view does Dahl use, and how does it shape reader sympathy?

    • Third person omniscient, moving freely into Patrick's and the detectives' thoughts
    • Correct answer: Third person limited, closely aligned with Mary's perspective throughout
    • Second person, addressing the reader as a witness to the crime
    • First person, narrated by Mary Maloney herself looking back on events

    Dahl uses third-person limited narration, keeping the reader inside Mary's perspective. We experience her shock, her calculating calm, and her dark giggle at the end. This controlled access manipulates readers into sympathizing with a murderer.

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13. 13

    Question 13. Which detail at the opening of the story foreshadows that something is wrong?

    • Correct answer: Patrick drinks a much larger whisky than usual and acts stiffly and unusually
    • A neighbor knocks on the door with a covered dish, which Mary finds ominous
    • Patrick arrives home an hour late and angrily slams the door behind him
    • Mary notices that Patrick has packed a suitcase and left it by the door

    Patrick's behavior is subtly off from the start: he pours himself a stiff whisky and drinks it fast, does not settle comfortably, and his posture and responses feel strained. These small departures from routine signal to attentive readers that something is coming.

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14. 14

    Question 14. What does "Premises" mean in this story?

    • A formal promise made under oath before a court
    • The first hours of a police investigation at a crime scene
    • Correct answer: A building together with its surrounding land and grounds
    • The opening statements that a legal argument rests on

    Premises means a building with its grounds. Sergeant Noonan says the murderer may have hidden the weapon "somewhere on the premises," and in the last lines a detective guesses it is "right here on the premises" while he eats it.

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15. 15

    Question 15. Did It Happen?

    • Mary Maloney is pregnant at the time of the murder.

      Happened

      Dahl establishes early that Mary is pregnant, making Patrick's abandonment crueler and reinforcing her motive.

    • Patrick Maloney is a schoolteacher.

      Didn't happen

      Patrick is a senior police detective, which adds a layer of irony: his own colleagues investigate his murder and are deceived by his wife.

    • Mary prepares Patrick's evening whisky before he even asks for it.

      Happened

      Dahl uses this detail to establish how utterly devoted and attentive Mary is — making her sudden violence all the more shocking.

    • Mary panics and flees the house immediately after killing Patrick.

      Didn't happen

      Mary is remarkably calm. She goes upstairs, tidies her face and touches up her lips before the mirror, rehearses her lines, then calmly goes to the grocery store.

    • The grocer's name is Sam.

      Happened

      Sam is the local grocer Mary visits to establish her alibi, chatting with him normally about what to cook for dinner.

    • Mary tells the police immediately that she hit Patrick with the lamb.

      Didn't happen

      Mary plays the grieving wife throughout. She never confesses and successfully manipulates the detectives into eating the evidence.

    • The detective Jack Noonan is a friend of the Maloney family.

      Happened

      Jack Noonan is one of Patrick's colleagues and a family friend, which helps explain why the detectives are so quick to comfort Mary rather than suspect her.

    • The detectives find the murder weapon hidden in the basement.

      Didn't happen

      They never find the weapon because they eat it. The lamb is cooked and served to them while they search the house for a heavy blunt instrument.

    • The story ends with Mary beginning to giggle.

      Happened

      The final image is Mary in the next room, listening to the detectives speculate about the weapon being "right under our very noses," and beginning to giggle — a perfectly dark final note.

    • "Lamb to the Slaughter" was adapted for Alfred Hitchcock Presents in 1958.

      Happened

      Dahl's story was adapted for the television anthology Alfred Hitchcock Presents in 1958, starring Barbara Bel Geddes as Mary Maloney.

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