In Lamb to the Slaughter written by Roald Dahl in 1953, the symbol of the lamb means meek, innocent and pure, also Victory of life and death. Both Mary and her husband Patrick take on the roles of figurative lambs as they sacrifice each other. While Patrick sacrifices Mary's role as wife by leaving the marriage, Mary sacrifices Patrick's life, killing him with a frozen leg of lamb. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The Wife offers a superb portrait of the lamb's meekness, innocence, and shyness. For example, once Mary's husband, Patrick, came home, he wanted to make sure everything was perfect and comfortable. Mary Maloney was at Patrick's every call, even after her husband told her some seemingly terrible news, she continued to be a kind and caring wife trying to make him dinner as if nothing was wrong. Or maybe it happened. Another way Mary represented a lamb is the Victory of Life, this conveys that the wife, Mary, avoided death. The way he avoided the death penalty, the way he convinced investigators to eat the lamb, which is also the murder weapon. So the detectives who ate the murder weapon (lamb), ate the evidence so now there is no murder weapon to find, so that's how he "won life". As for her husband, Patrick represents a figurative lamb, just as the lamb also signifies death and the unexpected. In the story the husband gave heartbreaking news to his wife Mary. In the story she said she would like a divorce even though she is pregnant with his child, she also asked if they can make this not a big deal because she doesn't want it to be such a big deal at work. In the story, the lamb to the slaughter, the husband also got up to leave because he was quite angry that she was acting like nothing was happening and he turned around without looking at her face, that's when the unpredictability comes into play. The unpredictability of the story is that the wife goes up the stairs with a lamb, the wife hits the husband on the back of the head with the lamb killing him. Obviously the husband didn't expect anything like this and that's also how he represents the other part of the Lamb's death and this goes on to how the husband, Patrick, also represents the semblance of the Lamb's death part, which it's quite explainable on its own. In the end both Mary and Patrick Maloney represented the lamb. Mary appears to have represented the lamb more than Patrick did. To reiterate, Mary represented shyness or timidity, fragility, innocence and meekness. And we cannot forget how he also represented Life's victory in getting away with his criminal act. Patrick Maloney represented the unpredictability and death of the Lamb. Thus proving that Patrick and Mary Maloney are the same when showing the symbolic link between the lamb and Mary and Patrick.Mary Maloney as an unlikable character“When you're in love, love can make you do crazy things and can lead you down a road swirling." (Kevin Hart) In the story "The Lamb to the Slaughter", Detective Patrick Maloney is murdered by his devoted wife Mary Maloney, when she is unexpectedly told that her husband has been having an affair and is leaving. Leaving Mary stunned, she acts without thinking as she impulsively kills him with a leg of lamb This brings me to the question: Is Mary Maloney a sympathetic character "The Lamb to the Slaughter", Mary Maloney is not a sympathetic character because she killed his/)