Gender representations and Lamb to the Slaughter

Mary Maloney plays the part of a sweet and innocent wife in the short story of Lamb to the Slaughter however she does not hold this role of the perfect little housewife for very long, for she murders her husband using the frozen leg of a lamb. In the large majority of short stories male characters are structured as domineering over the females who are shown to be submissive, though this does not ring entirely true when referring to the short story Lamb to the Slaughter. The stereotypical type portrayed in this story is generally not reflected in the men and women in today’s society.


Mary Maloney starts off as a perfect example of how females are portrayed as submissive in texts, however; something happens that makes her seem to snap. It could be the cause of all the pent up anger over the years she’s been married and undermined as an individual due to her gender. In the world that she lived in, there was no way of allowing her to release her frustration, for it was not conside...