In answer to your question "Does the lamb refer to more than one character?", yes, I believe that the lamb refers to two characters. It refers to Patrick Maloney and Mary Maloney.
The phrase "lamb to the slaughter" is used to describe a person that is normally innocent, weak and/or defenseless going into a situation where they are going to be attacked or killed. The phrase definitely applies to Mary at the beginning of the story. She is portrayed as docile and fragile (like a lamb). She is sitting patiently waiting for nothing else other than for Patrick to arrive home. Then once he is home, she has no other purpose than to make sure that he is happy and taken care of.
She loved to luxuriate in the presence of this man, and to feel-almost as a sunbather feels the sun-that warm male glow that came out of him to her when they were alone together.
She is completely unprepared for Patrick's news that he is leaving her. Metaphorically, Patrick has killed Mary (his lamb), because she is completely devastated by his news.
She couldn’t feel anything at all- except a slight nausea and a desire to vomit.
Mary has been left numb and lifeless because of Patrick's news. She (the lamb) has been slaughtered metaphorically.
What's great about the "lamb to the slaughter" phrase in this story is what happens next. Mary very literally brings a lamb to the slaughter. The lamb is the leg of lamb. The slaughter is Patrick's death.
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.
At that moment, Patrick becomes the metaphorical lamb to the slaughter, because at that moment he is the character that is weak, defenseless, and about to be killed.
No comments:
Post a Comment