Tales of the Unexpected, the first journal

Yoonhoo Chang 121111 (11v2)

Dahl's tales were truly 'unexpected'. Fans of Dahl's fantasy novels such as 'Charlie and the chocolate factory' were left to be shocked at the 'unexpectedness' of these cleverly written short stories. They expected fantastic descriptions of adventures and mysteriously portrayed settings, but instead they faced seemingly 'normal' introduction and 'abnormal' conclusion. But putting this book away at the moment of awkwardness is the stupid thing for a reader to do. Dahl conveys countless meanings and his own visions of the world through short stories he has written. The reader, if he or she is the true fan of Roald Dahl, must think about the parallel descriptions between stories and between characters before closing the book with an uneasy smile. Unexpected tales contain many notes about human nature, and this journal would particularly examine the nature of women, through the female characters Dahl presented. He generally described that women are surprisingly stronger than men, and those who hid their claws under the veil of 'perfect wife' or 'kind companion' indeed have unexpected strong personalities to show.

'Lamb to the slaughter' is generally viewed as the perfect chilling story. Hitchcock, the legendary director of thriller movies, even attempted to make a short film out of this story (which seemed to fail). At the first glance, the story seems to be peaceful, and the woman character in the story seems peaceful as well. However, this calm and peaceful pregnant wife, when she listens to her husband about the divorce, kills her husband without a single sense of hesitation. She even cooks the weapon-the leg of a lamb she was to cook for dinner-calmly and make the investigators and policemen eat it up. At the end of the story, she giggles, showing that this neat, perfect wife has a nature of a psychopath.

'Man from the South' shortly shows one woman character, but she plays a great role at the ending. Women described in the beginning of this story seems to be all nice and pretty. The girls who play with the soldiers act as a normal pretty 'girls' who want the rich boys to look at them. However, as the bet starts and the young soldier gets his little finger tied for a bidding, this important woman character appears, and she seems to be different from those pretty bikini girls. When she forcefully ends the bet and shows her hands, which have too few fingers, she indirectly portrays the strength of woman. Women, in most of the centuries, were viewed as inferior figures who do not usually find their fortune on their own. However, this woman, who owns everything the man from South once owned, is definitely strong and self-made woman, which is far from traditional imagery of female characters.

However, the most 'normally' powerful female figure appears in 'My lady love, my dove'. It was surprising how many differences there were between con man's wife and the wife of the main character. The former was as lovely as a dove, and as obedient as a servant. The conversation heard by the main character and his wife suggested her characteristics well. But, this was not the case for Pamela-the main character's wife. She was completely dominant over her husband. He had no right to reply negatively about her decisions, and only had to do things she told him to do. Furthermore, adding to her robust personality, she is a rich woman. The wealth of the couple comes mostly from the wife, Pamela. She is a wicked woman, who has nearly everything.

Roald Dahl's portrayal of female characters in these stories are different from any other novels. There's not a one of traditional woman who has perfect personality and flawless habits. Dahl divorced once, and was married with the famous actor. Nothing much is known about his relationship with his wives, but readers can be sure that they were not obedient figures. Through these three stories, Dahl effectively illustrates the nature of women, putting a glimpse of his own experience. Women's nature is no different from men's, probably that's what he wanted to say.