Crime Of Morality In Mary Maloney's Lamb To The Slaughter

In Roald Dahl’s short story “Lamb to the Slaughter” , Mary Maloney murders her husband, a detective, after he declares that he is leaving her. Mary then has to cover her tracks or else she and her unborn child will be killed. Throughout the story, Mary’s character changes from loving wife to cold killer and back again based on her situation.

Mary has one motive for murdering her husband. The motive is that she couldn’t accept the fact that her husband was leaving her. He says, “ ‘This is going to be a bit of a shock to you, I 'm afraid,’ he said. ‘But I 've thought about it a good deal and I 've decided the only thing to do is tell you right away. I hope you won 't blame me too much...So there it is,’ he added. ‘And I know it 's kind of a bad time to be telling you, bet there simply wasn 't any other way. Of course I 'll give you money and see you 're looked after. But there needn 't really be any fuss. I hope not anyway. It wouldn 't be very good for my job.’ " Although he didn’t say the exact words the reader can infer this when he states “… i’ll give you money and see you 're looked after. But there needn 't really be any fuss. I hope not anyway. It wouldn 't be very good for my job…” Some readers might disagree with her for killing her husband because he was leaving her, but she was truly in love with him

Dahl’s use of dramatic irony during the story helps displays the actions of Mary Maloney and other characters. Mary Maloney swings the leg of the lamb to the back of the head of her husband. Dahl says, “ 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” (Dahl 320). As a result, this quote is effective because the lamb was used as a weapon, instead of food; which shows that Mary could use anything to harm someone without her trying or when it was her attempt to hurt that someone. The story writes, “Probably right under our very noses. What you think, Jack”. In the same way as the first quote, this sets back to Mary because she sabotages the police to eat the lamb. With the police eating the lamb she is getting rid of the evidence so she does not get caught. From the use of dramatic irony in the story, Dahl's builds Mary as a character; he also uses different irony to create her.

Mary Maloney is a sympathetic character because she covered up Patrick’s death to protect her baby. All of the tricking and deceiving she did was to save her unborn child from what could have happened as a result of her actions. She did not know what the laws were for murdered with unborn babies and she did not want to find out. Dahl states, “ What were the laws about murderers with unborn children? Did they kill both-mother and child? Or did they wait until the tenth month? Mary Maloney didn’t know. And she certainly wasn’t prepared to take a chance” (3). Mary’s number one concern was for her baby. She did not want

At the beginning of the story, Mary Maloney loves and adores her husband, this does not last very long. Dahl uses simple but strong sentences to portray the killing of Patrick Maloney “At the 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.” This illustrates Mrs. Maloney walking without any hesitation, killing her beloved husband and this also exemplifies the ultimate transformation of Mrs. Maloney from her calm behavior to being over dramatic. Another detail that this phrase demonstrates is that Patrick is so focused in his thoughts that he doesn’t sense his wife walking up towards him. Dahl reveals this unexpected transformation of Mary Maloney through her actions and thoughts. Another phrase that exemplifies Mrs. Maloney’s change in character is when she thinks to herself, after killing Patrick, “‘All right,’ she told herself. ‘So I’ve killed him.’” This illustrates Mrs. Maloney’s impeccable life, or what she conceives to be her life is demolished. At this point of the story, Dahl uses direct and indirect sentences to develop the protagonist and to show the complete transformation of Mrs. Maloney and brings her to

Mary Maloney has just bludgeoned her husband to death with a leg of lamb. A rather unusual and brutal crime to say the least. Is she criminally responsible? The most common defense in murder trials is the insanity defense, which states that the defendant is not criminally responsible due to insanity. Could Mary be insane? Well, the answer is probably not. According to www.brandongaille.com , 88% of insanity defendants are found to be clinically “sane” by the state. I think Mary Maloney is a criminal, who is aware of, and responsible for her actions due to the fact that Mary attempts to manipulate the order of events, Mary attempts to give the officers alcohol, and Mary has the murder weapon disposed of. All of this evidence portrays malicious intent and that she understands the gravity of the situation.

While doing her everyday routine, and waiting for her husband little did she know this would be his last day coming home. At about ten minutes till five she heard Patrick’s car arrive. Marry started her day like any other sewing and greeting Patrick at the door. After she poured him a drink he finished it fast and got back up to get another. Patrick then told Mary he was leaving her for another woman, in this case she had a sudden reaction. With all the opportunities present, she did something she never thought she would do. She killed her husband with malice causing her to be guilty of second degree murder.

Mary is very manipulative in that she is able to create the character of the poor, pregnant wife, whose husband has just been murdered. She is able to convince the police to take pity on her, to mix her a drink and then to even eat the evidence, the leg of lamb that she has left in the oven. "Why don’t you eat up that lamb that is in the oven" (Dahl, p. 17). Mary realizes that if the police find the evidence she will go to jail. Her quick thinking and manipulative character results in the police officers eathign the evidence and therefore she cannot be charged of this crime. These actions show the complex character that Mary Maloney truly is.

To start off, it can be clearly seen from the short story that Mary Maloney is guilty. She makes a conscious effort to make sure she reacts as if she has not committed this crime in the text “Lamb to Slaughter” she says, “If she finds anything unusual or terrible when she got home, then it would be a shock and she would have to react with grief and horror.”(Dahl 383) By her stating this it shows that she knows she is guilty and that she killed her husband. The main reason I chose this quote was that it shows that she knows what she is talking about and that she has to act like this otherwise she will be caught and

The conflict in “Lamb to the Slaughter” is, that Mary. Maloney, a devoted housewife, six months pregnant, kills her husband with a leg of lamb after he tells her that he is planning on leaving her. In the very beginning, the atmosphere is very calm. Mary Maloney is peacefully sewing in her living room waiting for her husband, a police officer, to come home from work. After his arrival, they silently sit in the living room drinking whisky. Mrs. Maloney watches her husband very carefully but after he swallows his whisky very quickly and gets another stronger drink, the reader notices that something is unusual. Before she wants to fix something for supper, her husband stops her and tells her, even though it isn’t exactly conveyed to the reader, that he

This is a twisted, gripping tale of Mary Maloney, who murders her own husband by hitting him with a frozen leg of lamb and then hiding her crime and disposing of the evidence by feeding the lamb to the policemen who come to investigate the murder.

In “Lamb to the Slaughter”, the author, Roald Dahl depicts Mary Maloney is waiting for her husband, Patrick Maloney who works as a police officer. However, when Patrick comes back home, he decides to leave his families. Mary murdered her husband impulsively, as a six-month pregnant mother, she has no idea how things will turn out for her and her baby. In order to stay out of her crime, she tries to have an alibi from the grocer and destroys the murder—a leg of lamb. By narrating from Mary’s perspective, the author convinces the readers that even though Mary commits the crime, the unsuccessful marriage, the specificity of pregnancy and the greatness of maternity help to declare Mary’s motivation of her crime and doubts about Mary’s full responsibility

During the Middle Ages, England was a nation in social chaos. Deception of every kind was rampart throughout the lands. Many people felt that there was a great need for moral improvement in society. In Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales he clearly brings to light his thoughts and concerns of “ethical cleansing.” No tale more fully expresses this idea than that of “The Pardoner’s Tale” and “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale.”

Deceit is a poisonous character trait. Characters who possess this trait are untrustworthy. Roald Dahl craftily illustrates this in his short stories “Lamb to Slaughter” and “The Landlady”. “Lamb to Slaughter” is the story of Mary Maloney, a young pregnant woman struggling to cope with her husband’s betrayal; “The Landlady” tells the tale of a sneaky bed-and-breakfast owner who never lets her tenants leave. Therefore, Dahl’s incorporation of these characters within his short stories are the epitome of deceitfulness.

He betrayed her trust and hurt her feelings in the worst possible time. When she hears what he has to say, she is in shock and loses her mind at the moment. “She did everything without thinking.” When she comes back with the leg of lamb she tried to act as if everything was normal and she would make supper for her husband. But as soon as he said, “I've already told you, don't make supper for me. I'm going out.” Her anger and pain took over her mind and she reacted with hitting the back of his head as hard as she possibly could with the leg of lamb. I don’t believe that she was insane, or that we underestimated her to be humble and respectful. I suppose that in the moment she expressed all her frustrations and anger which is something she would not do if she was not put in a situation like this. I am pretty sure that if Mary questioned herself that day if she is capable of murdering her husband, even if he did something shocking that would hurt her, she would have answered with no. Yet, there is more to the story of how Mary covered up her tracks with her genius thinking, and how she got away with the crime. Mary definitely surprised me with her idea of feeding the weapon to the