In the story, “Lamb to the Slaughter” written by Roald Dahl, a woman named Mary Maloney was in conflict with her husband before his death, Patrick Maloney. The setting takes place in the 1950’s primarily in the Maloney’s house. At the beginning of the story, Patrick arrives at the house and Mary has dinner planned and ready to be made for them. Patrick is acting reluctant and avoidant towards Mary. She suspects this is because of a long, tiring day at work. After kindly offering to make him anything for dinner, he seems angry at Mrs. Maloney and refuses to eat anything she will make. Patrick Maloney than tells his wife that he does not want to be with her anymore, however she will be looked after. Trying to ignore what he had told her, Mary …show more content…
Mary tried to keep him from leaving, but her husbands’ protests overcome her request. Before Patrick could step a foot outside the door, Mary took the leg of lamb and striked him in the back of the head with the frozen lump of meat. From there, she left the house to buy food for dinner. This included peas and cheesecake for them. When she arrived at the house, she set up a scene for the “murder” of Patrick Maloney. She knocked over several tables, dropped the bag on the ground, and shuffled household decorations around to set up the scene for the murder. Afterwards, she dials the police and soon later, about five or six men come into the house to investigate. A few detectives, an officer, a reporter, and a crime scene photographer. As night rolls around, Mary asks the detectives and officers if they are at all hungry. Mary offers them the lamb that has been cooked. They are a bit hesitant because it is not necessarily allowed nor is it prohibited, but they decide to eat it as doing Mary a favor. As they eat, they insist they eat all of it to satisfy Mary. As they are eating, they discuss what might have happened to Patrick and where the evidence might
In Lamb to the Slaughter, Mary Maloney, doting housewife pregnant with her first child, commits a heinous crime against her husband. After he tells her that he is leaving, she become distraught and strikes him in the head with a leg of lamb. Afterwards, Mary...
Having to take your anger out on someone isn’t fair or good, especially if you’re being killed with frozen lamb. Based on everyone’s understanding, when you kill someone you’ll have to pay the price and consequences. Apparently this lady didn’t. But are we sure she’s going to marry another man and kill him too? In “Lamb to the slaughter”, I’m going to be talking about Mary Maloney and how madly crazy she is.
All of Roald Dahl’s stories seem to be brimfull of irony and wry humor, and “Lamb to the Slaughter” is no different. Mary Maloney, a pregnant, but cheerful woman is very much in love with her husband and we certainly don’t expect her to be of any trouble. It’s shocking enough to learn that her husband, who seems such a nice guy, is cheating on her and plans to move out. This changes the expectation of the story right off the bat, and we feel a compassion for the poor woman. We’re not sure how she’s going to cope with this news, especially since she’s six months pregnant with his child. So when she acts rather compulsively and strikes him over the head with the leg of lamb that was going to be his supper, we really are shocked. She’s acted
To illustrate, in the author’s words, “Why don’t you eat up that lamb that’s in the oven?” (Dahl, p. 324) In this quote the author proposes that Mary deceived the detectives into eating the murder weapon. This quote models the author’s use of character development as Mary went from the beginning of being good-natured and honest to deceitful. This brings the immoral evolution of Mary out. Moreover, the author plainly asserts, “And in the other room, Mary Maloney began to giggle.” (Dahl, p. 324) In this quote, the author describes how Mary laughed as the detectives ate the murder weapon. This quote reminds the reader that Mary is now “innocent” in a different sense than she was in the beginning of the story. “Perfect”, unaware, self-sacrificing, wife Mary is gone. Revealed to the readers is wicked, manipulative murderer
In Roald Dahl’s short story, Lamb to the Slaughter, a man (Patrick) returns home to his loving, pregnant wife (Mary) and announces he is leaving her, a revelation which turns the once docile and content woman into a cold-blooded murderer. Dahl reveals this unexpected transformation of Mary Maloney, the spurned wife, through her actions and thoughts.
Mary knowing that the police would not deny the wishes of a dead man deceive the police into eating the leg of lamb. The policemen misinterpret Mary's intentions thinking that she was offering out of hospitality. As a result the policemen eat the whole leg of lamb, destroying the last piece of evidence which could prove Mary Maloney guilty. Because of how she cunningly manipulated the people around her like the policemen and the grocer, she escapes murder charges.
Mary decided to head to the grocery to store, to make it seem as though she was not home when Patrick met his sudden death. She acted normal at the grocery store, she did not want to act suspicious. Obviously she needed to act surprised when she saw her husband lying dead on the floor. Mary dropped her purse as well as her groceries, she even destroyed her items around him, to make it seem as though there was an intruder. Finally,
An additional view point of the story could be from a woman. A female reading Lamb to the Slaughter would most likely side with Mary Maloney. Dahl starts the story describing Mary’s behavior before her husbands’ arrival. She sits ...
“Lamb to the Slaughter” is an intriguing murder story by Roald Dahl. It was initially rejected, along with four other stories, by The New Yorker, but was ultimately published in Harper's Magazine in September 1953. It was adapted for an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and starred Barbara Bel Geddes and Harold J. Stone. Mary Malony, wife of a senior detective Patrick Maloney, is six months pregnant and waits for her husband to return home after work. She is a typical housewife and religiously does her duties of taking care of her husband’s needs and is engaged in all sorts of domestic
She refueses to believe the news that is delivered by Mr. Maloney, and almost seems to act like nothing is going on, when Dahl writes “Her first instinct was not to believe any of it, to reject it all. It occurred to her that perhaps he hadn't even spoken, that she herself had imagined the whole thing. Maybe, if she went about her business and acted as though she hadn't been listening, then later, when she sort of woke up again, she might find none of it had ever happened. [...] ‘I’ll get the supper,’ she managed to whisper. And this time he didn’t stop her.” She then walks to the freezer, grabs the leg of lamb and thinks “All right then, they would have lamb for supper.” Mr. Maloney attempts to brush her off once more by saying “"For God's sake," he said, hearing her, but not turning round. "Don't make supper for me. I'm going out." At that point, Mary comes up behind her husband and kills him by bashing his skull with the leg of lamb. Dahl accompanies the hit with “She might just as well have hit him with a steel club.” In her haze, Mary must have forgotten one of the basic human principles, that being that you cannot murder somebody. She does not fully grasp what has happened, however she does understand that she has killed her husband. Still, she walks to the kitchen and places the lamb in the oven. There is no sign of sadness from her until after her return from the grocer, when she breaks down. However, the audience has a hard time trusting her until Dahl writes “[...] she ran over to him, knelt down beside him, and began to cry her heart out. It was easy. No acting was necessary.” Had Dahl not included that section, Mary would have absolutely no credibility and would be seen as a psychopath, lacking any empathy, and lying to the police by only pretending to be upset when they arrive. The extent to which she goes to cover up the murder is influenced by the baby that she is carrying. She was not worried
me show her as a typical wife waiting for her husband to come home and
In the story Lamb to the Slaughter written by Roald Dahl, the writer emphasizes the woman's loyalty to her husbands will, despite the constraint in her social life. Mary Maloney obeyed her husband's commands forgetting her own, making sure he had everything he needed. Offering to grab her husband whiskey, he commanded her to sit down insisting that he get it himself. (Dahl 1) Although she could have taken time to do stuff for herself she did as her husband told her to without question. Another scenario of Mary's loyalty to her husband was proved to him as she selflessly asked him about his day rather than putting the spotlight on herself. For instance, she asked him if he was tired forgetting her own concerns. (Dahl 1) In place of telling him
towards the reader to what is the man like but later in the story this
In “Lamb to the Slaughter,” Dahl highlights how the the truth is closer than you think. Mary Maloney is reactive when she finds out her husband wants to put an end to their marriage. After she finds
...e oven?” (Dahl 4) Mary was very manipulative and sinister because she knew exactly what she was doing; she wanted the officers to eat up all of the lamb so that there would be no evidence of the murder weapon that she used to kill. As the officers were eating up all of the lamb, Mary was very happy and giggling while she was listening to the officers eat up the lamb, she was never grieving about the loss of Patrick and just wanted to kill him and cover up the evidence so she will not be caught.