Mary Maloney is a young woman who genuinely loved her husband and would soon be having a child with the man she admired. She waited patiently every night for him to come home, she clearly adored him. Patrick Maloney sometimes seemed insensitive toward his wife; however, her love never changed. She simply should not be sentenced for the murder of her beloved husband, Patrick Maloney for numerous reasons. It was evident that Mrs. Maloney was mentally unstable during the murder due to tremendous stress, being in a state of despair, and she showed numerous signs of mental instability. She had extreme pressure in her life, which definitely influenced the way she acted the night of her husband’s murder. Mary Maloney was under constant stress from having to take care of herself and her child. Her husband, Patrick, did not seem to be involved in the majority of her life, because of his job and travels. He increased the amount of stress that was already on his wife’s shoulders by telling her that he planned on leaving her, which strongly affected her behavior. Mrs. Maloney had no idea that the love of her life was going to share such heartbreaking news to her that night, and the murder was an automatic reaction, not a planned …show more content…
This feeling drove her to participate in the unthinkable murder. When her husband told her that he was suddenly leaving her, she tried not to believe it. “Her first instinct was not to believe any of it, to reject it all.” It was clear that Patrick Maloney was extremely inconsiderate. He would ignore his wife, making her feel lonely and isolated, and he did not seem to care about his child, but only his job. He stated, “There needn’t really be any fuss. I hope not anyway. It wouldn't be very good for my job.” He left Mary in a state where she felt her world was crashing down on her, and she was not thinking when she slammed the leg of a lamb into her husband’s
Mary Maloney is accused of murdering her husband with an unknown weapon for an unknown reason. Chief detective, Patrick Maloney was murdered last night at his own house, no suspects have been identified yet and the search for the murder weapon was futile. Apparently, the officer had come home exhausted from work and was waiting for his wife Mrs. Mary Maloney, who left to buy food across the street for their dinner. According to a statement, Mary arrives home from the grocery store to find her husband dead on the living room floor.
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...
In The Liars ' Club, Mary Karr recounts her dysfunctional childhood and the various struggles she and her family endured. Although both of Mary’s parents were suffered from severe alcoholism, Mary’s mother was also incredibly abusive as a result of mental illness. Growing up, Mary frequently witnessed violent episodes, fits and delusions that eventually landed her mother in a mental institution. Inevitably intensified by the alcoholism, her parents fought all the time, resulting in physical violence and constant threats of divorce. In just a few of her mother’s episodes, she tried to drive their car off of a bridge, starts fires and almost stabs her children with
Starting from the very beginning of the night Mrs.Maloney testified that her and her husband were discussing a “touchy” subject. Although Mrs.Maloney will not confirm the “touchy” subject to the court, a testimony from an unidentified source can fill in the blanks from that conversation. A women came into the police station and told police she was Mr.Maloney’s lover. Is this the conversation Mr. and Mrs.Maloney were having the night he died? Could this be a motive for Mrs.Maloney to murder her husband? Mr.Maloney was killed with a single blow to his head, according to the corner. There was no struggle from Mr.Maloney. However, when police showed up to the Maloney residence, the living room and desk were torn apart. The chair to the desk was knocked over, papers from Mr.Maloney’s desk were scattered all over the floor and over the desk. A small table by the couch was knocked over. Something that caught the attention of investigators was the crime scene itself. If there was no struggle from Mr.Maloney, why would an intruder create one?
Mary played the role of a very caring wife at the beginning of the story, since she was always there for her husband and tried to do anything to serve and satisfy him. Firstly, as soon as her husband came home “She took his coat and hung it in the closet. Then she walked over and made the drinks”(Dahl 2). Later on when she notices that her husband seemed depressed, she asked him, “Would you like me to get you some cheese” (Dahl 2). When he says no, she replies “But you must eat! I’ll fix it anyway” (Dahl 2). This shows the care she had toward her husband at the beginning of the stroy and how her life used to revolve him. Furthermore, it shows how she used to do anything to please him. Therefore this proves how she knew her duties and responsibilities toward her husband really well. Although, in this story, Mary Maloney was not only a very a dutiful and caring wife, but during the story she transitioned into becoming an even more dutiful mother who was well aware of her responsibilities. After she killed her husband she thought of her child and wondered, “What were the laws about murderers with unborn children? Did they kill the both- mother and child? Or did they wait until the tenth month? What did they do? Mary Maloney didn’t know. And she certainly wasn’t prepared to take a chance” (Dahl 3). This shows how Mary Maloney had created this entire plan just to save her child and didn’t care what harm came to her. Therefore this definitely makes her a very caring mom, because it takes a lot of love to do such a thing. So this definitely makes her the perfect mother. In conclusion, Mary Maloney is strongly aware of her duties and responsibilities. Therefore, she was able to carry out the entire plan because people knew how much she loved her husband and so people trusted her. Also, she created this plan because
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
On Thursday, July 16, Mary spent her day like she would any other. She looked forward to the time with her husband that they had every evening when he arrived at home (Dahl). Mary was glancing at the clock, without anxiety, awaiting her husband’s arrival (Dahl). Knowing this, it’s obvious that Mary was calm and unprepared to murder her husband. If Mary is being charged with first degree murder, it states, “The killing is deliberate and premediated” (Berman). If Mary had planned the murder of Patrick Maloney she would not have been calm in doing nothing all day. Her calmness shows the fact that her killing her husband was not premeditated. However, when Mr. Maloney arrived home and gave his wife the news that he was leaving her, her entire attitude was forced to change dramatically. Why? Because when giving a six month, hormonal pregnant woman stressful news, her hormones are forced to increase
1. I condemn Mary Maloney’s actions because she killed her own husband. I think she should’ve accepted it and try to start a new life. With the money, her husband was offering so she could get looked after instead of hitting him ''over the head'' with a frozen lamb leg and committing a crime.
After she heard the news she convinces herself that he (Patrick) is still alive, she also speaks to herself/ practices her speaking to sound ‘normal’, and it shows how she felt about getting away with it. Mary Maloney was over tasked with the keeping of the house and being a doting wife to her husband, all she had going in her life was looking after her husband. Mary only wanted to be there for her husband, wanting to be with him no matter the problems they might have. Mary refused to see that her relationship was in rambles. To make her husband happy she took on as many tasks she could, along with keeping their marriage together as it was slowly falling apart. “Insanity is often the logic of an accurate mind overtasked”. (Oliver Wendell Holmes,
We see with Mary that being pregnant can alter your emotions and cause someone to act much different that who they really are. Her husband being ready to divorce, makes her in denial that he no longer wants to be with her and hopeless because she will be left to raise her baby alone. Mary, not being about to think straight, kills her husband, going to show that she was evidently suffering from mental instability during and even after the killing. As evident, this was no murder committed in cold blood. Mary is innocent in the murder of Patrick Maloney by plea of temporary
One of Dahl’s most prominent styles used to highlight betrayal throughout the story is point of view. The point of view of the story is told in is third-person limited, meaning the reader only gets to read the thoughts of one character. That character was Mary Maloney, the main character and wife of Patrick Maloney. Hearing only one characters view of events can make readers opinions biased, meaning the feelings they feel towards characters are from the influence of Mary Maloney. The readers do not know what Patrick Maloney is thinking so it is hard for readers to sympathize him in the beginning of the story when he tells Mary he wants a divorce (Dahl). As one critic stated, readers are unable to see into his mind, he is immediately marked as the antagonist (Bertonneau). Another critic believed that having no knowledge of his motives made his actions seem inexcusable.
.... Maloney would leave to be with the other women. This thought though, became a reality for Mary Maloney. Mary Maloney has testified to happening to “stumble across” a will, which mentioned Mary Maloney receiving three quarters of Patrick’s fortune if he were to pass away. Being the wife a detective, Mary Maloney new how to plot a scene. First she would murder Patrick, receive his fortune to care for the unborn child, never have to face him again after he said to her face that he loved another women and had been having affairs with her. Secondly, she would need to dispose of the murder weapon secretly, and create an alibi that would testify for Ms. Maloney. Thirdly, pretend that it was all a dream and that it never happened. Sadly, it was an incredibly easy task for a clever woman such as herself. How is it that money is what shapes our world but also destroys it?
Near the middle of the story we see Mary exhibit her bad sinister character; her personality and feelings suddenly change when she murders her own husband by hitting him at the back of the head with a frozen lamb leg. After denying all of Mary’s helpful deeds, Patrick told her to sit down so that he can tell her something serious; the story doesn’t tell us what he says to her but Mary suddenly changes after he tells her something, her “instinct was not to believe any of it” (Dahl 2). She just responded with “I’ll get the supper” (Dahl 2) and felt nothing of her body except for nausea and a desire to vomit. She went down the cellar, opened the freezer, grabbed a frozen leg of lamb, went back upstairs, came behind Patrick, and swung the big leg of lamb as hard as she could to the back of his head killing him. This act of sudden violence shows how much she has gone ...
Early on in the story, Mrs. Maloney was acting unlike the regular human. The author states, “The room was warm, the curtains were close, the two tables
When the police arrived they try to understand and figure out how Patrick has been killed. But unluckily the officers can not notice Mrs. Maloney was the killer. At the end of the book Mary Maloney giggles when the officers said, “Probably right under our very noses. What you think, Jack?” (Dahl 18). Throughout the beginning, Mary Maloney seemed like a nice caring wife but what Patrick said caused her to do a crime. At that point, Mary knew she got away she eliminated the evidence and managed to escape. Mary laughing shows readers that the killing of her husband was not important to her at all. Therefore the theme of this story is to not trust everybody.