The Intriguing Character of Mary Maloney It is cleverness that can charm even the most intelligent people, however it does not cover up your misdeeds. In the suspenseful short story "Lamb to the Slaughter" by Roald Dahl, a character named Mary Maloney utilizes her cleverness to put up an act to cover up the murder which she had recently committed. Although, Mary Maloney seems to be a typical, doting wife in the beginning of the short story, she then transfers into a rather vicious, cunning and valiant woman. First of all, Mary Maloney proves she is vicious as she lashes out and brutally murders her husband in rage notwithstanding of the numerous consequences. After realizing what she has done, she is quite surprised; "All right", she tells …show more content…
Furthermore, as the police officers come in to investigate, she starts weeping and acts miserable, despite the fact she ferociously murdered her own husband. Mary Maloney comprehensively executes a plan which leads the police officers thinking it is absurd that she committed the murder. Moreover, Mary Maloney goes to such an extent that she victuals the police officers the leg of the lamb, which she used to ruthlessly murder her husband, therefore, causing there to be no evidence of her actions. Mary Maloney's cunning trait allows her to successfully get away with the murder she had committed by utilizing her cleverness to bamboozle the police officers while playing it off innocent very slyly. Finally, as Mary Maloney executes her plan, she proves she is a valiant woman because of the abundant lies she tells the police, which could lead her to receive several felonies. To successfully execute her plan Mary Maloney acts to be surprised when she finds her husband died, "Quick! Come Quick! Patrick's dead!" (Dahl 15), she cries to a police officer. Here, Mary Maloney being a valiant woman becomes quite ostensible. This goes to show how Mary Maloney takes a tremendous risk by endeavoring to cover up evidence and making plausible stories of her whereabouts to avoid receiving
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...
It was a normal evening in the Maloney home. Mrs. Mary Maloney sat sewing, while waiting for her husband to return home after an involved day as a police officer. Around 5 o’clock Mr. Maloney returns home with shocking news and… Bang! …a leg of lamb hit over his head and Mr. Maloney falls to the ground dead. All evidence and theories, point to Mrs. Maloney being the killer of her husband, but why? Mrs. Maloney did not kill her husband out of anger after the recent marriage incident, but she did it as a result of mental anguish, self defense and trauma inflicted upon her by her husband. All these events explain exactly why Mrs. Maloney murdered her husband out of reasonable measures.
Would you kill the husband you love, to save your unborn child? Would you deceive yourself and those around you; to save your unborn child? In Roald Dahl’s short story, “Lamb to the Slaughter”, the protagonist, Mary Maloney is a very dynamic character. She has a dual nature since she is very cunning yet very caring, making her the perfect murderer along with the perfect mother. Firstly, she is very deceitful and has the ability to easily cover up her lies. Not only that, Mary is a very clever character who always makes the most intelligent choices. Lastly, the woman is very dutiful, caring and is very aware of her responsibilities as both a wife and a mother. Therefore all of these characteristics make Mary Maloney a very dynamic character
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,
Mary is no more capable of murder in her right mind than I am of swimming across the Atlantic Ocean. Roald Dahl’s short story, ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’, is about the murder of police detective Patrick Maloney by his wife Mary. Driven to homicide after her husband’s unexpected announcement that he’s leaving her and their unborn child, Mary quickly regains her senses after fatally killing him with the leg of lamb. However, she would have never killed her husband if she was in the right state of mind. Mary is shown to be temporarily insane when committing the murder of her husband because of the fact that she was pregnant, she was in a state of in denial and desperation, and most importantly that she had exhibited visible signs that are attributes of a person with mental instabilities.
Before Mrs. Maloney was confronted by her husband with shocking news, she loved him and offered to help him whenever she could. Mary was always looking forward to seeing her husband come home and enjoying his company. She loved how he came through the door from work and how he kept quiet about his tiredness. Usually a pregnant woman killing her husband is no accident, but this particular case is strange because, at first she loved her husband and all of a sudden she kills him. This observation supports Mary Maloney’s temporal case of insanity because at first she loved her husband, Patrick, and then she assassinates him.
Like many of his shorts, he set the story around the 1950s, which contained the stereotype of the husband going off to work and the wife staying home cleaning and cooking. Patrick Mahoney, a police detective comes home and announces to his wife that he is leaving her, possibly because of another woman who he has taken a fancy in. Mary Mahoney reacts quickly, killing her husband with a single blow to the back of his head with the lamb leg, she was going to prepare for dinner, creating an ironic plot twist in the story. The most irony of the situation though is the message that the Author is sending the society that the story takes place in. Mary Mahoney takes control of her life and goes against the stereotype. Dahl takes a creative and oddly ironic path to using irony to create meaning in the
Life. Life is what gives you the ability to think, to speak, to breath and to be a part of this world. It is worth more than any amount of money, your life is priceless. Without it, we would seize to exist; our world would be utter darkness. Honourable Judge, Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, today Mary Maloney stands on trial before you. A woman who took the away the life of not just an innocent citizen, but her very own husband. She was thought to be an ordinary women, a typical housewife and a soon to be loving mother. However, the facts presented before you today conclude that Mary Maloney was not just an unordinary detective’s wife, but also a murder. On April 13th 1953, the life of Patrick Maloney came to a tragic end because of leg of lamb in the hands of Mary Maloney. For the following reasons, Mary Maloney, wife of the deceased, is guilty of 1st degree murder.
Mary Maloney, a character in Road Dahl’s “Lamb to the Slaughter”, goes from being caring and loving, to a cold and unforgiving woman, to a self-possessed and calculated widow putting on show for the police, due to a series of events in the story. At the beginning of the story, we are introduced to Mary Maloney as woman who loves and cares about her husband deeply. When Patrick arrives home from work he comes in the door, Mary takes his coat and hangs it up. Then she pours him and herself a drink and they sit back and relax in their chairs. While Mary is sitting in her chair she thinks to herself, “She knew he didn’t want to speak much until the first drink was finished, and she, on her side was content to sit quietly, enjoying his company after
During the course of the novel Mary becomes more vigorous and courageous. She is the one who takes the initiative to save her mother when Caleb loses hope. As the novel progresses she becomes more and more courageous. To sneak around and attack who used to be your best friends and defile the law takes a lot of courage. One of the greatest examples is that she will do anything to save her mother. This is shown when Mary and Caleb kill a lamb to scare Constable Dewart, “A hooded figure jumped out from behind the boulder, but instead of a human face, the head of a sheep stared at constable Dewart” (257).
Patrick would go home and ignore her when all she wanted to do was make sure he wasn’t hungry. Mary was so in love with him she would wait on the couch because she was anxious to see her husband. She was a very loving wife and would do anything for her
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.
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.