Lamb To The Slaughter Mary Maloney

On July 24, 2002, David Lynn Harris was brutally murdered. David had been seeing another woman in secrecy; when his wife, Clara Harris, found out, she ran over him three times with their daughter in the passenger seat witnessing everything. Clara was sentenced to 20 years in prison along with a fine of $10,000. Just as Clara was found guilty, so should Mary Maloney from the short story, Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl. This story was based in the fifties and clearly shows the roles of men and women. However, when Patrick, the husband of Mary, came home, he spoke of bad news and Mary hit him on the head with a leg of lamb, hence the name of the story. Readers can automatically come to the conclusion that Mary Maloney is guilty. Her mental

After the incident Mary goes to the store to buy Patricks favorite food. “I want some potatoes, please, Sam. Yes , and perhaps a can of beans too. Patricks decided he was tired and he doesn’t want to eat out tonight…”, (Dahl 382) Dahl quotes. Why would Mary go to the store and pretend nothing happened after she just murdered her husband? Mary was trying to gain an alibi so that when the cops asked where she was when the murder happened, she could have Sam, the grocer, cover her up, and say that she was acting normal. Not only this, but before she went to the grocery store, she recited what she would say to Sam as if she was rehearsing for a play. Roald Dahl puts a lot of emphasis on this, using the word acting and innocent in many places, and can display many scenarios. However, they all lead back to the fact Mary was logically planning a cover up story so that she wouldn’t mess up her one and only chance to hide the evidence. In the end it worked, Mary called the cops while the lamb was in the oven for Patrick and manipulated them into eating it. They were oblivious to the fact that they were eating the murder weapon, and creates irony throughout the story. If Mary was insane, she wouldn’t have even thought she did anything wrong, or she would have tried to plead her way out using the insanity defense in the courtroom, but instead she covered it up because she knew she was

The text says, “ All the old love for him came back came back to her, and she ran over to him, knelt down beside him, and began to cry hard. It was easy, no acting was necessary.” She was filled with guilt and regret, and started to cry over what she did. Most people with disorders claim to not remember incidents, and they don’t really think about it or get emotional over their victims; they do it out of impulse and keep doing it until they have fulfilled their goal. Later on in the story she comes back to the police officers with tearful eyes, and asks if they would want to eat the pork chop for Patrick's desires and wishes. “Well,” she said. “ Here you all are, and good friends of dear Patricks too, and helping to catch the man who killed him. You must be terribly hungry by now…” the text says and goes on to say that she wanted them to eat the lamb because Patrick would want them to. This proves two points, she felt bad and wanted to make Patrick happy, and that she was once again being clever and sly so she could get rid of the weapon. The story also tells of her sitting in her chair for long periods of time, drinking alcohol in silence while the cops search the house. Not only was Mary acting innocent, she was pondering on thought of her husband being gone; since alcohol washes away emotions and memories, the reader can