Lamb To The Slaughter Mary Maloney Essay

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In the short story, “Lamb to the Slaughter” written Roald Dahl, the main character, Mary Maloney, changes throughout the story due to pain, suffering, and betrayal. Before she had gone through these terrible feelings, Maloney exhibited joy and love towards her husband and their life. Dahl wrote in the short story, “Now and again she glanced at the clock, but without anxiety: She merely wanted to satisfy herself that each minute that went by, made it nearer the time when he would come home. As she bent over her sewing, she was curiously peaceful.”(1). At this moment, Maloney is waiting for her husband, Patrick Maloney, who she dearly adores, to come back from work. She is very calm and untroubled as she lives her life like every other day. …show more content…

It is shown here, that right after the heart-breaking news was given to her, Maloney decided to go ahead and kill her husband. She lost all her fondness of Patrick, and took the decision that if she can’t be happy, then the other person shouldn’t be able to happily live their life either. It was very harsh of her, and expresses how she lost her solicitude and compassion that she had for her husband. Leading onto the next loss, a good, moral character. “ ‘Is he dead?’ she cried. ‘I'm afraid he is. What happened?’ In a few words she told her story about going to the grocer and coming back, when she found him on the floor. While she was crying and talking…”(Dahl 3). After killing her husband, Patrick, Maloney called the cops and acted as if she didn’t kill her husband, and that she still displayed love and emotion for him. This evidence shows how she left her morals behind, and took the action of not being responsible for the crime, and perhaps letting an innocent human being taken into jail in the future. This is a complete change from how good she was in the beginning of the story. Due to the circumstances and the situation that she was in, Maloney had become a terrible woman with a lot of

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