“The Voice of Many Reasons: True Personalities” Sometimes the mind of humans becomes obsessed with negative thoughts full of guilt and anxiety produced by thoughts about the future and so on. Mary Maloney and Hercules did things that they did not mean. Both of them felt remorseful and uneasy about their actions. Mary Maloney from “A Lamb to Slaughter,” and Hercules from Edith Hamilton’s Mythology both depict similar responses to challenges, but with contrasting personality traits. Mary Maloney and Hercules respond in a similar way to the challenges they face. Before the homicide, Mary and her husband, Patrick, were having a talk. It was an anonymous discussion; but in the end, she was expressionless. After this, she killed him with the leg of lamb. She was feeling cold and surprised (Dahl 381-382). Similarly to Mary Maloney, Hercules murdered numerous people, even his family. He lost control of himself due to the spell that Hera sent upon him. Thereafter, he killed his three sons and his wife with his bare hands (Hamilton 229). Although they both have a …show more content…
Nonetheless, her husband’s death completely changed her personality. Mary becomes a psycho and manipulative woman, and she makes everyone believe that she is innocent. In fact, all those personality traits mix together and make her seem crazy. After going to the grocer store, Mary acted as if nothing happened. Then the author says, “All the old love and longing for him welled up inside her, and she ran over to him, and began to cry her heart out. It was easy. No acting was needed” (Dahl 383). Despite of her madness, Mrs. Maloney is a very smart character. At the end of the story, she gave the only existing evidence to the police officers for supper then began to giggle, showing psychopathy (Dahl 386). In all honesty, Mary Maloney’s personality is divergent from the personality of
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.
Preliminarily, had been established that Mrs. Maloney was the murderer of her husband Mr. Maloney. Despite this, it was for good reason, as it was due in part to mental anguish. This can be concluded by the reactions and behaviors Mrs. Maloney presented in Dahl’s eyewitness account. To start, Mrs. Maloney was headed for the store at around 6 o’clock. Why would she continue to act even if her husband is dead? “Hello, Sam,” she said brightly, smiling at the man in the shop. “Good evening, Mrs. Maloney. How are you?” “I want some potatoes, please, Sam. Yes, and perhaps a can of beans, too. Patrick’s decided he's tired and he doesn't want to go out tonight,” she told him. … “Anything else?” The grocer turned his head to one side, looking at her. “How about a dessert? … How about a nice piece of cake?” … “Perfect,” she said. “He loves it.”” This quote, from Dahl’s account, shows that she obviously cannot completely function mentally. She murdered him, then went and bought him cake. At this point, she is very confused about herself and the events that occu...
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
Most can agree that random evil and suffering, such as accidents, war, illness, crime, and many more, have the power to disrupt human happiness. Most would also agree that it is not the evil and suffering that affects one, as much as it is how one responds to the evil and suffering that occurs in one’s life. It is undeniable that suffering occurs to everyone in some shape or form, and while others may not believe that it is suffering, it all depends on one’s life. There are many examples a reader can draw from in recent and ancient literature that provides examples of other’s suffering and how they responded to those stimuli. This essay explores how the problem of evil is addressed by Greek tragedy and by Western monotheistic tradition.
Once he was a grown man, however, with a life full of potential, a loving wife and healthy sons, Hera decided to bring her wrath upon him once again. She sent fits of madness upon him, causing him to kill his wife and sons. When Hercules came, he couldn’t live with the guilt of his sins. He went to the oracle of Delphi for advice on how he could make up for his wrongdoings and rid himself of his guilt.... ... middle of paper ...
After his quest Hercules married Deianeira, the daughter of King Oeneus. They didn’t live happily surprisingly. In their travels Hercules and Deianeira crossed a river widen by floods. Hercules crossed successfully but his wife was left to be boated across by a boatman, who tried to rape her. Hercules killed the boatman with one of the arrows that was dipped into Hydra's poison blood.
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?
What a person says and the way they say it can also produce the same effect. The way she placated her husband at the beginning of the novel with her use of “darling” and cooed over how hard he works writes her off as an overzealous wife (Dahl 1). This quickly changed after she committed the murder and began practicing her damsel in distress act. Gaining her alibi at the grocer, she brightly greets Sam in a manner that suggests that everything is going peachy (Dahl 2). Mary is strategically planning every detail, so she won’t be caught. Near the end of the novel where she is begging the detectives to eat the lamb, it adds to her manipulative character (Dahl 3). Her cunning plan earned her exactly what she wanted though: lack of evidence. The words Mary Maloney used and especially the manner in which she speaks just add to exemplifying the development of
Mrs.Maloney is not guilty of Patrick Maloney’s murder. What distinguishes a particular type of murder from another is one's mental state at the time of the wrongdoing. In Mary’s case she had not intended for the misdemeanor, disregarding the fact that she was stealthy and cunning when covering it up. I will begin by evaluating her condition ber the misconduct, at the instance of the misconduct, and after the misconduct.Before the incident, her husband revealed some upsetting news which triggered a moment of uncertainty. “When she walked across the room, she couldn’t feel anything except a slight sickness. She did everything without thinking. She went downstairs to the freezer and took hold of the first object she found.” This information generated
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
You can also see how unapologetic she is about her actions in the sentence “And in the other room, Mary Maloney laughed.” (Dahl,4). She’s laughing because she realizes that she’s going to completely get away with having killed her husband. The fact that she even covered it up shows exactly how willing she is to do the most in order to not face the
Mary Maloney loved a man who did not love her back we can say that Mr. Maloney mistreated her for a long time. That love turned into rage the moment she saw the opportunity to kill him. This is why she is guilty of second degree murder. This woman looked forward to her husband's homecoming everyday, she loved him. When she grabbed the leg if a lamb from the freezer, she didn’t think about finding a murder weapon, she was thinking of her husband's happiness. At the moment of the crime, she did it without a thought, and as the wife if a detective she knew she needed to cover it up. Mary Maloney realized that she had committed the perfect crime when her husband's friends were eating the murder weapon. What is horrible is that she found a wicked enjoyment at the end.
In the story “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl, Mary Maloney is shown to have a very sinister and manipulative character. In the beginning of the story, Mary Maloney was a normal, loving and caring pregnant housewife that loved and cared for her husband, Patrick Maloney, very much. Earlier at the start of the story we see Mary was waiting for her husband to come home from work. She had set up the house with two table lights lit and plates on the dining table so they can have a very romantic dinner when Patrick comes home. When Patrick came home, Mary was very excited to see him. She would try to offer him some drinks and insisted she would get things in the house he needed so he didn’t have to get up himself. The countless times that Patrick said no to her offers and helpful doings, she still tried to serve and tried to make him feel comfortable and relax after work.
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.