Compare And Contrast Mary Maloney And Lamb To The Slaughter

The American public's fascination with serial murders has not only continuously kept these violent men and women in the public eye, but has also inspired the creation of films that demonstrate and dramatize the heinous crimes committed by these people. One such film program that adapts crimes committed by serial murderers, and the murderers themselves, is The Silence of the Lambs (1991). Through a combination of criminology, psychology, and sociology, The Silence of the Lambs is able to not only inform audiences of the dangerous types of people that currently inhabit society, but also of the individuals who study serial murderers with the intent of apprehending them before they commit any more crimes and to help identify these murderers victims.

Everybody takes risks in their lives. Some risks are worse than other risks. Someone driving a car down the highway at 120 mph is a major risk and someone walking down the street is a small risk. Risks are a common thing that everybody does, and it is inevitable to not do anything risky in that person's life. In literature, there are many risks, to make the story more interesting to read. In the three short stories “The Colomber”, “Contents of a Dead Man's Pocket”, and “Lamb to the Slaughter” the characters do a lot of risky things.

Have you ever heard of the Insanity Defense? The insanity defense is when the defendant is not responsible for his or her actions because of a psychiatric disease or a psychotic episode during the act of the crime. For instance, the Durham rule can be used if the defendant is diagnosed with a mental illness that was present during the time or show his or hers medical history records to demonstrate the defendant’s insanity. In the book In Cold Blood, Perry Smith and Dick Hickock, was sentenced to death for the murder of the Clutter Family, on November 15, 1959. Perry, who was the one that killed the whole family,could be eligible for the insanity plea if he has shown any signs of being mentally unstable during the act of the crime.

going to leave her but Dahl does not make it clear what the bad news

On July 30, 2001, Andrea was indicted on two counts of capital murder for the deaths of Noah (seven), John (five), and Mary (six months),but not for the deaths of her other two children, Luke (three) and Paul (two). In this paper we will discuss Andrea Yates behaviors, treatments and court case where she was found not guilty by reason of insanity.

In the short story Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl the husband that comes home early one day with bad news. He told his pregnant wife something. It was really shocking to her, and in the story it said that she got really sad. He then says that he would give her money and see that she is looked after. When she heard the news she went downstairs to the basement and got a frozen lamb to cook him. When she came up, he heard her and could tell that she wanted to make him supper. So he told her that he was going out so she doesn’t have to make it, but he said it in quite a rude manner and she seemed bothered by this because right after he said that she hit him in the head with the frozen lamb and he died. After she seen what she has done,

Mary Maloney has just bludgeoned her husband to death with a leg of lamb. A rather unusual and brutal crime to say the least. Is she criminally responsible? The most common defense in murder trials is the insanity defense, which states that the defendant is not criminally responsible due to insanity. Could Mary be insane? Well, the answer is probably not. According to www.brandongaille.com , 88% of insanity defendants are found to be clinically “sane” by the state. I think Mary Maloney is a criminal, who is aware of, and responsible for her actions due to the fact that Mary attempts to manipulate the order of events, Mary attempts to give the officers alcohol, and Mary has the murder weapon disposed of. All of this evidence portrays malicious intent and that she understands the gravity of the situation.

Mary is very manipulative in that she is able to create the character of the poor, pregnant wife, whose husband has just been murdered. She is able to convince the police to take pity on her, to mix her a drink and then to even eat the evidence, the leg of lamb that she has left in the oven. "Why don’t you eat up that lamb that is in the oven" (Dahl, p. 17). Mary realizes that if the police find the evidence she will go to jail. Her quick thinking and manipulative character results in the police officers eathign the evidence and therefore she cannot be charged of this crime. These actions show the complex character that Mary Maloney truly is.

Katherine Mary Knight has committed a murder which falls into the most serious category of murder and it is proven beyond reasonable doubt that the murder was premeditated. She used a sharp butcher knife to murder and stabbed him at least 37 times as well as perfectly skinning his whole body. Sometime before she murdered him she made numerous threats to him about his death. After she had murdered him, she stated that she had no recollection of the murder what so ever to the police. She tried to escape her position of crime by trying to blame everything on her mental personality disorder. She not only planned the murder but actually enjoyed the horrific acts which led to death and defilement. After the death of Mr. Price, she indicated cognition, volition, calm and skill and showed no remorse or guilt at all.

Mary is a married women that has just been told by her husband that she wants a divorce. After hearing this news, Mary responds violently. Mary gets a hard, frozen leg of lamb from the freezer and swings it at the back of his head killing him. This criminal act can be ruled many different ways based on the legal system of Illinois.There are laws which define murder in the state of Illinois. The main four laws are, first degree murder, second degree murder, manslaughter, and reckless homicide.

The insanity defense of Andrea Yates: The country was absolutely appalled when it heard that Yates, a mother of five children, had killed each of her children resulting in a horrific family slaughter. There were extremely polarized feelings about this case- sympathy (concluding

To start off, it can be clearly seen from the short story that Mary Maloney is guilty. She makes a conscious effort to make sure she reacts as if she has not committed this crime in the text “Lamb to Slaughter” she says, “If she finds anything unusual or terrible when she got home, then it would be a shock and she would have to react with grief and horror.”(Dahl 383) By her stating this it shows that she knows she is guilty and that she killed her husband. The main reason I chose this quote was that it shows that she knows what she is talking about and that she has to act like this otherwise she will be caught and

that it is not normal for her to look this way and there is a false

This is a twisted, gripping tale of Mary Maloney, who murders her own husband by hitting him with a frozen leg of lamb and then hiding her crime and disposing of the evidence by feeding the lamb to the policemen who come to investigate the murder.

Dahl’s protagonist in “Lamb to Slaughter”, Mary Maloney, displays her deceitful nature when her husband comes home from a long day of work. Mary kills Patrick with a frozen leg of lamb after he informs her that he wants a divorce. Immediately thereafter, she goes to the store to purchase vegetables. This is the beginning of her deceit. Mary clearly does not need vegetables. Her trek to the store is her way of creating an an alibi. This adds another layer to her deception. Here, she engages in a conversation with a seemingly familiar clerk, Sam. She informs him that Patrick “decided he’s tired and doesn’t want to eat out tonight” (Dahl 3). This gives Sam the impression that her husband is still alive when in all actuality, he is dead. She has added yet another layer to her level of deception. Mary’s deception has no limits. She eventually deceives herself into thinking she did not murder her husband. She convinces herself that she is “not expecting to find