Creative Writing: Patrick Maloney's Murder

According to the police department, Patrick came home soon after 5pm and was waiting for dinnertime,when his wife Mrs. Mary Maloney left for the grocery store across the street to get some vegetables for no more than twenty minutes and came back home to find her husband dead on the living room floor. “The neighbors didn't witness the attack on Mr. Maloney. stated detective “O'Malley.

She lifted it out, and looked at it---a leg of lamb “ (Page 2). The fact that Mary Maloney can’t even feel herself doing anything, corresponds to how shocked she is. As a matter of fact, that is when her consciousness of her action momentarily fades away. She cannot accept the fact that her beloved husband would betray her like this, but in a way, the introduction to the story already tells us that their relationship isn’t strong and loving. Also, Mary is shown to have picked the very first thing she found, which was a lamb leg. This proves that she had no intention of premeditating a weapon beforehand, but instead used whatever she could find to let out her emotions. In addition, pregnant women are more emotionally unstable and because of that Mary Maloney couldn’t handle the stress of the news her husband told her. The final quote that proves her temporary insanity is, “She stepped back, waiting, and the strange thing was that he remained standing there for at least four or five seconds. Then he crashed onto the carpet. The violence of the crash, the noise, the small table overturning, helped to bring her out of the shock… It was extraordinary, now, how clear her mind became all of a sudden. She began thinking very fast. As the wife of a detective, she knew what the punishment would be…In fact, it would be a relief. On the other hand, what about the baby ” (Page 2)? Not only did she regain her consciousness, moments after her husband’s death, but she also

Mrs. Maloney gets away with the murder in the end. This caused by a revolting ending in which he police detectives eat the leg of lamb that was used to kill Patrick. The writer creates an unbelievable ending by making the story, up to the murder, set in a very normal family house. It is not somewhere you would associate with a morbid killing. The writer builds up an impression that the marriage may not be as good as it could be, and both were under strain not to release the tension onto each other.

Mary has one motive for murdering her husband. The motive is that she couldn’t accept the fact that her husband was leaving her. He says, “ ‘This is going to be a bit of a shock to you, I 'm afraid,’ he said. ‘But I 've thought about it a good deal and I 've decided the only thing to do is tell you right away. I hope you won 't blame me too much...So there it is,’ he added. ‘And I know it 's kind of a bad time to be telling you, bet there simply wasn 't any other way. Of course I 'll give you money and see you 're looked after. But there needn 't really be any fuss. I hope not anyway. It wouldn 't be very good for my job.’ " Although he didn’t say the exact words the reader can infer this when he states “… i’ll give you money and see you 're looked after. But there needn 't really be any fuss. I hope not anyway. It wouldn 't be very good for my job…” Some readers might disagree with her for killing her husband because he was leaving her, but she was truly in love with him

At the beginning of the story, Mary Maloney loves and adores her husband, this does not last very long. Dahl uses simple but strong sentences to portray the killing of Patrick Maloney “At the point, Mary Maloney simply walked up behind him and without any pause she swung the big frozen leg of lamb high in the air and brought it down as hard as she could on the back of his head.” This illustrates Mrs. Maloney walking without any hesitation, killing her beloved husband and this also exemplifies the ultimate transformation of Mrs. Maloney from her calm behavior to being over dramatic. Another detail that this phrase demonstrates is that Patrick is so focused in his thoughts that he doesn’t sense his wife walking up towards him. Dahl reveals this unexpected transformation of Mary Maloney through her actions and thoughts. Another phrase that exemplifies Mrs. Maloney’s change in character is when she thinks to herself, after killing Patrick, “‘All right,’ she told herself. ‘So I’ve killed him.’” This illustrates Mrs. Maloney’s impeccable life, or what she conceives to be her life is demolished. At this point of the story, Dahl uses direct and indirect sentences to develop the protagonist and to show the complete transformation of Mrs. Maloney and brings her to

Author also surprises readers, when he introduces conflict between a couple that used to love each other deeply. Diverting the story from love to betrayal, author develops an irony. In the story, reader sees two examples of betrayal. Ms. Maloney, while talking with her tired husband, finds out her husband no longer want to keep their marriage. Without giving any kind of reason, Patrick betrays her wife with a decision of breaking marriage. Mary shocks, when her husband, boldly, says, “ This is going to be bit shock of you”(P. Maloney) Author creates a total opposite picture of Patrick by describing him as a husband who used to give her wife surprises; he is now giving her shock in the middle of her pregnancy. Mary, who was previously shown as “anxiety less”(Dahl), with “a slow smiling air”(Dahl) and “curiously tranquil”(Dahl), had began to get upset and now inculcate her eye with a “bewildered look.” After betrayed by her husband, she, without any argue, she goes to the basement to look for frozen food. She decides to have leg of a lamb as a last dinner with her husband, but she smashes the frozen leg in to Patrick’s head with killing him. Mary betrays her husband by killing him and takes revenge of her betrayal. Later, Author confirms her as a murdered with the statement of “I’ve killed him”(Mary) from her own lips. Dahl, in the story,

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.

Which is after the killing happened. Mary then goes and plans her alibi after. Once her state of mind became clear, she thought about what her punishment would be. She quickly considered her unborn child. Mary had no clue of what they would do to her and her child. Her unborn child meant a lot to her so she did not want to risk it. Then she went upstairs to fix herself. She then repeated multiple times of what she was going to say to the grocery store worker.

First, Mary Maloney is very calm after killing her husband causing people not to suspect her for the murder. When the police search her house, she does not seem to show any signs of fear that the police will

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

This is where the reader knows more then the characters, having seen the murder from Mary’s point of view and now watching the police officers discuss the crime. Also ironic, is that the police officers are doing Mary a huge favour by eating the evidence, making her practically undiscoverable. What is also special about the story, is that in the very beginning, Mary Maloney is described as a weak woman, only devoted to her husband and submissively in love with him. The reader is completely shocked when she murders her husband.

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.

The author Roald Dahl proves in his short story "Lamb to Slaughter" that the protagonist Mary Maloney was judged to be the innocent wife who dearly loved her husband. Mary was moonstruck. Trailing the divorce that her husband wanted with her. "At the point, Mary Maloney simply walked behind him and without any pause, she swung the frozen leg of lamb high in the air and brought it down as hard as she could on the back of his head" (Dahl, 4). This shows that Mary Maloney isn't that Innocent, caring wife we all thought she was. Meanwhile the scene of Patrick Maloney's death, Mary Maloney was quick-witted. Admitting her husband was dead she, she tries to find a way to save herself. "You must be terribly hungry by now because it's been

One regular, normal evening or so they thought. Their problem is when Patrick arrives home he will not speak for unknown reasons, Mary Maloney starts to get worried about what she thinks she has done wrong. Soon after he gets home she tries fixing him a glass of water, and even his favorite meal, Lamb. When they were suppose to have dinner at a friends and cancelled. Everything begins to change, and Mary comes to the conclusion he is cheating on her, and he does not want to be with her anymore. So, the way she fixes this problem is by getting the lamb out of the freezer and, comes up behind him and knocks him out with the lamb.Her husband, Patrick is very vulnerable after she knocks him out. The blood the surrounded Patrick was very nasty, and unsightly to look at. When that happens she begins to make a plan. By this time she has the police come investigate the house. When, getting herself out of trouble by asking the police if the would like to stay for dinner while the confer about the investigation. Her way of planning to have the police come and investigate was very accurate. Mary had so much serenity about if the police would catch her or not. Mary Maloney was apprehensive about if the police would catch her or

‘’So what if i killed him, now he can't leave me but it was like he never left’’. They called her mary maloney, the innocent women that was NOT accused of manslaughter. In this story roald dahl manage to turn an innocent pregnant lady into a killer. Three major points were recognized from reading and watching this story, we begin with how patrick is leaving mary, better opportunities have come along, but in the book he only has something important to tell her. then we get straight to the point mary needs an alibi and you could say she's pretty smart in what she does, knowing her husband is a policeman she could get a few tricks up her sleeve. Finally investigation starts mary thinks very fast and smart, tricking the cops and being pregnant