In the short story by Roald Dahl he has introduced us to the character Mary. She is a devoted housewife as she waits for him to come home. The author Dahl takes time to explain her care and love her husband Patrick. Her desire to have everything shows she is selfless, even though she is pregnant. In the beginning of the story, “On the cupboard behind her there were two glasses and some drinks”. This shows how devoted she is as she waits for her husband to come back from work. When her husband, Patrick comes from work she treats him with love and kindness. “She stood up and went forward to kiss him as he entered”. Mary is also six months with child and for being pregnant, she is quite peaceful as people know women who are expecting children …show more content…
It’s not until the point when Mary gets terrified as quote “It wasn’t until then that she began to get frightened”. He begins to tell her the news and with she listened with puzzle horror eyes. As the reader we do not know what they Patrick had said to Mary but she pretended as nothing happen and decide to make supper but as she went to get the leg of the lamb, she had swung the leg on top of Patrick’s head and brought it down as hard as she can. As quickly as she did it, she had realized she had killed him. “All right, she told herself. So I’ve killed him”. Later she has began thinking about what would happen to her and her unborn child? “On the other hand, what about the baby. What were the laws about murderers with unborn children?” She begins to set up an alibi and starts to rehearsal so when the police come they won’t suspect her. After coming back from the store, she “finds” the body of her beloved husband on the ground dead and calls the police. Later as the story ends the police man are discussing what the possible murder weapon and says “It’s probably right under our noses. What do you think, Jack?” Mary laughs as she had fed them the murder
In “Lamb to Slaughter” it shows how life was like before she killed Patrick and what she does before he comes home.The police show up at Mary’s door but don’t really suspect her at all,they don’t because she went
The impact to his skull left Patrick dead, not to mention Mary a murderer. Consequently, Mary was completely fine with facing the death penalty, to her, a life husbandless was not a life she could bear to live. Oh no! Her child, her unborn, innocent baby should never be forced to suffer for her crimes. Once again forced to act quickly, Mary Maloney shoved the leg of lamb into the oven, afterwards she traveled to the local grocery to buy potatoes and a can of peas (more probably to give herself an alibi).
Taking no more than 5 minutes, Patrick is very nonchalant about the situation that devastates Mary. Mary “[cant] feel her feet touching the ground” as she absentmindedly goes downstairs to get meat for supper (Dahl 2). She doesn’t fully become angry with Patrick’s news until she comes back upstairs to see Patrick's back turned to her as he looked out the window. Overwhelmed with anger, Mary swings the frozen meat, (a lamb’s leg), “ high in the air and [brings] it down as hard as she [can] on the back of his head” (Dahl 2). After seeing Patrick's body crash to the ground, Mary realizes what she has done, but looking at his dead body, Mary is very nonchalant. She is so removed from the situation that all she can think to herself is “ Alright...So I’ve killed him.” (Dahl 2). Unsure of what will happen to her unborn child if she is convicted, Mary prepares herself to go out to the grocer for food, giving her an alibi for her husbands time of
Mary Maloney was six months pregnant which could have maybe swayed her mental state. She also loved her husband so much to the point where she wouldn’t even think of leaving him. So when Patrick told her how he feels of course she would be shocked by the news. Don’t forget, she was also with child when the whole ordeal went down. As she stated, she was nauseous and lightheaded when she pulled the lamb leg from the freezer. Since she couldn’t make him stay what else was she to do in her dazed
It didn’t take long, four or five minutes at the most, and she sat still though it all, watching him with puzzled horror.” Mary was pregnant and had all these hormones going through her, I don’t think she meant to kill her husband she was just very shocked and didn’t like what he said to her. In conclusion, these stories have thing in common like they both had they’re heart broken by their
Addition a story “lamb to the slaughter” by Dahl, mary wanted her husband to love her as much as
One reason why Mary Maloney is guilty is through premeditating and intentionally killing her husband. According to the Legal Information Institute (Cornell University), premeditation is the beforehand thought process before acting upon something. However, there is no time frame set for how long the thought process must occur in order to be considered as premeditation. This can be applied when after hearing the terrible news her husband had for her, Mary’s once cheerful thoughts quickly died down and her entire attitude changed as a whole. At this moment in the text, “She couldn’t feel anything at all-- except a slight nausea and a desire to vomit. Everything was automatic now--”(Dahl 381). During this state of shock,
In the beginning of “Lamb to the Slaughter” we meet Mary Maloney a devoted housewife to her husband, whom her whole world revolves around. However, as Dahl’s story progresses, we interpret that Patrick Maloney is unhappy in his marriage and he confesses that he is leaving Mary. The confession causes Mary’s whole universe to collapse around her because her sole purpose as a housewife is now obsolete as she does not have a husband to cook dinner for. The shock of the news causes Mary to do everything without thinking that “everything was automatic now” (Dahl 40) therefore, she approached Patrick without thinking of the consequences of her actions, as she didn’t even hesitate to kill her own husband. In this moment, we detect a significant change in Mary’s character, we observed an act of violence from Mary that wasn’t expected of her to commit. She conceives of her own alibi to conceal the murder by going to the grocer and coming back to find her husband deceased, this shows her skills of careful deception to make sure no one suspected her of the crime. The submissive and kind housewife is the facade that Mary puts up to deceive the detectives in order persuade the detectives to get rid of the murder weapon for her without them realizing it. In the course of the story, Mary goes from being solely dependent
In her early life, Mary had moved from place in Britain, due to her father’s unsuccessful attempts to become a noble farmer. Doing so he squandered much of his inheritance and wealth. Her father was a drunk, and often times would attack Mary’s mother in a drunken fit of rage. Mary often had to protect
Roald Dahl’s “Lamb to the Slaughter” utilizes satire and humor to critique domesticity and the life of a housewife. His use of detail and perspective allows us to view the eager, submissive, and anxious housewife, Mary Maloney. These traits are evident when she glanced at the clock again and again, waiting for her husband, “she merely wanted to satisfy herself that each minute that went by made it nearer to the time when he would come home” (Dahl 1). The exaggeration and descriptive imagery humorously depicts Mary Maloney as a submissive housewife, eager to please her husband in any way. The story satirizes domesticity by portraying an obsessive wife, Mary, who sits like a dog waiting to greet her husband at the door, fetching a drink for him like a toy, crying “I’ll get it” as she jumps out of her chair, and gazing at him “all the time with large, puzzled
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
Elizabeth Piedmont-Marton, British Children’s writer, argues that it is not clear why Mary Maloney “grasps it like a weapon rather than a piece of food” in the first place (Piedmont-Marton). The reader is left wondering on Mary’s mental state of mind and her true nature. There seems to be a secret killer in Mary that is no longer kept hidden. After coming to a realization of what she has done, Mary Maloney begins to conjure a solid alibi. Of course, being the wife of a police detective she knew the punishment for murder. The one thing that crosses her mind again and again is her unborn
Lastly, Mary shows remorse when she walks in and sees her husband's dead body after going to the store. She was able to show emotion at the sight of her husband lying in the floor, showing that she knew that she murdered him and was fully aware of her actions. She cries and is sad because she really did love him, but her anger got the best of her, and she murdered him in the heat of the moment. “All the old love and longing welled up inside her, and she ran over to him, knelt down beside him, and
The peaceful, happy tone in the beginning quickly changes as Mary is told something no women would ever want to hear. Patrick had some unpleasant news to tell Mary and she didn’t know what was to come, so she tried making him dinner to please him. He had Mary stop attempting to make him dinner so she could listen to him. Although it didn’t mention in the story what he told her, it can be inferred that he told her that he cheated on her or that he wants a divorce. She watched him with “horror” as she was processing what he had said. She tried to imagine as if she didn’t hear him so it wouldn’t become her reality. The only person she ever loved and wanted to please more than anything betrayed and backstabbed her.
On his way to the Bell and Dragon Billy stumbles upon a small hotel for an extremely cheap price. When he goes in he discovers a room is already ready for him. Is this just a stroke of luck, or is there a darker purpose behind this seemingly innocent hotel. In the short story Landlady by Roald Dahl you follow Billy on his adventure through Bath England. In the beginning Billy is searching for a place to stay when he stumbles across a very cheap one. This hotel has great service and prices. However Billy soon finds out that this place and the woman who run it aren't always what they seem.