Mary Cloney In Roald Dahl's Lamb To Slaughter

In conclusion, Mary Maloney is caring, loyal and clever are accurate and are represented clearly in the story. This short story was interesting because of how this story went along with the plot, and conflicts. Also how Mary Maloney got away with murdering her husband without getting caught was a interesting ending that you would not expect because most story do not really end like this. After reading this story, these traits match Mary’s personality in the story very well, and all three go in order throughout this story. To sum this up these three traits do fit the character Mary Maloney.

The wife Mary Maloney was a devoted house wife at the beginning of the story. One example is that she had the whiskey ready for her husband right when he got home. Mary had it ready for him because she wanted him to be relaxed and calm. Another example is that she was extremely nice to him and really anxious. She kept asking him if he wanted another drink or if he wanted something to eat like a snack before they go

The police interrogated Mrs. Mary Maloney, Patrick Maloney’s six months pregnant wife. “Patrick had arrived from work, while I was sewing. He was so tired to go out for supper, so I went across the street to the grocery store to buy a few things for supper. I was there for no more than 10 minutes. When I came back home, I found my dear husband dead on the living room floor,” Maloney said when asked what happened the day Patrick Maloney died.

She cleverly and quickly thinks of and alibi by going grocery shopping immediately after the murder. While going grocery shopping, Mary Maloney still acts normal: “It wasn’t six o’clock yet and the lights were still on in the grocery shop. ‘Hullo Sam’, she said brightly smiling at the man behind the counter” (Dahl 14). She uses her knowledge on murders from her husband to create a good alibi and makes sure she has everything needed to create a good alibi like the time and normal facial expression, proving her intelligence. Furthermore, Mary Maloney is also intelligently able to completely get rid of the weapon she used to kill her husband by feeding the lamb to the police.

Mary replied saying “‘I’ll get it!’ she cried, jumping up, ‘Sit down,’ he said”. I think Mary Maloney didn’t necessarily need to be watching her husbands’ every move, she needed to relax in his presence and not be concerned for him. In this instance she flew out of her chair, I can’t comprehend why she needed to be on top of every one of his needs. Sure, Mary Maloney loved her husband – but there was no urgency to care for every single little thing he ever did or needed, especially at that moment. Mary needed to loosen up around Patrick and not be so star

Being seen as conventionally attractive can lead to a specious appearance of likability and trustworthiness. Expressions such as “it is the prettiest ones that break your heart” or “it is the ones you least expect that betray you” permeate conversations and shape perceptions. It seems that appearance plays a large role in the way people are initially perceived. This may seem unfair to those not genetically gifted, but it can be used to one’s advantage. As Stephen King put it, “the trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool.” Similarly in “Lamb to the Slaughter”, Roald Dahl asserts that the apparently innocent are often underestimated. Dahl expresses this through his portrayal of stony calmness with which Mary Maloney kills her husband and through the irony in her ingenuity covering it up.

It all starts off with Mary Maloney waiting for her husband to come home from work. Patrick works as a detective. As she prepares for Patrick to get off work, it states, “She merely wanted to satisfy herself that each minute that went

Mary Maloney is waiting at home for her husband, who she loves so much, to come home from work. When he gets home, he tells Mary some upsetting about wanting out of the relationship. Mary is very upset and confused by the news and reacts by killing her husband by striking him on the back of the head with a frozen leg of lamb. Mary is not guilty of first-degree murder, but instead suffers from diminished capacity. She does not commit first-degree murder because she does not premeditate the murder, she suffers from many overwhelming emotions causing her to not think clearly, and she is unable to determine right from wrong.

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

Have you ever wondered how it feels to be emotionally hurt? “Lamb of The Slaughter” by Roald Dahl was published in 1953. This story is about a husband and wife in which the husband wants a divorce. The wife begs to differ. In the story, Lamb of The Slaughter, Roald Dahl’s style can be describing as detailed and is developed through word choice, dialogue, and imagery.

Harper’s Publishing Magazine, 1953. ] This pivotal moment in the text shows her rollercoaster of emotions, the stark change from grief to calm. Her inner narration through the story where she tells herself that nothing is wrong shows her spiraling into insanity. And this can be shown at the end where “…in the other room, Mary Maloney began to laugh.”

Maloney now had to go through the stress of covering up the evidence that she murdered her husband. Mr. Maloney decided to call the friends that they were supposed to go out with and tell them that Mr. Maloney was awfully too tired to go out that night. She then went to the market to get peas and dessert and told the clerk the same statement she had mentioned to their friends. When she arrived home, and called the police in a frantic voice. When the cops arrived, Mrs. Maloney sobbed into the detective arms and asked if her husband was dead, then told him the story of going to the grocery store and coming back to find him on the floor dead and lifeless.

Maloney expresses how much she cares for her husband. She waits for him to get home from work, and literally counts down the minutes before she gets to see him again. Furthermore, a whole paragraph is devoted to Mary’s affections: “She loved to luxuriate in the presence of this man, and to feel – almost as a sunbather feels the sun – that warm male glow that came out of him when they were alone together. She loved him for the way he sat loosely in a chair, for the way he came in a door, or moved slowly across a room with long strides. She loved the intent, far look in his eyes when they rested on her, the funny shape of his mouth, and especially the way he remained silent about his tiredness, sitting still with himself until the whiskey had taken some of it off.” As you can see, Mrs. Maloney was totally and utterly infatuated with Mr. Maloney , which is shown through repetition – she started three sentences in a row with “she loved.” Alas, Mr. Maloney did not feel the same way, a fact painfully obvious to everyone but his wife. For example, Mary tries to dote on him – she tries to get him another drink, his slippers, and cheese and crackers. All of which he refuses. Mrs. Maloney also even tries to make him dinner. She says, “If you’re too tired to eat out, it’s still not too late. There’s plenty of meat and stuff in the freezer, and you can have it right here and not even move out of the chair.” He doesn’t say anything whatsoever to that: “her eyes waited

Throughout the entire story, Mary is a very interesting character. She faces many issues in dealing with her husband’s news that he is leaving her. She reacts based on her instincts and kills her husband and this shows her cold heartedness. In the end she has to create an alibi to cover up her devious crime in which she has to manipulate the police into eating the evidence. Mary is a very unique complex character and she has, through her actions conducted a devious crime in which she will be proven innocent. Through the use of Many Maloney’s character, as well as irony and suspense, the author was able to maintained the interest of the reader throughout the entire short story.

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