Mary Maloney In Roald Dahl's Lamb To The Slaughter

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury, the official definition of insanity is “mental illness of such a severe nature that a person cannot distinguish fantasy from reality, cannot conduct her/his affairs due to psychosis”.Mrs. Mary Maloney is guilty of having killed her husband who was an innocent man. She wasn’t crazy, or deluded just angry at Mr. Maloney for wanting to divorce her.

Insanity, by its dictionary definition, is the derangement of the mind. (Dictionary.com) It is used in everyday contexts, when people say “You are insane for doing that trick on your dirt bike ” or “ The traffic getting out of the game was insane last night!”. However the real definition, written by Cornell University Law School states that “A person accused of a crime can acknowledge that they committed the crime, but argue that they are not responsible for it because of their mental illness, by pleading "not guilty by reason of insanity." The insanity defense is traditionally classified as an excuse defense, in contrast with justification defenses like self-defense. This classification

She expects to be able to gut these boys that she kills and perform taxidermy on them to put up on display. This is the true definition of insanity. Doing something over and over again is the true definition of insanity. The landlady does exactly this and expects to get away with it. It proves that she is insane because to think that you could kill someone and get away with murder in the first degree is insane. Someone who commits murder, especially on boys who are not yet 20, have be insane. These boys have not even lived in their golden age. Depriving these boys and killing them is a cruel thing to do, but doing it 3 different times is just insane, as well as expecting the exact same thing to keep

The definition of insanity varies from state to state, and some states don’t even have the defense. Florida has codified the centuries-old “M’Naghten” test for determining whether a defendant was insane when the crime was committed. A person is insane when (1) he has a mental infirmity, disease, or defect. (2) Because of this condition (a) he didn’t know what he was doing or its consequences or (b) he did not know what he was doing was wrong.

An insane person would not comprehend that they were unstable. Only a rational person would realize that the brain is not functioning properly. An insane person doesn’t know they are irrational. The main characters continuously get mad at her husband, because "You see he does not believe I am sick,"(Perkins, 647). Her frustration with John proves that she was sane from the beginning.

Today in twenty first century, we still have reservations about the insanity defense. The problem is that it is still debatable whether one is insane or not. We have even created excuses for the sane to be “Temporarily Insane”, and such rulings are difficult to determine. In fact, as Gordon Witkn stated in his article What does it take to be crazy?,

In the story "lamb to the Slaughter" by Roald Dahl, Mary Maloney the story's protagonist, was identified as a dynamic character. In the beginning of the short story Mrs. Maloney seemed nice and caring, as the story goes on Mrs. Maloney becomes a complex character.

In the short story “Lamb to the Slaughter” Roald Dahl uses gloomy tone words and dramatic irony to show Mary Maloney's road from a sweet, loving housewife to an insane murder. Roald Dahl uses dramatic irony to show Mary Maloney’s deceptive nature. Towards the end of the story Mary Maloney has fully insane. After Mary Maloney has murdered her husband Patrick and the detectives are investigating her house, she exclaims “‘Please’ she begged ‘Personally I couldn’t eat a thing but it’d be a favor if you ate it up’”

It is essential to recognize that the meaning of insanity shifts depending on time and place. What this means is that insanity, is in part, situated. Despite social change in 19th century America, power contributed to women being admitted to state insane asylums. Those who are powerless “lack authority; lack a sense of self; those over whom power is exercised without their exercising it; the powerless are situated so that they must take orders and rarely have the right to give them; the powerless have little or no work autonomy, have no technical expertise or authority…and do not command respect. Powerlessness, [is thus a] status best described negatively (Young, 2003, 56, 57).

The perfect trophy wife is what every woman aspires to be: has a perfect smile, eager to please her husband, and would never do anything to bother him. Mary Maloney, the definition of a trophy wife to her detective husband Patrick, fit all of the qualifications in the short story “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl. Until, she murdered him in cold blood. Her rather emotionless husband is somewhat to blame however the sudden change in Mary’s judgement is the real reason Patrick ended up cold and dead on the dining room floor.

Insanity is an illness of the mind that comes naturally to some people, while for some it is an attribute that develops over time. There are many forces that can drive people to the brink of insanity, including stress, anxiety, depression, or love, or more specifically the lack thereof. In the play “A Streetcar Named Desire” by Tennessee Williams, a story is told of a woman who began as a kind, tender girl and is pushed to insanity by consequence of a misfortunate event and a failed romance.

Insanity is a severe mental illness that results in the misunderstanding of reality (Howes, 2009). Insanity is a condition that many people find difficult to understand. Therefore, it has the power to deceive others for specific purposes such as evasion and to avoid suspicion. In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the theme represented is the ambiguous and deceptive madness of Prince Hamlet of Denmark as a motive to avenge his father’s death. Hamlet, an impulsive and melancholic character, learns that his uncle, Claudius, has murdered his father, Old King Hamlet, to obtain the throne of Denmark and marry the deceased king’s widow, Gertrude. Consequently, Hamlet decides to feign madness to prove that Claudius has committed the cruel act of murdering

According to the Canadian Mental Health Association, 20% of Canadians will experience a mental illness in their lifetime. Mental illness is a serious issue within society which can hinder the lives of all who are affected by it. Insanity (or “madness” as it is called in Hamlet), is defined by google as a state of frenzied or chaotic activity. Madness is something which can be exploited by those who appear to suffer from it. The exploiting of insanity stems primarily from the criminal justice system, where a plea of insanity could potentially get a murderer a sentence of some time in the mental hospital instead of a life in prison.

First of all, it is important to have a clear definition of insanity. In the law this is stated as:

Mary Maloney just killed her husband Patrick. Patrick came back from work one night and seemed upset. Mary was offering him supper but he refused to eat. All of a sudden, Patrick said he wanted to divorce her. After Mary heard this news, she went to the freezer to get a leg of lamb. When she returned, Patrick thought that Mary was going to make supper, but she hit Patrick on the back of his head. Mary was thinking where she would put the lamb. She put it in the oven. She then left to go see the grocer, Sam, as a witness. Mary then returned back home, and pretended she was shocked and was heartfelt. The detectives came to her house and Mary offered them the lamb. The detectives ate it without knowing that is was the murder weapon used to kill