Molony: A Fictional Narrative

What happens when a pregnant woman kills her own husband? The short story titled “Lamb to the Slaughter” follows the story of the pregnant woman, Mary Maloney, and her husband Patrick. The story begins when Patrick decides to end his marriage. Out of anger and shock, Mary kills Patrick by hitting him on the back of the head with a leg of lamb. Instead of confessing to the murder, Mary Maloney lies about what she did and tricks the officers into eating the leg of lamb, effectively destroying any remaining evidence of the murder. The theme of “Lamb to the Slaughter” is deception. Both the original written work by Roald Dahl and the film adaptation use irony throughout the story to display this theme. Although both formats are presenting the same story and the same overarching theme, there are subtle differences between the film and the written version. The written piece by Dahl is presented in chronological order, while the film version uses Mary’s flashbacks to tell the story. In addition to this difference, Mary is depicted as a more selfless person in the film, and her motives for killing Patrick are less clear to a reader in the written version.

Mary Maloney is a loving and caring 1950’s housewife who loves her husband through everything, but something changed with her on that fateful day. On that day Mary changes her loving ways into a conniving and irrational person. In the story “Lamb to the Slaughter” Mary Maloney is going about her day and comes home from the grocery store and “claiming” she had no idea what had happened to her poor husband. Even if someone acts normal like nothing has happened they might just be guilty under that facade. In the case of Mary Maloney, after she retrieves bad news from her husband she goes and retrieves a frozen leg of lamb, and sneaks up behind her husband and hits him on the head killing him where he stood. Mary Maloney is a conniving criminal who was fully aware and responsible for her actions after the murder.

Mary does not have a plan beforehand to murder her husband. In the story, she is planning on going out for dinner with her husband like they normally do on Thursdays. Mary says, “I haven’t made any supper because it’s Thursday” (Dahl 2). This shows that Mary is not planning on murdering her husband, but instead is planning to have a normal Thursday night dinner at a restaurant away from her house where the murder occurred. After, it is decided they would stay home for dinner because Patrick does not want to go out. Thus, Mary grabs the leg of lamb for dinner. “All-right then, they would have lamb for supper” (3). This clearly shows that Mary is planning to make the lamb for both her and her husband and not just her, because the pronoun the narrator used was “they.” She is not planning to use the leg of lamb as a murder weapon, but rather as food. Finally,

“No I’m brushing my teeth first.” Steve said and Bucky nodded and went back to the couch When Steve came out he frowned.

Mac left before the Sheriff or anyone else got to the center as he wanted to see how passable the trail was and if he could take the any vehicles up the hill. It was the smallest vehicle they had and it might make it. In several places, the trail wasn’t wide enough to take the quad so he gave up the quad and walked up. The distance to the site Jackie described wasn’t far.

“ I had a good reason to kill him though. He was gonna leave me after he got me pregnant and I would have had to take care of her by myself. So i went downstairs to the freezer and got a frozen leg of lamb. I came up behind him with one good whack and he was dead. I went to the store, came back home, and fed the lamb leg to the police so they couldn’t find the weapon. They said it was probably right under their noses and they heard me laugh in the other room and i gave up acting and told the truth.” Mary said sadly.

Dahl writes, “She did everything without thinking” (2). By using the lamb, Mary “hit [Patrick]” which she finally realizes “[she’s] killed [Patrick] (2). Even though she does not know what she is actually doing, it is true that she has committed a crime. Based on the standard of common morality, the things Mary does are not to be judged righteous. Whereas, the author uses one paragraph to depict Mary’s detailed thoughts after she realizes she kills her husband. Dahl writes, “What were the laws about murderers with unborn children? Did they kill them both—mother and child? (2)”. Although she “didn’t know” and “wasn’t prepared to take a chance”, Mary Maloney decides to protect her unborn baby (2). Mary “practiced [her smile and words] several times more” and “went out” to “the neighborhood grocery” (2). After she comes back home and calls the police, Mary offers the colleagues of Patrick to “eat up the lamb in the oven” (4). The author highlights Mary’s inner thoughts which allows the readers to know what Mary is thinking as a role of mother. Dahl means to build a connection between Mary and the readers by drawing the readers’ attention to Mary. It provides a background to create an alibi and as well as to conceal the truth of Patrick’s death by cooking the weapon. Therefore, the author reveals the reason why Mary wants to hide her crime. Just like Mary is comforting herself for what she has done, it is not only for herself but

Mackinney jumped from table to table like a frog chasing a fly. His version of impressing a woman was by making a grand first impression, even though it never worked. He drifted by Einar, smirking as he pointed to his target with a wink of his eye. He reminded Einar of a headless chicken searching for its feathery head. He propped his arm on the table, rested his face in his hand, and groaned.

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.

After killing her husband Mary develops an act that makes the detectives believe that she had no part in her husband’s sudden death. To bury the evidence of her crime, Mary decides to feed the detectives dinner, which just so happens to be the leg of lamb that she used to kill her husband. Her ability to plan the ‘perfect murder’ and her mischievous ‘giggle’ at the end of the story, suggested that there is a darker side to human nature and that even the most perfect people have something to hide.

so he went to the back of the store to get it, and I was going to stop him but he was already running back there,I didn’t think any harm could come from it. I will never forgive myself.

We all went to an arcade that was super fun. Not once did Rebecca look at me. Probably going to make up some rumor about me and tell everyone.

With booming triumph, Slendy bust through to window in which he heard the sounds of agony. Greeted by the sight of a woman held at knife point, Slendy knocked the knife out of the man’s hand and threw him out of the window. After doing so, he looked at the woman, who now was trembling in fear, and camly reached his arm out for a hug. She didn’t know what this 7 foot completely white creature was doing trying to hug her. She let out the most scorching scream he had ever heard. Bolting down the stairs, the woman was now sobbing in the intensity of the situation. Slendly was sad. Nobody ever gives him credit for his incredible work as a superhero. They’re all focused on the fact that he is a giant 7 foot monster who isn’t even human. It wasn’t

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

The night of his death, Mary began her plan by pouring him a strong drink. This, she did to disorient him. Everything is going as planned. Then, Patrick confesses that he is leaving her, Of course, Mary already knew this. This was the motive for the brutal murder. Still acting, Mary said, “We can have lamb.”