Summary In Roald Dahl's Lamb To The Slaughter

To begin with, Mary and Patrick were well off and expecting a child together. Anyone who knew them before this vulgar incident would say they were happy. The defendant could not have foreseen Patrick’s infidelity. There was no motive for murder until that evening in which Patrick discussed with Mary the situation at hand. Patrick had assured Mary that he would give her money and see that she was looked after. He was attempting to make peace and make up for the damage he had done. What a good soul, one the selfish Mary Maloney took from us.

The short story, “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl, is about a pregnant wife whose husband comes home, and shares shocking news with Mary Maloney, his wife. Mary grabs a leg of lamb from the freezer and comes back and kills her husband, Patrick. The police come to investigate, but they eat the lamb that was used to kill Patrick. Dahl uses dramatic irony and symbolism to reveal common sense goes out the window when it comes to illegal matter.

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.

Traumatic news can lead to traumatic actions. In Roald Dahl’s ”Lamb to the Slaughter,” main character Mary Maloney is told very shocking new that causes her to overreact and kill her husband Patrick Maloney. Their blissful life turned upside down in a matter of five minutes. Mary was a great wife to Patrick. She loved him very much and is even carrying his child. Mary always catered to Patrick and was very loyal to him. Mary Maloney is a sympathetic character because she was very loving, compliant, and only lied to protect her baby.

Roald Dahl, a British novelist, offered his readers a classical short story, “ Lamb to the Slaughter,” with the tale of betrayal, justice, injustice and passivity. Two main characters of the story are detective Mr. Patrick and Ms. Patrick who live in small town. Roald Dahl tries to reflect human nature of perversity, and cruelty through the “ Lamb to the Slaughter”. As the story progresses, theme of love, passion, betrayal and injustice grow stronger. Author smartly shows us how an idle wife becomes a smart criminal to take the revenge of her betrayal and successes to trick officers.

In the short story Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl the husband that comes home early one day with bad news. He told his pregnant wife something. It was really shocking to her, and in the story it said that she got really sad. He then says that he would give her money and see that she is looked after. When she heard the news she went downstairs to the basement and got a frozen lamb to cook him. When she came up, he heard her and could tell that she wanted to make him supper. So he told her that he was going out so she doesn’t have to make it, but he said it in quite a rude manner and she seemed bothered by this because right after he said that she hit him in the head with the frozen lamb and he died. After she seen what she has done,

The first reason why I believe Mary is criminally responsible for her role in the murder of her husband is because of the way she manipulated the crime scene. Mary brutally murdered her husband with a frozen leg of lamb, an unusual choice in the first place. After committing the murder, and realizing what she had done, Mary leaves his body limp and lifeless on the floor, and goes upstairs to clean up, and make herself presentable. “All right, she told herself, So I’ve killed him.” (Dahl 382). This sudden realization shows that Mary knows what she’s done and comprehends the gravity of the situation. “Then she washed her hands and ran upstairs to the bedroom. She sat down

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.

man who had a bad and short temper “In a fit of anger, however, caused

Involuntary manslaughter is when someone unintentionally kills another person. This is a felony 3, however if factors are present it can be raised to a felony 2. This will be jail time. Based on the meaning of involuntary manslaughter does not matter in Mary’s killing because she did kill Patrick on purpose which is not Involuntary manslaughter. Now, Voluntary manslaughter is basically considered as killing someone in a “heat of passion” this means someone kills someone else on purpose because of passion which relates back to Mary. “And I know it’s kind of a bad time to be telling you, but there wasn’t any other way. Of course I’ll give you money and see you’re looked after,”(3). This shows that Mary has a passion and motif to kill her husband because he just said he wanted a divorce. Based on the facts, Mary did not accomplish involuntary murder, but it does seem she did commit voluntary

Roald Dahl’s short story Lamb to the Slaughter and Alfred Hitchcock’s rendition of the short story in the film Lamb to the Slaughter have similar framework , but contain many differences. Firstly, Both had Mary murder her husband with a frozen lamb. Furthermore, she was not actually discovered to be the murder for she had an alibi and the detectives ate the murder weapon. In contrast, Mary’s alibi in the story is that she went to the grocery store while in the movie it was that she had dinner plans. Additionally, Patrick’s problems with Mary conversation is up for interpretation. In the story the narrator takes the reader away from the action and simply states that he spoke to her. In Alfred Hitchcock’s film Patrick directly states that he

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 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.

expected them to be. From what I saw of the wife I expected Patrick to

In the short story Lamb to the Slaughter written by Roald Dahl the author shows us a different perspective to violence that is rarely used. The protagonist of the story is not necessarily a hero. The author wants us to understand that just because someone is the protagonist doesn’t mean they can’t be violent. They don’t need any hard-core training or even a real weapon! Anyone and everyone has the capability of being violent.