Desperation In Roald Dahl's Lamb To The Slaughter

Mary’s Acts of Despair

Desperation is a state of despair,where someone will act in an extreme way. These extreme behaviours can lead to actions that cannot be taken back. In Roald Dahl’s “Lamb to the Slaughter” Mary is a kind and loving person before she is in a state of desperation. Mary’s actions are an example of how desperation can transform people forever. Mary is kind and loves her husband very deeply. Mary’s love for her husband is displayed when “ Mary Maloney was waiting for her husband to come home from work. Now and again she would glance up at the clock, but without anxiety, merely to please herself with the thought that each minute gone by making it nearer the time that he would come.”(Dahl 10) Mary loves Patrick very much and

means him no harm, but when she is six months pregnant and her husband's leaving her, Mary’s personality completely changes. In her state of despair, she killed Patrick and this puts her into a position where she was desperate this changes her and turns her into a calculated liar. She first shows signs of this when she is reporting her husband's death to the police and gave false information “ ‘Who’s speaking?’ ‘Mrs. Maloney. Mrs. Patrick Maloney.’ ‘You mean you think he’s dead?’ ‘I think so’, she sobbed. ‘He’s lying on the floor and I think he’s dead.’”(15) She purposely lies to the police in order to lead everyone into thinking that she is innocent. Mary does things she would not have normally done if she was not desperate. Before this had happened, she had loved her husband and would have never wished harm unto him but because of the situation she was in she not only killed her husband, but covered it up which proves the life altering effects of people who are desperate.