Essay On Mary Maloney Lamb To The Slaughter

Final Draft of “Lamb to the Slaughter” Essay

A pregnant woman has recently killed her husband with a leg of lamb. Mary Maloney went mad when her husband told her that he was going to leave Mary and their unborn child behind. For that reason Mary found a leg of lamb, snuck behind her husband and swung it like a baseball bat against the back of his head. Some people say that she killed her husband by reason of insanity. Others say that she did not commit this crime. I choose to defend Mrs. Maloney by reason of insanity.

Before Mrs. Maloney was confronted by her husband with shocking news, she loved him and offered to help him whenever she could. Mary was always looking forward to seeing her husband come home and enjoying his company. She loved how he came through the door from work and how he kept quiet about his tiredness. Usually a pregnant woman killing her husband is no accident, but this particular case is strange because, at first she loved her husband and all of a sudden she kills him. This observation supports Mary Maloney’s temporal case of insanity because at first she loved her husband, Patrick, and then she assassinates him.

Immediately after Mary’s husband came home, he started acting strange.

As soon as Patrick came home, Mary gave him a glass of whiskey. Patrick finished his glass in one swallow. Mary saw Patrick going to fetch himself another and offered to bring , but Patrick told her to sit down. Mrs. Maloney also offered to bring him his slippers but Patrick instantly turned down the offer. She also tried starting a conversation, offering cheese and crackers, and asking if he wanted her to make dinner but he continued to refuse Mary’s offers. This examination supports my opinion because seeing Patrick acting strange made Mary curious. Refusing all that Mary tried to provide and ignoring her remarks made Mary question his every move and feel

vulnerable.

Soon, if not right after Patrick told Mary he wanted a divorce, Mary murdered him. Mary began to feel frightened after Patrick told her to sit down. Mrs. Maloney began to notice every motion that Patrick made and she could tell he was afraid too. With the light of a lamp covering half of his face, Patrick told Mar that he no longer wanted to be with her. Mary didn’t take long to react, she sat very through it all watching him with a dazed look on her face. Mrs. Maloney wanted to pretend that nothing happened so she went to go make dinner. She grabbed the first thing she saw in the freezer, a leg of lamb. Patrick told Mary that he was going and to not bother making dinner. Insanity began to trigger inside of Mary, so she grabbed the leg of lamb and swung it against the back of Patrick’s head, killing him.

At the time of the murder, Mary felt angry and all that anger built up inside finally bursted out of her. She was angry and disappointed, she had to do something about it to make all that anger and pain go away. Afterward, she went on with her daily routine by going to the grocer. When she got back she sobbed at the husband’s body. She did all this so she could cover up her tracks and have a story to tell the police. This observation supports Mary Maloney’s insanity because of the realization that she took things way too far and felt bad about killing her husband.

In my opinion, Mary killed her husband in a fit of rage brought on by temporal insanity. She was overcome by the fact of her husband leaving her. Mrs. Maloney was blinded by her anger, she didn’t intentionally kill her husband. This crime was not premeditated, Mary just happened to “snap”. I think Mrs. Maloney didn’t intend to kill Patrick because she immediately felt sorry about climactic incident and tried to convince herself that it didn’t happen. Mrs Mary Maloney is guilty by reason of insanity.