A Betrayal of Trust “Years of love have been forgot in the hatred of a minute.” -Edgar Allan Poe (goodmorningquote). Patrick and Mary Maloney were a happy couple that lived the ideal middle-class suburban life. That is until a confession of betrayal destroyed their lives together and ended the life of one. Roald Dahl builds literary elements in "Lamb to the Slaughter" to demonstrate unpredictable behavior often follows feelings of betrayal. The central idea of the story is built on: plot, characterization, and conflict. Once Patrick had broken the news to Mary, she didn’t immediately react. In the rising action she continued to move on with her routine, cooking dinner. After, the bewilderment wore off; she snapped. “Without any pause she …show more content…
swung the big frozen leg of lamb high in the air and brought it down as hard as she could on the back of his head” (Dahl, 42). However, her actions didn’t put her in a state of panic, but a sense of tranquility. As mentioned in the text, “It was extraordinary, now, how clear her mind became all of a sudden” (Dahl, 47). She was no longer overwhelmed with the stress of how a divorce would affect her social acceptance. Nor did she have to deal with the fact, that Patrick chose to leave her. These plot points align perfectly with the central idea of betrayal. In the light of Mary’s hurt what is the conflict of the story? It is well established that the initial conflict is man versus man. From the moment Patrick arrives, we feel the mood shift and tensions rise in the home. “He had now become absolutely motionless, and he kept his head down so that the light from the lamp beside him fell across the upper part of his face, leaving the chin and mouth in shadow. She noticed there was a little muscle moving near the corner of his left eye” (Dahl, 32). Patrick is painted as the antagonist of this story to create conflict. However, I believe that the true conflict of the story is man versus self. You may argue that Mary killed Patrick since he was leaving her. Was this a motive to kill? Yes, this sets the chain of events in action. The actual killing took place because Mary didn’t know how to cope with her feelings. These being anger, sadness, and loss of the one you trust and love to the highest degree. This is evident in the reading, “Her first instinct was not to believe any of it, to reject it all” (Dahl, 36). I believe this is due to her character type. These views on conflict let us hone in on the irrationalities of betrayal. Which brings us to character development and characterization.
There was minimal character development; just enough for the story to work. Thus, all the characters were static and flat except Mary Maloney. I’d classify her as static, but also rounded. Her overall character never changed. Mary was the picture perfect housewife of the fifties. Stay at home, do the chores, prepare meals, and gladly greet your husband as he returns from a long day of work. Even though it is later a tool of deceit, she kept up her “perfect” persona. Demonstrated in almost all her actions. One example of this behavior is found in paragraph 116 “ ‘good friends of dear Patrick’ you must be terribly hungry, and I know Patrick would never forgive me, God bless his soul, if I allowed you to remain in his house without offering you decent hospitality” (Dahl). Due to her ability to surprise the audience with her choices, Mary is a round character. Such as killing Patrick, then hiding the fact once she had realized what she had done. According to the reading, “Mary Maloney began to giggle [at her ability to fool the detectives]” (Dahl, 130). Some may see this as a sign of wickedness, since Mary is taking joy in her wrongdoings. I discern the contrary, because of Dahl’s diction; in choosing “giggle’’ he paints a picture of innocence. Which is more fitting for the superb housewife Mary is portrayed as. Once readers see Mary the way Dahl intended, they can see the betrayal brings out our darkest sides of the brightest
people. Overall Roald Dahl was successful in creating a story that clearly represents the trials and tribulations of betrayal. I believe he was wise to have erratic actions follow — the worst type of betrayal — an infidelity. By doing so he allowed himself to show a more significant pain that would manifest itself into a greater hatred. A hate that readers would see as incredibly powerful coming from the loving housewife Mary. As Sherrilyn Kenyon said, “Everyone suffers at least one bad betrayal in their lifetime. It’s what unites us”(goodmorningquote). Work Cited Dahl, Roald. “Lamb to the Slaughter.” CommonLit, www.commonlit.org/texts/lamb-to-the-slaughter. “29 Friendship and Life Betrayal Quotes with Images.” Good Morning Quote, 7 Oct. 2017, www.goodmorningquote.com/betrayal-quotes/.
Patrick would go home and ignore her when all she wanted to do was make sure he wasn’t hungry. Mary was so in love with him she would wait on the couch because she was anxious to see her husband. She was a very loving wife and would do anything for her
Patrick’s muscle tightens as hear Mary coming closer to him. Is she suspecting something? He thought nervously, what should I do now? What should I say? He was lost in his thoughts when Mary walked up behind him and swung the big frozen leg of lamb on the back of his head. Patrick’s vision suddenly when darken and t-- to the ground with the sounds of overturning tables and crashing
To illustrate, in the author’s words, “Why don’t you eat up that lamb that’s in the oven?” (Dahl, p. 324) In this quote the author proposes that Mary deceived the detectives into eating the murder weapon. This quote models the author’s use of character development as Mary went from the beginning of being good-natured and honest to deceitful. This brings the immoral evolution of Mary out. Moreover, the author plainly asserts, “And in the other room, Mary Maloney began to giggle.” (Dahl, p. 324) In this quote, the author describes how Mary laughed as the detectives ate the murder weapon. This quote reminds the reader that Mary is now “innocent” in a different sense than she was in the beginning of the story. “Perfect”, unaware, self-sacrificing, wife Mary is gone. Revealed to the readers is wicked, manipulative murderer
All of Roald Dahl’s stories seem to be brimfull of irony and wry humor, and “Lamb to the Slaughter” is no different. Mary Maloney, a pregnant, but cheerful woman is very much in love with her husband and we certainly don’t expect her to be of any trouble. It’s shocking enough to learn that her husband, who seems such a nice guy, is cheating on her and plans to move out. This changes the expectation of the story right off the bat, and we feel a compassion for the poor woman. We’re not sure how she’s going to cope with this news, especially since she’s six months pregnant with his child. So when she acts rather compulsively and strikes him over the head with the leg of lamb that was going to be his supper, we really are shocked. She’s acted
After she heard the news she convinces herself that he (Patrick) is still alive, she also speaks to herself/ practices her speaking to sound ‘normal’, and it shows how she felt about getting away with it. Mary Maloney was over tasked with the keeping of the house and being a doting wife to her husband, all she had going in her life was looking after her husband. Mary only wanted to be there for her husband, wanting to be with him no matter the problems they might have. Mary refused to see that her relationship was in rambles. To make her husband happy she took on as many tasks she could, along with keeping their marriage together as it was slowly falling apart. “Insanity is often the logic of an accurate mind overtasked”. (Oliver Wendell Holmes,
In “Lamb to the Slaughter,” Dahl highlights how the the truth is closer than you think. Mary Maloney is reactive when she finds out her husband wants to put an end to their marriage. After she finds
Near the middle of the story we see Mary exhibit her bad sinister character; her personality and feelings suddenly change when she murders her own husband by hitting him at the back of the head with a frozen lamb leg. After denying all of Mary’s helpful deeds, Patrick told her to sit down so that he can tell her something serious; the story doesn’t tell us what he says to her but Mary suddenly changes after he tells her something, her “instinct was not to believe any of it” (Dahl 2). She just responded with “I’ll get the supper” (Dahl 2) and felt nothing of her body except for nausea and a desire to vomit. She went down the cellar, opened the freezer, grabbed a frozen leg of lamb, went back upstairs, came behind Patrick, and swung the big leg of lamb as hard as she could to the back of his head killing him. This act of sudden violence shows how much she has gone ...
As the story opens, Dahl introduces the characters of Mary and Patrick as a seemingly normal loving couple. Mary, a housewife, waits eagerly as the hour approaches for Patrick to come home from work. She is described as “placid” and “tranquil” as she caters to his every whim, preparing his drink and hanging up his coat (317). Mary thinks quietly about this “blissful time of day,” where she is “content to sit quietly enjoying his company after the long hours in the house” (318). Dahl writes of Mary’s love and almost complete adulation of her husband, “She loved to luxuriate in the presence of this man, and to feel-almost as a sunbather feels the sun-that warm male glow that came out of him to her when they were
Our first primary statement is about her emotions. At first we see that Ms. Maloney is a wonderful, kind, and a: “ curiously peaceful “ ( Dahl 1 ), person who takes care of her husband Patrick, no matter what happens to her as long as her husband is happy. However after hearing the news from her husband that he wanted a divorce, she started becoming darker, and cold throughout the story. Some examples include: “ All right, she told herself. So I’ve killed him “ ( Dahl 3 ), as well as “ In the other room Mary Maloney began to giggle “ ( Dahl 5 ). This Statement
One of Dahl’s most prominent styles used to highlight betrayal throughout the story is point of view. The point of view of the story is told in is third-person limited, meaning the reader only gets to read the thoughts of one character. That character was Mary Maloney, the main character and wife of Patrick Maloney. Hearing only one characters view of events can make readers opinions biased, meaning the feelings they feel towards characters are from the influence of Mary Maloney. The readers do not know what Patrick Maloney is thinking so it is hard for readers to sympathize him in the beginning of the story when he tells Mary he wants a divorce (Dahl). As one critic stated, readers are unable to see into his mind, he is immediately marked as the antagonist (Bertonneau). Another critic believed that having no knowledge of his motives made his actions seem inexcusable.
When the police arrived they try to understand and figure out how Patrick has been killed. But unluckily the officers can not notice Mrs. Maloney was the killer. At the end of the book Mary Maloney giggles when the officers said, “Probably right under our very noses. What you think, Jack?” (Dahl 18). Throughout the beginning, Mary Maloney seemed like a nice caring wife but what Patrick said caused her to do a crime. At that point, Mary knew she got away she eliminated the evidence and managed to escape. Mary laughing shows readers that the killing of her husband was not important to her at all. Therefore the theme of this story is to not trust everybody.
She waits for Patrick to come home all day, even saying,” ...she glanced at the clock...she merely wanted to satisfy herself that each minute that went by made it nearer the time when he would come home,”(Dahl 1) and she is ecstatic when he finally comes home from work. Her mood shifts when he constantly refuses her kindness and proceeds to tell her that they were getting a divorce. He didn’t even give her a choice in the matter, he basically told her this is what we are doing, like it or not even saying,”but there really shouldn’t be any problem. I hope not, in any case. It wouldn’t be very good for my job” (Dahl 2). After she hears this news, Mary basically goes into autopilot mode. She goes down to the freezer, gets a big leg of lamb, and walks toward him in the living room. Without thinking, she,”... simply walked up behind him and without any pause, she swung the big frozen leg of lamb high in the air and brought it down as hard as she could on the back of his head”(Dahl 2). She acted without thinking and acted irashionaly out of anger and
When Patrick gets home from work, exhausted, she tries to tend to his every need. After Patrick told her how exhausted he was, she offers to cancel dinner plans to appeal to him by saying, “‘If you’re too tired to eat out tonight, as we had planned, I can fix you something. There’s plenty of meat and stuff in the freezer’” (Dahl 1). This caring tone is completely absent when the police arrive to investigate. In order to get rid of the murder weapon, a leg of lamb, Mary offers it to the policemen as token of thanks, persuading them by stating, “‘Personally, I couldn’t eat a thing, but it’d be a favor to me if you ate it up. Then you can go on with your work’” (Dahl 4). She goes from tending to Patrick’s every need to pretending to be too distressed to eat as to trick the officers into getting rid of the
In the story “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl, we are introduced to Mary Maloney, who serves as our protagonist. Mary initially appears to be a devoted, seemingly traditional, caring wife, eagerly awaiting her husband's return home from work. However, as the story progresses, we witness a drastic shift in her character as she responds to news she isn’t ready to hear with a shocking act of violence. Through Mary's character, Dahl includes themes of deception, betrayal, and the unpredictable nature of human behavior. At the beginning of this story, Mrs. Mary Maloney is sewing while waiting for her husband to return from work, there are many ways to describe Mary like, “There was a slow smiling air about her, and about everything she did”.
Roald Dahl in “Lamb of the Slaughter” develops Mary Maloney’s character as a very loving wife into an intelligent and manipulative widow. Mary in the beginning of the passage was waiting for her beloved husband to get home after a long day of work. Once he walks in the door she welcomes him with a kiss, takes his coat, and accompanies his hand with a drink. He didn’t feel like going out to eat because he was about to fill her with bad news. After Mary’s husband tells her that he wants to leave her, automatically she cracks from normal cheery wife to manipulative, intelligent, maniac. Being a good wife she goes to the freezer to find something to cook for dinner, finding a leg of lamb. Without much thought because it was replaced with anger