Lamb To The Slaughter Mary Maloney

In a stressful situation, a crucial decision can lead to spontaneous life alternations and changes of opinions. In fact, Mary Maloney in Roald Dahl's Lamb To The Slaughter is a dynamic character who is first shown as a warm, loving, caring, housewife but turns into a devious, cold hearted, and a cunning person. She illustrates that feelings and emotions have a strong effect in situations. Mary Maloney is a typical 19th century housewife for many reasons.
Mary lives on stability, routine, and is always trying to please her husband Patrick by being the best housewife she could be. She loves his company right when he comes home from work, she "was content to sit quietly enjoying his company’ (Dahl pg. 11). Mary waits for her husband to

return from work every day. She was in love with Patrick which is why she always prepares him a drink when he comes home from a hard day at work. When Patrick comes home, he has a “sideboard behind her [with] two tall glasses, soda water, [and] whisky. Fresh ice cubes in the Thermos bucket" (Dahl pg. 13). At this point in the story, Mary seems to be a wonderful wife.
Mary develops into a very different character as the events of this short story unfold. After Patrick told her the new, she “couldn’t feel her feet touching the floor. She couldn't feel anything at all-except a slight nausea and a desire to vomit" (Dahl pg. 13). She could not handle being rejected which caused her to freak out and act solely based on how she was feeling. At this point, she was in total shock. Mary reacted on anger and betrayal; she toke the leg and lamb and smashed it on her husband skull, killing him. "At that point, Mary Maloney simply walks 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 pg.13). Mary acted impulsively and as a result, Mary’s character transform in seconds. The loving, dutiful housewife showed the cold hearted aspect of her character. Mary is also a devious person because she created an alibi for herself after murdering her husband in cold blood. She wanted everything to seem normal and that no one could see that she has changed. Before going to the grocery “she sat down before the mirror, tidied her hair, touched up her lips and face. She tried a smile. It came out rather peculiar. She tried again" (Dahl pg. 14). Mary was now thinking very clearly in that she knew she needed to cover her tracks, a sign that shows she is clever.
Besides the fact that Mary is cold hearted and devious, she also cunning and quick-witted for many reasons. When the police officers came to her house, she knew exactly what to do. Marry was very intelligent and offered the police officers whisky which would make them less alert and make it more difficult for them to catch the killer. One of many police officers, Noonan, was asking Mary questions. She said, "Why don't have one yourself, you must be awfully tired. Please do. You've been very good to me" (Dahl pg.17). Not only was she able to convince them to drink, she also encouraged them to eat the evidence, the leg of lamb. Surprisingly they actually ate it. Mary Maloney convinced the police officers to blindly eat the murder weapon that they were so eager to find. One of the many officers was not sure if they should finish it, but Noonan replied " she wants us to finish it. She said so. Be doing her a favour" (Dahl pg. 18). Lastly, she

got them to feel sorry for her. In making them feel that way, it disposes any suspension that could relate back to her being a possibility that she killed Patrick. A woman who seemed quite unintelligent in the beginning of the story, has got away with murder and tricking the police, at this point Mary has proven that she can be independent and cunning, rather than a housewife who solely depends on her husband.
In the story, Mary is portrayed as if she does not have the ability to understand and interoperate her feelings and emotions.

However, she illustrates that feelings and emotions have a strong effect in situations. Emotions will drive the decisions one makes and one will respond by the feelings going though their body, what many people refer to as a "gut feeling". In this short story, Mary Maloney's gut feeling was to swing a leg of lamb at Patrick, but later on she feels remorse for her actions. When she killed Patrick, after she came back from the grocers, she pretended to find Patrick dead on the floor. She had to act like he was not laying there when she had left, therefore she had acted if she was surprised, terrified, and sad which she did not have to do, "it was easy. No acting was necessary" (Dahl pg. 13). In the middle of the story, Mary has lost her mind. Her emotions of betrayal, revenge, sadness have triggered her to be unemotional. As the police officers are at hard work to find the killer, she laughs at them. Her laughter at the end shows her mental incapability of dealing with what she has done .While the officers are discussing about their case, “in the other room, Mary Maloney begins to giggle “(Dahl pg.18). Mary acts aggressively and impulsively which confirms that she is not emotionally

stable.

In conclusion, Mary Maloney is a dynamic character and she changes in the matter of seconds. At first, Mary was a loving, warm, caring housewife but flips the switch and becomes the complete opposite; a cold hearted, intelligent and a devious person. A once innocent pregnant wife turned out to be a killer and much more clever than one would expect.