Lamb To The Slaughter Mary Maloney

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In “Lamb to the Slaughter”, Roald Dahl characterizes Mary Maloney as dynamic. We know this because the author made her very well developed and allowed to see how she changed from being a dedicated, loving wife to a coldblooded killer. He also allowed to know why she did what she did, thus making her well developed/dynamic. In the beginning, Mrs.Maloney is a very dedicated housewife. You see her dedication in the quotes “She stood up and went forward to kiss him” (Dahl,1) and “her eyes waited to an answer, a smile, a nod, but he made no sign” (Dahl,1). These pieces of text show Mary’s dedication to appease him. She catered to his every need and more, she craved his attention and satisfaction from her actions. However, after Patrick expresses his want for a divorce, Mrs.Maloney is in a shock that leaves her thoughtless and emotionless, seen in sentence “She couldn’t feel anything except for a slight sickness. She did everything without thinking.” (Dahl,2) In this state of shock, she carelessly kills Mr.Maloney which makes her completely change from her previous state. The exact moment in which she killed him, it says “All right, she told herself. So I’ve killed him.” (Dahl,2). This quote shows how her brain had been working at that point but then all of a sudden she gets out of her shock and becomes very aware of how to cover up what she has done. …show more content…

You can also see how unapologetic she is about her actions in the sentence “And in the other room, Mary Maloney laughed.” (Dahl,4). She’s laughing because she realizes that she’s going to completely get away with having killed her husband. The fact that she even covered it up shows exactly how willing she is to do the most in order to not face the

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