Lamb To The Slaughter Mary Maloney Essay

Mary Maloney, of “Lamb to the Slaughter,” is a wife, soon-to-be mother, and a murderer. “Lamb to the Slaughter” was written in 1953 by renowned author Roald Dahl, and it was a shocking story for its time. In short, a woman [Mary Maloney] waits for her husband to get home. Upon his arrival, she notices he is acting very strange and he tells her something (what we assume to be him breaking things off) to Mary. She goes into the freezer in shock and grabs a leg of lamb and kills him with it. She then creates an alibi by going to the store for vegetables, and convinces herself that nothing has gone awry and that everything at home is just peachy. She gets home and calls the police and they come to investigate, who completely deny that she could

be the murderer. Mary then convinces the police to eat the leg of lamb. The title ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ not only foreshadows events in the story, but it also refers to someone who goes innocently and unconcernedly into a dangerous or life threatening situation. Mary does not seem threatening or hostile in any way at the beginning of the story, as Dahl describes her as a six-months pregnant housewife with nothing better to do than to please her husband. Even as the story progresses and the audience sees her slight mental breakdown upon the arrival of Mr. Maloney’s news, she does not seem to be frightening in any manner. It isn’t until Dahl writes, “At that point, Mary Maloney simply walked up behind him [Mr. Maloney] 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. She might as well have hit him with a steel bar,” that we view Mary Maloney in the same light as a murderer. Mary Maloney is clever in her quick-witted plight, reckless in her actions, however she is loving of her late husband more than anything in the world.
After killing her husband, Mary Maloney was clever enough to realize how to get away with it: create a strong alibi that multiple witnesses can attest to. She does this by calling the other couple or family that the Maloney’s originally intended to spend the evening with, and tells them that they are not coming, but rather eating at home. Then, she practices how to act normal with her grocer and heads to the grocery store. On her way home, she completely convinces herself that there was nothing abnormal about the day, in an effort to seem as though she were seeing her dead husband for the first time that day and to be as shocked as the police whom she later calls, which is supported when Dahl writes “And now, she told herself as she hurried back, all she was doing now, she was returning home to her husband and he was waiting for his supper; and she must cook it good, and make it as tasty as possible because the poor man was tired; and if, when she entered the house, she happened to find anything unusual, or tragic, or terrible, then naturally it would be a shock and she'd become frantic with grief and horror. Mind you, she wasn't expecting to find anything.” After the detectives come to investigate, she offers the men the leg of lamb that she killed her husband with. She insists that they eat it ( “Why don't you eat up the lamb in the oven?"), which is immensely important for two reasons: 1) the detectives have eaten the murder weapon, thus destroying it, and 2) if it later comes to light that Mary was the murderer, the detectives will be less respected and their reputations will be destroyed. Mary defies the expectations of the audience by explicitly displaying the murder weapon to the police, rather than hiding it like a criminal would.
If we rewind the story a little bit, we will see just how loving and caring Mary is. She prepared the home to perfection for her husband’s arrival, which Dahl describes vividly when he writes “The room was warm and clean, the curtains drawn, the two table lamps alight-hers and the one by the empty chair opposite. On the sideboard behind her, two tall glasses, soda water, whiskey. Fresh ice cubes in the Thermos bucket.” She loves her husband more than anything, and she enjoys playing the role of the housewife. She would do anything for her husband, even if it means staying home from an anticipated evening with friends. Even when she is disappointed, she still offers to cook Mr. Maloney a meal "Darling," she said," 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." However, her husband does not seem to like this behavior as much as Mary likes to behave this way. He simply swats her every attempt at caring for him away, “‘I’ll get it!’ she cried, jumping up. ‘Sit down,’ he said. [...] ‘Darling, shall I get your slippers?’ ‘No.’ [...] ‘Darling,’ she said. ‘Would you like me to get you some cheese? [...]’ ‘No,’ he said. [...] ‘Anyway,’ she went on, ‘I’ll get you some cheese and crackers first.’ ‘I don’t want it,’ he said.” It is at this time that he breaks the disturbing news to his wife, and Dahl specifically leaves the conversation ambiguous, making it up to the audience to decipher what it was about. While meant to be a mystery, many assume that he was trying to leave her based on some context clues like “"This is going to be a bit of a shock to you, I'm afraid," he said. "But I've thought about it a good deal and I've decided the only thing to do is tell you right away. I hope you won't blame me too much" and "So there it is," he added. "And I know it's kind of a bad time to be telling you, bet there simply wasn't any other way. Of course I'll give you money and see you're looked after. But there needn't really be any fuss. I hope not anyway. It wouldn't be very good for my job." His nonchalant attitude on the subject is a stark contrast to Mary’s secondary reaction. Her initial reaction was to simply not believe any of it, but her secondary reaction lead to the death of Mr. Maloney.
Mary Maloney is reckless and impulsive in her actions.

She refueses to believe the news that is delivered by Mr. Maloney, and almost seems to act like nothing is going on, when Dahl writes “Her first instinct was not to believe any of it, to reject it all. It occurred to her that perhaps he hadn't even spoken, that she herself had imagined the whole thing. Maybe, if she went about her business and acted as though she hadn't been listening, then later, when she sort of woke up again, she might find none of it had ever happened. [...] ‘I’ll get the supper,’ she managed to whisper. And this time he didn’t stop her.” She then walks to the freezer, grabs the leg of lamb and thinks “All right then, they would have lamb for supper.” Mr. Maloney attempts to brush her off once more by saying “"For God's sake," he said, hearing her, but not turning round. "Don't make supper for me. I'm going out." At that point, Mary comes up behind her husband and kills him by bashing his skull with the leg of lamb. Dahl accompanies the hit with “She might just as well have hit him with a steel club.” In her haze, Mary must have forgotten one of the basic human principles, that being that you cannot murder somebody. She does not fully grasp what has happened, however she does understand that she has killed her husband. Still, she walks to the kitchen and places the lamb in the oven. There is no sign of sadness from her until after her return from the grocer, when she breaks down. However, the audience has a hard time trusting her until Dahl writes “[...] she ran over to him, knelt down beside him, and began to cry her heart out. It was easy. No acting was necessary.” Had Dahl not included that section, Mary would have absolutely no credibility and would be seen as a psychopath, lacking any empathy, and lying to the police by only pretending to be upset when they arrive. The extent to which she goes to cover up the murder is influenced by the baby that she is carrying. She was not worried

about her own future, but rather her child’s future. Her thoughts perfectly explain that as Dahl writes “As the wife of a detective, she knew quite well what the penalty would be. That was fine. It made no difference to her. In fact, it would be a relief. On the other hand, what about the child? What were the laws about murderers with unborn children? Did they kill them both -mother and child? Or did they wait until the tenth month? What did they do? Mary Maloney didn't know. And she certainly wasn't prepared to take a chance.” Mary makes up for her lack of sadness for her dead husband with her loyalty and love for her unborn child.
In conclusion, Mary Maloney is a much more complex character upon deep analysis. She is reckless in her impulsive actions, creating massive internal conflict in her and the audience. She is loving, and wants her husband to be happy while also wanting bright a positive future for their child. Lastly, she is clever in her disguises and lies, as she is able to lead detectives and witnesses to believe that she herself was just an innocent victim in the murder of her husband.