Lamb To The Slaughter Mary Maloney Essay

Imagine getting away with your husband’s murder and having the police eat the murder weapon; what a perfect cover-up. Mary Maloney is the pregnant wife of Patrick Maloney and the one who murdered her husband. Patrick Maloney is a policeman who has decided that he was going to leave his wife. Pregnant wife, Mary Maloney, was waiting for her husband to come home. When her husband, Patrick came home, he was acting very distant, and this made Mary worried. He eventually told her that he was leaving, and that sent Mary into shock. Her response was to continue to make Patrick dinner despite his refusal. When she went to get dinner ready, she went to the freezer to get a lamb leg, and when she went back upstairs, she swung the lamb leg at Patrick’s

head, killing him instantly. She put the lamb in the oven and left the house. From there she created an alibi by going to the grocery store and talking to the cashier for a while. She faked her emotions and tried to act normal when she called the police. When they came, she cried into one of the officers arms, and had kind hospitality. In the end she offered the policemen the lamb she put in the oven and cooked, so they no longer have any trace of finding the murder weapon.

In “Lamb to the Slaughter,” Roald Dahl describes the actions of a women, Mary Maloney, and her ploy to cover up the murder of her husband, through the use of psychoanalytic criticism, Dahl was able to explore Mary’s deceitful appearance, manipulative mindset, and her decisions from her impulse of emotions.
Roald Dahl was an adventurous man throughout his life. Although he is known for writing children stories, he did write a few mature stories. There was an incident that happened before he began his writing career. Dahl joined the Royal Air force as a fighter pilot during World War II. At that time he learned to fly a plane, and when he was serving, he crash landed and that gave him serious injuries to his spine, skull and hip. His past experiences and adventurous attitude may have been the reason for why he wrote such a twisted story like “Lamb to the Slaughter.” However, Roald Dahl is famous for writing children stories such as “Matilda” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” He would read his own children nighttime stories, which inspired him to write more children novels. At first, when his first children story wasn’t as successful, he would write mysterious adult novels like “Someone like You” and “Kiss, Kiss.” Roald Dahl was a children’s novel writer, which was influenced by his own children. The reason he wrote adult stories was because of his not so successful first children’s story. He also lived during the time of World War II, so he knew firsthand of the effect a war can do on a person. He suffered serious injuries, but was still an adventurous man. He lived around the world, in places like Tanzania and Washington D.C, so he was exposed to different cultures.
The story is written in third person limited point of view because we can see the narrator’s thoughts on how Mary is acting and feeling, but not any other character. The use of psychoanalytic criticism was to show how betrayal can lead to even more betrayal. Mary was perfect at being able to manipulate and deceive the police into thinking the murderer fled the scene, but in reality she was worried about her unborn baby. This type of criticism was relevant to this story because it helps the reader see why Mary acted in such a way and for what reason.
Roald Dahl uses dark humor throughout the story to make Mary seem like a psychopathic wife. In the story it said “’It's probably right under our noses. What do you think, Jack?’ And in the other room, Mary Maloney began to laugh” Mary giggling at the end shows that she could be a psychopath. In that situation, the police eating the weapon she used to kill him makes her giggle is not something one does during that situation. Usually remorse and despair is what occurs, but Mary does the opposite. Furthermore, in the story is said “Her first instinct was not to believe any of it. She thought that perhaps she'd imagined the whole thing. Perhaps, if she acted as though she had not heard him, she would find out that none of it had ever happened…She did everything without thinking. She went downstairs to the freezer and took hold of the first object she found.” She was in denial because she could not handle rejection. So this was what caused Mary not to act in her right mind. Everything she did leading up to Patrick’s death was automatic because she did not understand everything that was happening. At first she was happy to start a family, then next thing you know, her dreams of a family was destroyed.
Continuing on, in the story it said “All right, she told herself. So I've killed him. It was extraordinary, now, how clear her mind became all of a sudden. She began thinking very fast. As the wife of a detective, she knew what the punishment would be. It made no difference to her. In fact, it would be a relief” Mary felt relieved after she killed Patrick, which could indicate that she never really loved Patrick, just shocked that she was actually able to kill him. Also with her advantage of being the wife of a detective, that gives her more confidence in being able to cover up her crime. Mary was trying to save her unborn child, so in the story it said “On the other hand, what about the baby? What were the laws about murderers with unborn children? Did they kill them both -- mother and child? Did they wait until the baby was born? What did they do? Mary Maloney didn't know and she wasn't prepared to take a chance.” She probably looked into her future, and since she knows how investigations work, she’s got that under control, and whatever money her husband left behind will be with her. She did this for the future of her child because she didn’t want to risk her child being executed. Mary was trying to play the role of an innocent wife, so when she calls the police she would already be in the role of a distraught and saddened wife. She does this so she can manipulate the police into sympathizing with her, also what makes it more believable is that she is pregnant, so they wouldn’t even suspect her. Mary’s acting and cry for sympathy lured the detectives into believing she wasn’t a murderer. Her knowledge of how detective work works is an advantage. Mary is not crying because she killed her husband, she cries as an act, which is in favor of her cover up.
According to the “Comprehensive Guide to Short Stories, Critical Edition”, they said “after the murder, Mary becomes a deliberate and clear thinker.” When it says Mary becomes a “clear thinker” suggests that she was constrained during her marriage so her serving her husband made her thoughts hazy because she wasn’t herself. Or it could also suggest that she was free from her husband emotionally, so she could finally express her life without serving him. They also said “”The news of her divorce causes no outward change in her behavior. She goes on, as if pretending that nothing has happened will make it so. The murder seems almost an unconscious and unwilled act” Mary using a frozen lamb as a weapon was not something predictable, because when it thawed, all traces of it being a potential weapon would be gone. Mary’s choice of weaponry favored her and from the beginning she knew she had an advantage on her cover up, because she choice an unpredictable item as a weapon.
Furthermore, according to “Enotes,” they said “Mary is clearly a devoted, loving wife, who literally spends more than a fair portion of her day anticipating and preparing for her husband's arrival from work. She obviously dotes on him and has adopted a servile attitude” Mary is used to serving and being so loving. She thought her and Patrick were happy to start a new family. So when Patrick told her the news he was leaving, she went into shock and felt betrayed. Her killing him was a way to cope because she did not know how to deal with rejection. Also they mentioned “Patrick clearly cares more about his mundane job than he does about his wife and unborn child. This makes the reader feel that he deserves his come-uppance when Mary retaliates (probably in a moment of temporary insanity) and kills him.” Patrick’s inconsideration for Mary’s feelings and the future of their baby is probably what makes Mary kill Patrick. Her impulse was out of anger and shock so that’s why she did what she thought of at the time. She was probably trying to save the future of her baby from a father that didn’t want to have it.
The use of psychoanalytic criticism helps the reader grasp a better understanding on why Mary decided to kill her husband and manipulate the police through her outward appearance and actions.

Mary was able to manipulate the police by appearing to be kind and hospitable, and using the memory of her dead husband to get them to eat the lamb. Mary was able to deceive police because of her pregnancy and alibi. Mary was betrayed, which caused her to act the way she did. Focus of this essay was to see how Mary’s mind worked throughout her whole ploy to cover up her husband’s murder. All this evidence leads to why Mary decided not to tell the police to kill her husband, and why she killed her husband in the first place. Mary could have been bottling up her emotions about being underappreciated, so when Patrick told her he was leaving, that probably set her off and caused her to go into shock. The future could be that Mary gives birth and is able to provide for her child, without anyone ever knowing who killed Patrick

Maloney.