Lamb To The Slaughter Mary Maloney Essay

644 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: What is a major symbol in the lamb to the slaughter

In the short story, “Lamb to the Slaughter” written Roald Dahl, the main character, Mary Maloney, changes throughout the story due to pain, suffering, and betrayal. Before she had gone through these terrible feelings, Maloney exhibited joy and love towards her husband and their life. Dahl wrote in the short story, “Now and again she glanced at the clock, but without anxiety: She merely wanted to satisfy herself that each minute that went by, made it nearer the time when he would come home. As she bent over her sewing, she was curiously peaceful.”(1). At this moment, Maloney is waiting for her husband, Patrick Maloney, who she dearly adores, to come back from work. She is very calm and untroubled as she lives her life like every other day. …show more content…

It is shown here, that right after the heart-breaking news was given to her, Maloney decided to go ahead and kill her husband. She lost all her fondness of Patrick, and took the decision that if she can’t be happy, then the other person shouldn’t be able to happily live their life either. It was very harsh of her, and expresses how she lost her solicitude and compassion that she had for her husband. Leading onto the next loss, a good, moral character. “ ‘Is he dead?’ she cried. ‘I'm afraid he is. What happened?’ In a few words she told her story about going to the grocer and coming back, when she found him on the floor. While she was crying and talking…”(Dahl 3). After killing her husband, Patrick, Maloney called the cops and acted as if she didn’t kill her husband, and that she still displayed love and emotion for him. This evidence shows how she left her morals behind, and took the action of not being responsible for the crime, and perhaps letting an innocent human being taken into jail in the future. This is a complete change from how good she was in the beginning of the story. Due to the circumstances and the situation that she was in, Maloney had become a terrible woman with a lot of

Show More
Related

  • Mary Maloney: The Murder Of Mary Moloney

    474 Words  | 1 Pages

    Mary Maloney is accused of murdering her husband with an unknown weapon for an unknown reason. Chief detective, Patrick Maloney was murdered last night at his own house, no suspects have been identified yet and the search for the murder weapon was futile. Apparently, the officer had come home exhausted from work and was waiting for his wife Mrs. Mary Maloney, who left to buy food across the street for their dinner. According to a statement, Mary arrives home from the grocery store to find her husband dead on the living room floor.

    Read More

  • Write A Persuasive Essay On Mary Maloney

    521 Words  | 2 Pages

    Mary Maloney was pregnant… Her hormones were all over the place. Patrick Maloney was putting too much pressure on her. By asking for a divorce and treating her really bad. He knew that she was pregnant and still asked for a divorce and was having an affair. He was only going to send money to his kid. Patrick was abusive physically and emotionally.

    Read More

  • Syntax In Lamb To The Slaughter

    358 Words  | 1 Pages

    In “Lamb to the Slaughter”, Roald Dahl uses diction, details, and syntax to emphasize the matter-of-fact tone that is consistent throughout the entire story. Diction is a key element of tone that conveys this matter-of-fact tone. For example, Mary Maloney says to herself after killing her husband, “All right… So I’ve killed him” (Dahl 320). This sentence is lacking emotion. It states a pure fact, without going into further detail and captures a turning point in Mary Maloney’s way of thinking. By telling herself “all right,” Mary distances herself from the murder. She is detached from her own story and does not reveal any qualms about murdering her own husband. Similarly, Dahl uses the next sentence to describe Mary’s thoughts by explaining,

    Read More

  • Lamb To The Slaughter Essay

    780 Words  | 2 Pages

    Lamb to the Slaughter is a short story written by Roald Dahl (1953) which the reader can analyze using a feminist lens and Freud’s Psychoanalytical criticism. Mary, the protagonist, is a pregnant housewife who learns from her husband that he is going to leave her. The author describes Mary’s reaction to this terrible news by depicting her as going into a state of fugue in which Mary murders her husband with a frozen leg of lamb, and later destroys the evidence by feeding the cooked lamb to the police officers who come to investigate the murder. This characterization is typical of the attitude of the society of the time of a women, pregnant, presented with a situation she cannot control. Mary’s first instinct is to reject her husband’s news

    Read More

  • Opening Statement for the Case against Mary Maloney

    812 Words  | 2 Pages

    .... Maloney would leave to be with the other women. This thought though, became a reality for Mary Maloney. Mary Maloney has testified to happening to “stumble across” a will, which mentioned Mary Maloney receiving three quarters of Patrick’s fortune if he were to pass away. Being the wife a detective, Mary Maloney new how to plot a scene. First she would murder Patrick, receive his fortune to care for the unborn child, never have to face him again after he said to her face that he loved another women and had been having affairs with her. Secondly, she would need to dispose of the murder weapon secretly, and create an alibi that would testify for Ms. Maloney. Thirdly, pretend that it was all a dream and that it never happened. Sadly, it was an incredibly easy task for a clever woman such as herself. How is it that money is what shapes our world but also destroys it?

    Read More

  • Case Report: “Lamb to the Slaughter”

    990 Words  | 2 Pages

    Preliminarily, had been established that Mrs. Maloney was the murderer of her husband Mr. Maloney. Despite this, it was for good reason, as it was due in part to mental anguish. This can be concluded by the reactions and behaviors Mrs. Maloney presented in Dahl’s eyewitness account. To start, Mrs. Maloney was headed for the store at around 6 o’clock. Why would she continue to act even if her husband is dead? “Hello, Sam,” she said brightly, smiling at the man in the shop. “Good evening, Mrs. Maloney. How are you?” “I want some potatoes, please, Sam. Yes, and perhaps a can of beans, too. Patrick’s decided he's tired and he doesn't want to go out tonight,” she told him. … “Anything else?” The grocer turned his head to one side, looking at her. “How about a dessert? … How about a nice piece of cake?” … “Perfect,” she said. “He loves it.”” This quote, from Dahl’s account, shows that she obviously cannot completely function mentally. She murdered him, then went and bought him cake. At this point, she is very confused about herself and the events that occu...

    Read More

  • Patrick Maloney Case

    656 Words  | 2 Pages

    Good evening ladies and gentlemen of the jury. Today November 15, 2017, the case of senior police officer Patrick Maloney, who was found murdered in his home October 4, 2017, goes on. After weeks of myself, Alex Wargo, and the prosecuting team putting together evidence, justice will be brought for Patrick Maloney, and his wife, Mary Maloney, will be found guilty of his murder.

    Read More

  • How Is Imagery Used In Lamb To The Slaughter

    461 Words  | 1 Pages

    At the start of the story Mrs Maloney shows the theme of human beings are fake towards her husband. Instead of showing her discomfort of him ending it with her she instead acted like nothing happened. This is shown in the story when he says “Her first instinct was not to believe any of it, to reject it all.” Imagery also plays a big role within the theme of the story.

    Read More

  • Lamb To The Slaughter Dialectical Journal

    634 Words  | 2 Pages

    He can hear her steps down the stair to the cellar. He almost burst into tears. Patrick knows that he can’t give up now, not after he have broken her heart and made up everything so she can leave him. There was no Rebecca, he had no son, his parents didn’t force him into this marriage he was the one who made things look like that both their parents wanted them to get married. Patrick was afraid that she wouldn’t agree to this marriage. I can’t stop now, Patrick thought to himself it’s working she’s believing it; he told himself to hold back the tears but one still slip down his cheek.

    Read More

  • Mary Maloney In 'Lamb To The Slaughter'

    1296 Words  | 3 Pages

    Mary played the role of a very caring wife at the beginning of the story, since she was always there for her husband and tried to do anything to serve and satisfy him. Firstly, as soon as her husband came home “She took his coat and hung it in the closet. Then she walked over and made the drinks”(Dahl 2). Later on when she notices that her husband seemed depressed, she asked him, “Would you like me to get you some cheese” (Dahl 2). When he says no, she replies “But you must eat! I’ll fix it anyway” (Dahl 2). This shows the care she had toward her husband at the beginning of the stroy and how her life used to revolve him. Furthermore, it shows how she used to do anything to please him. Therefore this proves how she knew her duties and responsibilities toward her husband really well. Although, in this story, Mary Maloney was not only a very a dutiful and caring wife, but during the story she transitioned into becoming an even more dutiful mother who was well aware of her responsibilities. After she killed her husband she thought of her child and wondered, “What were the laws about murderers with unborn children? Did they kill the 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” (Dahl 3). This shows how Mary Maloney had created this entire plan just to save her child and didn’t care what harm came to her. Therefore this definitely makes her a very caring mom, because it takes a lot of love to do such a thing. So this definitely makes her the perfect mother. In conclusion, Mary Maloney is strongly aware of her duties and responsibilities. Therefore, she was able to carry out the entire plan because people knew how much she loved her husband and so people trusted her. Also, she created this plan because

    Read More

  • Character Paragraph of Mary Maloney in Lam to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl

    640 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the story “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl, Mary Maloney is shown to have a very sinister and manipulative character. In the beginning of the story, Mary Maloney was a normal, loving and caring pregnant housewife that loved and cared for her husband, Patrick Maloney, very much. Earlier at the start of the story we see Mary was waiting for her husband to come home from work. She had set up the house with two table lights lit and plates on the dining table so they can have a very romantic dinner when Patrick comes home. When Patrick came home, Mary was very excited to see him. She would try to offer him some drinks and insisted she would get things in the house he needed so he didn’t have to get up himself. The countless times that Patrick said no to her offers and helpful doings, she still tried to serve and tried to make him feel comfortable and relax after work.

    Read More

  • Lamb to the Slaughter

    1086 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Lamb To The Slaughter Theme

    588 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • How Does Mary Maloney Show Loyalty In Lamb To The Slaughter

    828 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Roald Dahl's 'Lamb To The Slaughter'

    467 Words  | 1 Pages

    Of course, Maloney takes perfect advantage of that and manipulates them when she asks, “Would you like a drink? You must be extremely tired,” and the gullible policemen- without any doubt answer by saying, “Well. It’s not allowed by police rules, but since you’re a friend.” This part really emphasizes the detectives’ unique kindness for Mary Maloney just because she is a “friend,” as they would

    Read More

More about Lamb To The Slaughter Mary Maloney Essay

Open Document