Lamb To The Slaughter Mary Maloney

558 Words2 Pages

Georgia The Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl tells the story of Mary Maloney, a pregnant housewife who murders her husband after he reveals that he’s going to leave her. We are first introduced to Mary Maloney while she prepares for her husband to arrive home. She comes across as a very gentle and reserved woman who happily lives to serve her husband. This image is upheld until the middle of the story when Mary begins to morph into a character almost unrecognizable to the woman we saw in the beginning. In my essay, I will be explaining how the significant changes in Mary’s character and the stark contrast between her at the start and end of The Lamb to the Slaughter reinforces the notion that nothing is as it seems. The first significant shift we see in Mary’s character is when she hits her husband on the head with a frozen leg of lamb, ultimately murdering him. Up until this point, we have seen her as someone devoted and in absolutely in love with her husband, maybe verging on obsessive. Mary killing her husband is surprising on its own, but because of our prior knowledge and opinions of Marty's character, this act is much more shocking. This event in the story is the first warning of something darker …show more content…

It's almost as if we expect her to break down in tears and splutter some lines about how much she regrets her actions. Instead, we are pleasantly surprised as Mary springs into action and begins to plan her next move. Her cover up is intricate and well thought out; she goes to the store as if her husband is still alive and waiting for her return, chats with the grocery store clerk, comes home to the dead body of her husband and sheds some pretty convincing crocodile tears. At this point, our perspective on Mary once again changes and we begin to see her as someone both cunning and

Open Document