Research Paper On Lamb To The Slaughter

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Name: Lana Fareh. Date: 30th February, Friday. Should Mrs. Maloney in Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl be charged with second-degree murder? Agree or disagree with this statement. Imagine building your entire married life around your husband’s needs, while carrying his baby for six months, doing everything in your power to please him, only for him to tell you that he has been cheating on you the entire time. “Lamb To The Slaughter” by Roald Dahl tells the story of Mrs. Maloney, who is married to Mr. Maloney and is six months pregnant. She is a passionate, caring wife to her husband, who is a police detective. One day, she waits for him to come back home from work. Upon his arrival, he requested to discuss an important matter with her. …show more content…

Maloney should not be charged with second-degree murder because her actions do not contain sufficient evidence to prove guilty in court. For someone to be charged with a crime, specifically, second-degree murder, they must be proven guilty in court, in other words, innocent until proven guilty. Mrs. Maloney could not be proven guilty as she had a strong, solid alibi and detectives underestimated her physical power, due to her being in her 6th month of pregnancy. They thought she might be too weak, and the fact that they had already confirmed her alibi justified this point. Detectives had to make sure her alibi was valid, so they went to the grocer she claimed to have gone to for groceries. They confirm it and quietly discuss the possibility of her being the murderer; “acted quite normal... very cheerful... wanted to give him a good supper... peas... cheesecake... impossible that she...” The detectives whisper to each other about how they think it would be impossible for Mrs. Maloney to have killed him. The evidence is simply insufficient, and nothing could lead to her being the offender. They fell for it, too. Soon they moved on with the search; “So they left her there while they went about their business searching the …show more content…

Maloney is a smart woman; she shows proficient abilities to express fake emotions that work in her favor when she needs to get out of trouble. Detectives have ruled her out as a suspect. It takes experience to understand how a pregnant woman’s mind works. How their emotions intensify drastically and how that could impact their actions. What if Mrs. Maloney was overtaken by a rushing wave of unmanageable, inexpressible emotions at that time? It is a well-known fact that pregnant women tend to be more emotional than they usually are otherwise. These emotions can take over your actions sometimes. You become more vulnerable to reckless actions. The hormones just happen to take over your body. Sometimes even leading to emotional numbness. In Mrs. Maloney's case, she was already heavily pregnant and was emotional, specifically because of what Mr. Maloney had to confess. “It didn't take long, four or five minutes at most, and she sat very still, through it all, watching him with a kind of dazed horror as he went further and further away from her with each word.” She shows clear signs of pregnancy hormones. She felt sick, which is a very common reaction/symptom in pregnancies. She kept silent and analytic. On the inside though, the alarms were blaring. she went into some sort of silent manic

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