Mary Maloney Analysis

Baby jail happened to be the beginning of Mary’s pursuit to clear her

Did you know that John Wilkes Booth had actually attempted, and failed, to kidnap and assassinate president Lincoln multiple times before he succeeded? How about a fictional character like Mary Maloney? Whom of which subconsciously murdered her husband with a frozen chunk of meat after an emotional snap. Both of these people, fiction or not, have murdered people for a cause; one of which was more personal than the other. Mary’s cause was that her husband stated he was leaving her only moments before she attacked. While John’s cause was less personal, it still had a large effect on him and his future; John murdered Lincoln because he believed that it would be best for him and his country as a whole. The motives for their actions are very distinguishable

He made the confirmation of Mrs. Maloney’s presence in the store. He would describe her as “Cheerful” and “Normal” and didn’t see any possible way that she could’ve committed such an act.

Mary Maloney has just bludgeoned her husband to death with a leg of lamb. A rather unusual and brutal crime to say the least. Is she criminally responsible? The most common defense in murder trials is the insanity defense, which states that the defendant is not criminally responsible due to insanity. Could Mary be insane? Well, the answer is probably not. According to www.brandongaille.com , 88% of insanity defendants are found to be clinically “sane” by the state. I think Mary Maloney is a criminal, who is aware of, and responsible for her actions due to the fact that Mary attempts to manipulate the order of events, Mary attempts to give the officers alcohol, and Mary has the murder weapon disposed of. All of this evidence portrays malicious intent and that she understands the gravity of the situation.

Mary, being the wife of a detective, knew how the operation would play out, putting her in a perfect spot to brush right past the minds of her husband’s police friends. The police thought they knew Mary enough to question her briefly, but not really take into consideration that she may be the suspect. In Mary’s favour, the police were too fixed minded, they were too focused on a sledge hammer being the murder weapon to realize that the leg of lamb they were eating, while frozen could do the same damage: “‘Whoever done it, they’re not going to be carrying a thing like that around with them longer than they need.’ … Personally, I think it’s right here on the premises.’

Mary Maloney is a sympathetic character because she covered up Patrick’s death to protect her baby. All of the tricking and deceiving she did was to save her unborn child from what could have happened as a result of her actions. She did not know what the laws were for murdered with unborn babies and she did not want to find out. Dahl states, “ What were the laws about murderers with unborn children? Did they kill both-mother and child? Or did they wait until the tenth month? Mary Maloney didn’t know. And she certainly wasn’t prepared to take a chance” (3). Mary’s number one concern was for her baby. She did not want

Dahl’s protagonist in “Lamb to Slaughter”, Mary Maloney, displays her deceitful nature when her husband comes home from a long day of work. Mary kills Patrick with a frozen leg of lamb after he informs her that he wants a divorce. Immediately thereafter, she goes to the store to purchase vegetables. This is the beginning of her deceit. Mary clearly does not need vegetables. Her trek to the store is her way of creating an an alibi. This adds another layer to her deception. Here, she engages in a conversation with a seemingly familiar clerk, Sam. She informs him that Patrick “decided he’s tired and doesn’t want to eat out tonight” (Dahl 3). This gives Sam the impression that her husband is still alive when in all actuality, he is dead. She has added yet another layer to her level of deception. Mary’s deception has no limits. She eventually deceives herself into thinking she did not murder her husband. She convinces herself that she is “not expecting to find

A few minutes later she got up and went to the phone. She knew the number of the police station and when the man at the other end answered, she cried to him” (179). This shows that Mrs. Maloney was acting like a worried wife, trying to help out the detectives find the person who murdered her husband. She uses techniques like crying to make her act look believable. Moreover, Mary Maloney uses the fact that she is pregnant for her advantage.

This is a twisted, gripping tale of Mary Maloney, who murders her own husband by hitting him with a frozen leg of lamb and then hiding her crime and disposing of the evidence by feeding the lamb to the policemen who come to investigate the murder.

She lifted it out, and looked at it---a leg of lamb “ (Page 2). The fact that Mary Maloney can’t even feel herself doing anything, corresponds to how shocked she is. As a matter of fact, that is when her consciousness of her action momentarily fades away. She cannot accept the fact that her beloved husband would betray her like this, but in a way, the introduction to the story already tells us that their relationship isn’t strong and loving. Also, Mary is shown to have picked the very first thing she found, which was a lamb leg. This proves that she had no intention of premeditating a weapon beforehand, but instead used whatever she could find to let out her emotions. In addition, pregnant women are more emotionally unstable and because of that Mary Maloney couldn’t handle the stress of the news her husband told her. The final quote that proves her temporary insanity is, “She stepped back, waiting, and the strange thing was that he remained standing there for at least four or five seconds. Then he crashed onto the carpet. The violence of the crash, the noise, the small table overturning, helped to bring her out of the shock… 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…In fact, it would be a relief. On the other hand, what about the baby ” (Page 2)? Not only did she regain her consciousness, moments after her husband’s death, but she also

Mary killed her husband by her hitting him on his head with a frozen leg of lamb. Her being a detective’s wife, knew how to set up her alibi. First, she cooked the murder weapon. She went to the grocer to establish her alibi; she was shopping for the evening dinner and was not home when her husband was killed. Mary called the police and told them her husband is dead. After verifying her alibi, Mary insisted on the detectives eating the murder weapon.

Dahl’s use of dramatic irony during the story helps displays the actions of Mary Maloney and other characters. Mary Maloney swings the leg of the lamb to the back of the head of her husband. Dahl says, “ 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” (Dahl 320). As a result, this quote is effective because the lamb was used as a weapon, instead of food; which shows that Mary could use anything to harm someone without her trying or when it was her attempt to hurt that someone. The story writes, “Probably right under our very noses. What you think, Jack”. In the same way as the first quote, this sets back to Mary because she sabotages the police to eat the lamb. With the police eating the lamb she is getting rid of the evidence so she does not get caught. From the use of dramatic irony in the story, Dahl's builds Mary as a character; he also uses different irony to create her.

¨Dad however, wouldn’t talk about Mary Charlene...He was the one who found her body in the crib, and Mom, couldn't believe how much it shook him up…‘he was in shock or something, cradling her stiff little body in his arms... he screamed like a wounded animal’...He started having dark moods,staying out late and coming home drunk and losing jobs,¨(Walls 28).

Mary has one motive for murdering her husband. The motive is that she couldn’t accept the fact that her husband was leaving her. He says, “ ‘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...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.’ " Although he didn’t say the exact words the reader can infer this when he states “… 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…” Some readers might disagree with her for killing her husband because he was leaving her, but she was truly in love with him

Mary is very manipulative in that she is able to create the character of the poor, pregnant wife, whose husband has just been murdered. She is able to convince the police to take pity on her, to mix her a drink and then to even eat the evidence, the leg of lamb that she has left in the oven. "Why don’t you eat up that lamb that is in the oven" (Dahl, p. 17). Mary realizes that if the police find the evidence she will go to jail. Her quick thinking and manipulative character results in the police officers eathign the evidence and therefore she cannot be charged of this crime. These actions show the complex character that Mary Maloney truly is.