Mary Maloney Essay

One reason I enjoyed this story was because of the use of dramatic irony. After murdering her husband with a frozen leg of lamb, the police investigated the area. Mary offers to cook for them and feed them the lamb that killed her husband. While eating the evidence, the officers say.

While doing her everyday routine, and waiting for her husband little did she know this would be his last day coming home. At about ten minutes till five she heard Patrick’s car arrive. Marry started her day like any other sewing and greeting Patrick at the door. After she poured him a drink he finished it fast and got back up to get another. Patrick then told Mary he was leaving her for another woman, in this case she had a sudden reaction. With all the opportunities present, she did something she never thought she would do. She killed her husband with malice causing her to be guilty of second degree murder.

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.’

There’s plenty of meat and stuff in the freezer, and you can have it right here and not even have to move out of the chair’’’ (2). Mary only ever want to please Patrick. She made sure everything was perfect for him and to never do anything wrong. She could not think of anything she had done to deserve such news. She immediately rejected the news and decided to pretend as if it never happened. Patrick was behaving so cruel to her while she was being nothing but nice to him. She even continued to make him dinner and he yelled at her saying not to because he is going out. This angered Mary resulting her to hit him with the leg of lamb and kill him. This shows that Mary is a sympathetic character because she was always compliant to Patrick. He had no right to disrespect her as he did.

" The police have no idea and think that it is a man, and Mary recognizes this and uses it to her advantage. In conclusion, I think with all of the points I have shown, it illustrates my statement and proves my thesis statement to be correct. Her manipulation technique worked and everyone in the Lamb to the Slaughter story believed

Mary does not have a plan beforehand to murder her husband. In the story, she is planning on going out for dinner with her husband like they normally do on Thursdays. Mary says, “I haven’t made any supper because it’s Thursday” (Dahl 2). This shows that Mary is not planning on murdering her husband, but instead is planning to have a normal Thursday night dinner at a restaurant away from her house where the murder occurred. After, it is decided they would stay home for dinner because Patrick does not want to go out. Thus, Mary grabs the leg of lamb for dinner. “All-right then, they would have lamb for supper” (3). This clearly shows that Mary is planning to make the lamb for both her and her husband and not just her, because the pronoun the narrator used was “they.” She is not planning to use the leg of lamb as a murder weapon, but rather as food. Finally,

With Mary using the lamb as the murder weapon and cooking it for a part of her dinner, she had ‘no choice’ by to feed the already prepared dinner to the guests she had over after she had murdered her husband, or rather ‘found her husband dead’, feeding them the cooked weapon as they discussed the case. Mary had listened in from in another room, giggling to herself due to the stupidity of the detectives working on the case. This makes the readers infer that Mary will or may get caught, but due to the detectives eating the weapon used in the murder, it is not a high chance that she will get narrowed down to being the suspect. But with the work of witnesses, though, there is a slight chance that she may be put in prison due to her

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.

This furthers the image of Mary Maloney, a woman who is fulfilled by luxuriating “in the presence of this man”. Mary does not talk, does not even interact, just allows “that warm male glow” to wash over her. To all, Mary seems the picturesque example of perfection. Even the name Mary Maloney (1), with its alliteration appears guileless. However, Mary Maloney goes through a sudden evolution after news of her husband’s

Using plot twists in the story Roald Dahl was very successful at keeping the readers guessing about the resolution. One of the plot twists was Mary gets away with murder in the end. In the story, Mary gets away of killing her husband with a lamb chop even with the police coming to her

Is Mary a good liar? Mary is careless, clever and a devoted housewife. Although, she killed her husband, she truly loved him and would have done anything to stay by his side. At first, the reader might think Mary is a clingy and loving wife, but as the story progresses, the readers learn things aren’t always as they seem. Throughout the story Dahl reveals examples that helps the reader understand more about Mary’s character.

Throughout the entire story, Mary is a very interesting character. She faces many issues in dealing with her husband’s news that he is leaving her. She reacts based on her instincts and kills her husband and this shows her cold heartedness. In the end she has to create an alibi to cover up her devious crime in which she has to manipulate the police into eating the evidence. Mary is a very unique complex character and she has, through her actions conducted a devious crime in which she will be proven innocent. Through the use of Many Maloney’s character, as well as irony and suspense, the author was able to maintained the interest of the reader throughout the entire short story.