Lamb To The Slaughter Mary Maloney Character Analysis

Mary gets up and goes to the cellar and grabs a frozen leg of lamb and walked to the living room. “ at this point, Mary Maloney simply walked up behind him and without a pause 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 4). Mary killed her husband because he was leaving her. She decides to go to the grocer so it looks like she is the protagonist but is the antagonist. She practices what she is going to say so it seems like she doesn’t know anything.

Mary Maloney, a responsible and loving housewife, had just heard that her husband wants to leave her. Upon hearing this news, she goes to the kitchen to cook him dinner even though Patrick, her husband, says not to. Mary grabs a lamb’s leg to cook, but instead of preparing it she decides to use it as a club against Patrick’s head. This blow to the head kills Mary’s would-be ex-husband, leaving her with an entirely new problem. Law enforcement must decide what degree this specific murder is.

There are a lot of similarities between “Lamb to Slaughter” by Roald Dahl and “A Jury of her Peers” by Susan Glaspell and an abundance of differences. The largest one thing in common being, the wives in each story kill their husbands. Another comparison are the women 's roles. They are both victims to their husband 's’ cruelty. In “Lamb to Slaughter”, Mary Maloney waits patiently for her husband to get home from work so she can make him dinner and get him a drink, do anything to make him happy basically.

Additionally, after she struck her husband, she thought that it was “funny” on how “he remained standing” for a while. Usually after committing a crime, people would immediately feel guilty and sorry, but Mary though it was “funny” and even “giggled” when the detectives ate the evidence. The readers would say she went insane after killing her husband and feeding his colleagues with the murder weapon, which creates tension within the readers. Briefly, Roald Dahl uses insanity to create suspense in ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ as people that are insane are unpredictable, leading the audience to anticipate the ending of the

Owing to the fact that she was so hurt, she to a lamb leg to the back of his head and there he went crashing onto the floor unable to move (Dahl 2). Later on that day, to cover up her tracks she called the police over to tell them of the tragic accident that happened to her husband but of course it was all a lie. To get rid of the evidence, She insisted that they stay for dinner and so they did. Mary Maloney was content because she got away with the murder of her husband and in that matter it seemed as if she enjoyed it which showed her to be even more demeted than she seemed in the

Kemper could no longer bare his controlling grandmother, he finally snapped and shot her in the back of the head and repeatedly stabbed her dead body. A few minutes after, Ed hears his grandfather’s truck pulling in. Although Ed liked his grandfather, he went outside and shot him as well, because Ed did not want his grandfather to see what he had done to his wife. Astonishingly, Edmund calls his mother to confess what he had done and ask what he should do. His mother tells him to call the police and inform them.

In Roald Dahl’s riveting short story “Lamb to the Slaughter” dramatic irony is used to build tension. Dramatic irony is defined as a literary device where the reader knows more about a situation than the characters in the story. The main character Ms. Maloney, a devoted and tender wife, suddenly turns into a reckless murderer as her husband tells her he wants to leave. Throughout the narrative a prominent example of dramatic irony is when the policemen eat the leg of lamb. " ‘That's why the weapon should be easy to find.’ ‘Exactly what I say.’ ‘Whoever did it, he can't carry a weapon that big around with him.’ ‘Personally, I think the weapon is somewhere near the house.’ ‘It's probably right under our noses.

A messenger visits the Macduffs and warns them saying, “I doubt some danger does approach you nearly” (4.2.73). Even though Lady Macduff and her son do not pose as a threat to Macbeth, Macbeth has them killed. Lady Macbeth, while sleepwalking, announces to her doctor and maid, “Will these hands ne’er be clean?” (5.1.45). Lady Macbeth is finally starting to realize that her husband has took his obsession with power too far. She expresses her guilt and remorse without even realizing it, showing that she truly regrets her actions.

Sam distracts him by talking to Norman while Lila sneaks up to the house. There they discover that Norman’s mom is dead. Finally in the courthouse a psychiatrist explains that Norman murdered Mrs. Bates because he didn’t get attention after his father died.Norman begin guilty of killing his mom he gave life to her dead body and began to treat it as if she were still alive. Norman confesses to murdering Marion and Arbogast and hiding the evidence by getting rid of their bodies in a swamp near by. He also says he had no idea about the $40,000 which Marion stole.

This really sets the tone for the rest of the novel, including leading up to Rex’s diagnosis of tuberculosis. He was always pleased in living a life such as the homeless. Rex eventually died of a heart attack. The reason I find this the most important contributions to forgiveness is because her father was one of her best friends. She always believed in him when he ceased to believe in himself.