Characters, in many stories, change dramatically throughout the course of the story. Those drastic changes occurred in the short story Lamb to the Slaughter, written by Roald Dahl, when a sweet, loving housewife finds out terrible news from her husband, when she commits a horrible crime, and when she realizes that she will get away with murder. Characters repeatedly change dramatically throughout many stories. This often times is so vivid that it is a shock to many
Both the men in each story take their wives for granted and nothing else. They see their wives not being good for anything other than cooking and being an ordinary housewife. In both stories, the women prove their husbands completely wrong in their own way. In the short story “Lamb to the Slaughter”, Mrs. Maloney was an ordinary wife expecting a baby but when her husband comes home a bears horrible news, she grows furious and kills him. Patrick Maloney came home to bear the bad news not expecting her to beat him over the head with a frozen leg of lamb.
In the short story “Lamb to the Slaughter” written by Roald Dahl. A character that interested me the most would be Mary Maloney, Mary was the main character in the story, the story was written around her. Mary was interesting for me because of the way she acted towards her husband Patrick Maloney who she loved a lot and how she was able to cover up the murder of her husband and go on with her normal life so quickly afterwards. In the beginning of the story the author makes Mary out to be a loving wife,who cares about her husband Patrick very much. Mary’s life is mostly based around Patrick’s needs and wants.
In “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl, Mary Maloney is not the innocent wife of Patrick Maloney as she seems to be; but instead, is a woman, capable of murder. Mary was tired of being treated like a second class citizen when it came to Patrick. For instance, when Patrick Maloney was giving his wife one-word answers like, “yes”, or “I’m tired”, it hurt Mary. Mary was at the end of her rope; she was losing her husband. Although Mary had murderous intent, one of her strongest characteristics is thinking of the consequences; not for her, but for her unborn child.
Mary Maloney provides the detectives with lamb that she kills her husband, Patrick, with. When the detective declares that the murder weapon is probably right under their noses, it is ironic because the reader knows that they are eating the weapon that the detectives are seeking. Furthermore, situational irony is displayed when Dahl narrates, “At that point, Mary Maloney simply walked up behind him and without any pause, she swung the big frozen leg of lamb high
Incidentally, Patrick Maloney could also be seen as another interpretation of a lamb. An innocent lamb usually never expects the fate of their death, so in this case, Patrick never had suspected that his loving wife could commit such a dramatic sin, murder. Moreover, this reveals Mary’s violent side because she assassinates her unborn child’s father. Her cruelty has left her child unable to ever experience a life with her father. The interpretation of the title spotlights Mary’s malicious side finally being exposed.
Mary Maloney is a very loving and devoted house wife and mother-to-be. Though her dream of having the perfect American family was destroyed by the bewildering news of Patrick choosing another women over Mary and their child. Innocent is all Mary Maloney is, due to her indistinct state of mind caused by her heinous husband’s decision to desert her and her child while she is unable to control her emotions due to her being pregnant. Mary is not guilty of murder instead innocent due to diminished capacity. Mary genuinely loved and cared for Patrick and would never intently plan to kill him with hatred.
Mary Maloney was sitting in her living room when her husband, Patrick Maloney, came home. This was the premises of the short story, “Lamb to the Slaughter,” composed by Roald Dahl. Patrick was a police officer; his wife stayed at home, which was typical for the 1950s, which was the time period of the story. The couple had been, so it seemed, happy throughout their marriage. In fact, Mary was pregnant with a baby boy.
Mary Maloney sat awaiting her husband’s arrival home from a stressful day at work. As stated by the observant
Mary Maloney, who was a victim at first, but as the story goes on, she became a villain. This also happens to the husband, Patrick Maloney, who was a villain of the story at first, but became a victim of Mary at the end. Even the lamb itself is going through a metamorphosis. Lamb, which often used to symbolize innocence, is used by Mary as a deadly weapon to kill her husband, which is an irony. The metamorphosis also can be found on “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe, who has the anonymous narrator gone through a metamorphosis from the protagonist, and later on becoming the antagonist as we can see from his description about how he felt as the story narrated from the first person point of