Lamb Of The Slaughter Mary Maloney Essay

Improved Essays
In the short story “Lamb of the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl, the loyal, loving housewife Mary Maloney, in her 2nd trimester, waits patiently for her husband to return home from work. When he returns, Mary receives unexpected news that will alter her life forever. She makes a spontaneous decision that could change her life even more dramatically. One thing drives Mary Maloney to loose control: revenge. Thursday evening, the night Mary Maloney and her husband, Patrick, go out for a nice dinner. On this particular night they will not be going out, at least not both of them. When Patrick returns from work he makes an announcement. Immediately, Mary enters into a daze of unbelief. She remains calm, surprisingly, and whispers “I'll fix some supper”. She returns from the basement with a frozen lamb leg. "I've already told you," Patrick said. "Don't make supper for me. I'm going out.” Quietly, she moves toward him with the stealth of a tiger. Bam! Patrick hits the floor with a thud. Mary Maloney shocks herself with her insidious action. It takes no more than a few seconds for her to come back to reality. Her dirty deed has been completed and now she needs to get away with it. With her mind racing in a million different directions, Mary enters the kitchen with a plan. She throws the lamb leg into the oven and heads to the market to create an alibi. …show more content…
Come quickly!” Mary yells into the home phone “Patricks dead.” Almost instantaneously the police and detectives arrive at the front door of their fellow co-worker’s house. As the minutes pass, the detectives ask questions and search for evidence. The detectives find nothing but generously remind Mary her meat is still in the oven. Overwhelmed with emotions, she informs them she is in no mood to eat. “Why don't you eat up the lamb in the oven?” she offers; Mary knows the perfect way to discard her weapon. Finally, she convinces the detectives to eat the lamb after hours of hard work searching for the murder

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    When Patrick walked in, she tried to kiss him and made him a drink like she always does. That means that there is no reason for Mary to have wanted to kill Patrick before he told her the bad news. Also, she was very shocked and surprised when he told her that he was having the affair and wanted to…

    • 763 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The time of death was determined by the amount of livor mortis that was present throughout the body. Livor mortis is the settling of blood that can be seen as early as thirty minutes before death, and becomes more visible over time (Bevel 185). This indicates that Mary was home during the time Patrick was murdered. The examination of Patrick’s head concluded that he was hit in the head with a large object that resulted in minimal external bleeding, but massive internal bleeding. The entire skull was fractured and broken into small pieces.…

    • 606 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the story, “Cooking Lessons” by Rosario Castellanos, a Mexican poet and author, known for her articulate writings about gender oppression which influenced feminist theories, uses food images to reflect gender roles. Castellanos also uses an interior monologue to represent the fact that women have no voice and are expected to just do and know certain things as opposed to men, for example, cooking. Eloquently written, Castellanos illustrates the inner thoughts of an educated and independent woman who has to forget all she knows and enter a unknowing world where she must depend on a man and take on the traditional role of a woman; a housewife. The nameless narrator stands starring hopelessly into a kitchen not knowing what to do or where…

    • 985 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    There is a monster that roams the bridge by the church,and everyone knows about it. But Mr.Ross was the first to disappear. Dan Frank Ross had bright green eyes, had honey brown hair, and looked to be in his 20s . He was also 6’00” and was a muscular man. Mr.Ross normally wore any clothes that were clean, but he always wore a fedora hat to match his outfit.…

    • 860 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    One of the detectives state “It’s probably right under our noses. What do you think, Jack?”. The writer’s tone is also ironic because the weapon is “right under their noses”. Mary reacts to the irony by laughing in the kitchen by herself. The tone of this story creates a mood that is suspenseful and…

    • 706 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    At the beginning Polly bought a store so she could sell her pie's and she named her store Pie. The store was bringing in plenty of business, her sisters daughter, Alice loved to come over and work on the pies with Polly. Then one day Polly died leaving her will to say what she did not get to say. Polly left the world famous pie crust recipe to Lardo(the cat), and left Lardo to Alice, Alice was pleased, but her parents thought other wise. One night Alice hear a noise so she looked to see if it was Lardo, but Lardo was nowhere to be seen.…

    • 565 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Lamb and the Slaughter is written by Roald Dahl, and is about a woman whose husband is about to leave her. The husband was leaving her and the women was currently pregnant with a child. In addition, there was also a movie made about this text. However, even though they are made under the same idea the two pieces are very different. The Lamb to Slaughter’s film and text, are both very similar, however, the text is more about using irony and a direct tone while the movie is about getting revenge and uses a affectionate tone.…

    • 433 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    People can change in a split second. Just like Mrs.Maloney, and this is how we can tell she is a dynamic character. In the beginning Mrs. Maloney is head over heels in love with her husband. After her first murder Mrs. Maloney doesn’t choke up, or fall to pieces. Before the end Mrs. Maloney is proud of what she did.…

    • 394 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A knock at the door caused me to jump up, off the sofa, in confusion. I walked, quickly as possible, to the front. As I opened it a young officer greeted me causing my breath to catch in my throat. I didn’t believe I had done anything that would cause an officer to come to my home. The man smiled, a thin and uncomfortable smile, quickly and with slight hesitation explained his sudden appearance and pulled a small slip of paper from his back pocket.…

    • 857 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The smell in the kitchen, the climate change and the leaves colors changed in different types of oranges and browns. It's mid fall and Thanksgiving is tomorrow, everyone has invited someone to the annual dinner. Everyone but me, today is my opportunity to invite Basil to dinner since he happens to show up to town this time of year. Basil has inspired me in the criminal justice world, he's also very intelligent and a good storyteller.…

    • 1104 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Sailor Rock Narrative

    • 1146 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Though, close in distance, Sailor Rock was much harder for Greg to get to from the north side, rather than the dirt road they had always used from the west. Limping uphill on one leg with a crutch and maneuvering through rocky and uneven ground, was difficult enough, until he had to pick his way through the prickly bushes and small trees where the ground leveled near its base. Since he couldn’t go very far without elevating his leg, it took him two full days to finally get there. The wild plums and berries he found along the way kept him from starving, but it didn’t give him enough energy to climb to the top and for his body to heal. What happened to the well-worn trail that opened up to the clearing at the base of Sailor Rock?…

    • 1146 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Lamb to the slaughter argument Murder has been a problem in the past years in America, but no matter what kind of murder, who is murdered and what the person is doing it for is all wrong. It is all violent and it is all with taking a person's life in which is never acceptable. Murder has slowly started to make a decline in the past years, but there are still murders and none of them are right. In the story Lamb to the slaughter, the wife Mary murders her husband with a frozen leg of lamb. Murder was very uncommon in the era they were in so nobody suspected the wife to murdering her own husband.…

    • 813 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Necky: A Short Story

    • 132 Words
    • 1 Pages

    It was a cold stormy day trees was falling to the ground. It was already loud outside Lori started yelling at Mystery man. ” Who is Necky”said Lori. Mystery man said “That's the girl I've been cheating on you with”Lori and her husband walks over to the table and sits down. ” I love you “said Lori.…

    • 132 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Eleven-Personal Narrative

    • 349 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Eleven Today starts off like any other normal school day. I wake up as normal, I get dressed, eat, brush and floss, then I go catch the bus. On my way, i remember it is Rachel’s birthday. Hi, i'm Skylar, Rachel's classmate. Today is Rachel's 11th birthday, but she does not seem excited.…

    • 349 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    “Lamb to the Slaughter”, a short story written by the celebrated author Roald Dahl, is a story that follows Mary Maloney, a pregnant housewife who had recently found out her husband, a chief detective, was going to leave her. Out of desperation, Mary murders her husband with a frozen leg of lamb and then concealing her wrongdoing and discarding the murder weapon by encouraging the policemen who were investigating the murder to eat it. The most salient idea the author explores is the betrayal; Patrick Maloney's unexplained decision to leave his pregnant wife and then Mary committing the ultimate betrayal when she murders him. Dahl emphasises his ideas and themes employing many literary techniques, including foreshadowing, symbolism and irony. These techniques build a thrilling, black comedy for the reader keeping them on the edge of their seat.…

    • 1224 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays