Frozen Blooded Murder
Insanity is defined as being in the state of mental illness, madness, or lacking the ability to fully understand right from wrong. When used in the courtroom, many defendants and criminals plead not guilty by reason of insanity, which is often misused, making it hard to differentiate the truly innocent ones, and the real criminals. Roald Dahl’s short story, “Lamb to the Slaughter” is a great representation of the insanity plea. The main character Mary Maloney kills her husband and is perceived to get away with murder. Her actions throughout the story suggest both guilt, and innocence due to insanity. However, Mary Maloney is criminally responsible for her lawless action due to her complete awareness of the fact that she murdered her husband. She did not hesitate to kill him, she was …show more content…
“ She began thinking very fast. As the wife of a detective, she knew what the punishment would be.” (Dahl 382) She was fully aware of the consequences of her actions and actually began to think of how she could get out of the situation she put herself in. Back then, women murdering was unheard of, and women killing their husbands never happened, yet Mary still made a move to fix this problem she was in. She then begins to think about her baby, being 6 months pregnant, the text saying, “On the other hand, what about the baby? What were the laws about murderers with unborn children? Did they kill them both -- mother and child? Did they wait until the baby was born? What did they do? Mary Maloney did not know and she wasn't prepared to take a chance.” (Dahl 382) It says she wasn’t going to take the chance of her baby being taken away from her, so she makes a move to cover up the evidence. She then moves on to throw the lamb in the oven and creates this alibi that places her away from the home at the time of the
Insanity is defined as being in the state of mental illness, madness, or lacking the ability to fully understand right from wrong. When used in the courtroom, many defendants and criminals plead not guilty by reason of insanity, which is often misused, making it hard to differentiate the truly innocent ones, and the real criminals. Roald Dahl’s short story, “Lamb to the Slaughter” is a great representation of the insanity plea. The main character Mary Maloney kills her husband and is perceived to get away with murder. Her actions throughout the story suggest both guilt, and innocence due to insanity. However, Mary Maloney is criminally responsible for her lawless action due to her complete awareness of the fact that she murdered her husband. She did not hesitate to kill him, she was …show more content…
“ She began thinking very fast. As the wife of a detective, she knew what the punishment would be.” (Dahl 382) She was fully aware of the consequences of her actions and actually began to think of how she could get out of the situation she put herself in. Back then, women murdering was unheard of, and women killing their husbands never happened, yet Mary still made a move to fix this problem she was in. She then begins to think about her baby, being 6 months pregnant, the text saying, “On the other hand, what about the baby? What were the laws about murderers with unborn children? Did they kill them both -- mother and child? Did they wait until the baby was born? What did they do? Mary Maloney did not know and she wasn't prepared to take a chance.” (Dahl 382) It says she wasn’t going to take the chance of her baby being taken away from her, so she makes a move to cover up the evidence. She then moves on to throw the lamb in the oven and creates this alibi that places her away from the home at the time of the