How Is Mary Maloney Inhumane In Lamb To The Slaughter

Have you ever felt the emotions of someone telling you they’re leaving you forever? Mary Maloney felt the emotional distress when she learned her husband Patrick was leaving her for an unknown reason. In “Lamb to the Slaughter” written by Roald Dahl the emotions of Mary Maloney vary throughout the text and end up making her actions very inhumane.
At the beginning of the short story Mary Maloney seems like a very loving wife of Patrick Maloney. She even goes as far as “[standing] up and [walking] forward to kiss him as he [enters]” into their house for the night (Dahl 1). Her standing up to go and kiss him shows her love for him. Her first emotion of love is maybe why all her other actions later on are so inhumane. As the night progresses they have drinks but then “[Patrick] did an …show more content…
He lifted his glass and drank it down in one swallow” leaving Mary Maloney worrying about why he would do such a thing (Dahl 1). This later progresses to her husband not letting her do anything for him. Dahl writes,”She moved uneasily in her chair”(Dahl 1). This is the result of her worry coming to a point where she can hardly sit still. After her worry she finally finds out about what she is worrying about and that is where the emotional effect of someone leaving you impacts the human brain. Patrick tells her that he will be leaving her for an untold reason and causes Mary to think that “if she acted as though she had not, heard him, she would find out that none of it had ever happened”(Dahl 2). This triggered her third emotional responses as disbelief and confusion. The impact of it causes Mary to want to cook supper for her husband to maybe try to win him back so she grabs a nice, frozen lamb leg to have for supper. As Mary walks back upstairs she sees Patrick standing by