Lamb To The Slaughter Mary Maloney Essay

At face value a person may seem to be innocent but, they could be hiding a dark secret. The short story “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl illustrates the tale of the innocent housewife, Mary Maloney, and how she murdered her husband. Though Mrs. Maloney may seem to be static about the situation at first, many things contribute to her dynamic personality. Mary Maloney is characterized by Dahl as a dynamic character through her actions, thoughts and dialogue. Mrs. Maloney’s dialogue contributes a lot to her dynamic personality. In the beginning of the story, Mary is very kind and loving towards her husband, in fact, she almost could be mistaken as his servant. For example, when her husband came home, she said “‘Darling,’ she said, ‘If you’re too tired to eat out tonight, as we had planned, I can fix you something. There’s plenty of meat and stuff in the freezer.’ Her eyes waited for an answer, a smile, a nod, but he made no sign. ‘Anyway,’ she went on ‘I’ll get you some bread and cheese’”(Dahl 1). Despite being shown through her husband’s body language that he didn’t want food, she still made an effort to try to prepare something for him. This implies that her love for him is so strong, she would do anything to make him happy, even if he doesn’t need it. …show more content…
Maloney as dynamic is through her thoughts. Later in the story, Mr. Maloney breaks the news that he is going to divorce Mrs. Maloney, but she attempts to deny it, in her head “Her first instinct was not to believe any of it, she thought that perhaps she’d imagined the whole thing. Perhaps, if she acted as though she had never heard him, she would find out that none of it ever happened.”(Dahl 2). Mrs. Maloney’s denial of this event implies she still loves her husband, but she has to put in all of her effort to do so. Love may still linger in Mrs. Maloney’s head, but, her next actions through all emotion out the