Lamb To The Slaughter Mary Maloney

Superior Essays
Harry Bastable “Lamb to the Slaughter” Mrs.Hiles 2/16/16 Period 1 In the mysterious short-story, “Lamb to the Slaughter,” written by Roald Dahl which took place in the 1950’s at the Maloney’s house, the conflict between Patrick and Mary Maloney arose in an escalating quarrel. Mary Maloney described as a sweet yet jealous young woman began to worry when her police officer husband brought news home of the idea of a divorce due to his new love for another woman. Patrick Maloney, an unfaithful yet hardworking gentleman, found himself less attracted to his recently pregnant wife; Moreover, his attraction lay upon another woman to whom he had lately been in contact with. Mary Maloney stood stunned as if none of the …show more content…
She told herself she had not heard what had just been stated. She, still in a trance of bewilderment, went to the garage to fetch the leg of lamb that had been waiting in the ice box. As she entered back into the kitchen, she caught a glimpse of her husband packing some things away, ready to leave at any second. Patrick upon being requested to stay replied by stating the phrase try and stop me. This triggered something in the back of Mary’s mind; she immediately went up behind her husband, with the leg of meat in hand, smashed his skull in while still in a state of confusion. Patrick Maloney toppled over, dead. Mary Maloney with the reality of what she had done sunk in as she sat down contemplating what next to do. She quickly threw the lamb in the oven to cook it as she put on her coat. She traveled to Sam’s grocery shop as she realized that she had killed her husband. She asked Sam for vegetables for her roast. Upon gathering her ingredients she journeyed back home. Once she arrived back home she acted as if this was the first time she had seen her corpse of a spouse. She slyly and sneakily began to trash her home by pushing various objects on …show more content…
Upon her return, she found her husband on the ground; thus she immediately contacted the police. As the investigation continued, the men came to the conclusion that Mr.Maloney had been struck with a heavy metallic club of some sort. This evidence can be pushed toward the fact that there was a club-like leg of lamb cooking in the oven. The detectives unfortunately did not uncover this essential clue. With the workers slowly inching closer to solving the mystery, Mary Maloney became desperate to find a solution to her trouble. She quickly thought of the perfect loophole to her problem. She cunningly offered and persuaded the officers to have some coffee and eat the leg of lamb that had been cooking the entire time. With a little inducement from Mrs.Maloney the officers gave in. As they carelessly gobbled away on the tender meat, they stated how the evidence to solve the mystery could be right under their own noses. This is situational irony due to the fact that they themselves are eating the murder weapon, which is their key to solving the mystery. The dramatic irony was that we

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