Mary Maloney Lamb To The Slaughter

"Lamb to the Slaughter" All around us, we are faced with people who lie and commit awful crimes. While there is not much that meets the eye to these people, inside their actions are driven by a deep vengeance. In the short story "Lamb to the Slaughter" by Roald Dahl, we are introduced to a character who goes by the name of Mary Maloney. The story centers around Mary murdering her husband Patrick, and the actions she takes to cover up the crime. In the beginning of the story, Mary gushes to the reader how much she loves Patrick, however when he tells her something, that is never revealed to the reader, she goes into the meat locker, and comes out with a lamb leg and the intention to take a man's life. Mary Maloney is a deranged woman based on her strong desire to get away with murder, and the actions she commits. Mary's desire to get away with murder makes …show more content…
Evidence regarding this claim can be found in the scene in which she has just man slaughtered her husband, Patrick, and is sitting in front of the mirror practicing her expressions to appear innocent. "That was better. Both the smile and the voice were coming out better now. She rehearsed it several times more. Then she ran downstairs, took her coat, went out the back door, down the garden, into the street" (Dahl 4). Here, Mary demonstrates to us that she will do anything to get away with murder when she prepares to act innocent in front of Sam, as well as the lengths she will go to come up with a solid alibi. A second piece of evidence supporting that Mary's insanity can be found in the scene in which Mary is attempting to convince the police officers to eat the lamb leg, which is the murder weapon. "'Well,' she said. 'Here you all are, and good friends of dear Patrick's too, and helping to catch the man who killed him. You must be terrible hungry by now because it's long past your