In “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl, Mary Maloney is not the innocent wife of Patrick Maloney as she seems to be; but instead, is a woman, capable of murder.
Mary was tired of being treated like a second class citizen when it came to Patrick.
For instance, when Patrick Maloney was giving his wife one-word answers like, “yes”, or “I’m tired”, it hurt Mary. Mary was at the end of her rope; she was losing her husband. Although Mary had murderous intent, one of her strongest characteristics is thinking of the consequences; not for her, but for her unborn child. “As the wife of a detective, she knew quite well what the penalty would be… what were the laws about murderers with unborn children?”

To make matters worse, Patrick wanted