During the investigation of Mary’s murder there were two notes that were discovered. (Photos of the notes attached.) The notes claimed that a tall black person committed the crime, while the other suggest that the person who wrote the notes was forced to write them to throw suspicion away from the actual murder. There was also some physical evidence such as, human feces at the bottom of the elevator shaft. It is said that the investigation into Mary’s murder was very sloppy.
In “Lamb to the Slaughter”, Mary Maloney knows what happened to her husband. Not only did she kill her husband with the lamb leg but she fed it to the detectives for dinner as a “Thank you”! In the story, the detectives were talking about the case over dinner. They said “The murder weapon had to be on the premises.
The opposing side of the argument may say Mary planned on the death of her husband though evidence says otherwise. When Mary went down to the freezer she “took hold of the first object she found” displaying how Mary didn’t deliberately grab a weapon to use on Patrick’s death and his actual killing was not clearly thought-out by Mary, proving diminished capacity and not murder. Mary Maloney deeply loved her husband and her child, through Patricks’ violence push her to her limits. No criminal intent was for sought when Mary’s state of mind obscurely went after Patrick. All in all Mary wasn’t in her right mind whyen all of this took place.
After she killed him she sprang into action playing the distraught wife but not before she created an alibi for herself just in case. She proceeds to mess up the living room to create a robbery scene. The cops show up at her house for question where she offers the policemen lamb which doubles as the murder weapon. Mary Maloney is pleased with herself, she’d gotten away with it. This short story is often compared with Susan Glaspell’s “A Jury of Peers” where elderly woman named Mrs. Wright (Minnie Foster) is a accused of strangling her husband to death and as a result is arrested but the attorney must prove she did the crime to prosecute her.
Character Analysis over Mary Maloney “It’s the old story. Get the weapon, and you’ve go the man.” Mrs. Maloney seems like a very normal character, who is very predictable, however, it turns out that she is the very opposite. Mary turns out to be nothing like what you expected in the beginning.
The police were easily tricked by Mary’s cheerful appearance, and this displays her ability to change her appearance to deceive the police easily. Thus, this should serve as a warning to people to be more cautious. Secondly, Mary also uses a kind gesture as a way to get rid of the murder weapon without a trace. For instance, while the police are searching her house for clues leading to the murder, Mary convinces them that, “It’d be a favor to me if you’d eat it up. Then you can go on with your work again afterwards” (Dahl 10).
Mary Maloney “simply walked up” behind Patrick and struck him with a “big frozen leg of lamb” “as hard as she could”. This completely contrasts the starting character of Mary as a housewife whom was patiently waiting for her husband to return home, which no one had expected. She did it “simply” which moulds an image of her not needing to think through her action, effortless and swift. The readers would be disgusted at how fast her character changes, thus suspense would be created as they would constantly question themselves about how it was possible. Additionally, after she struck her husband, she thought that it was “funny” on how “he remained standing” for a while.
When sociopaths in the real world commit a crime, they “often say, in explaining their horrible actions that they ‘just snapped’”(Thomas 11). This is why they often do violent and reckless things; it is because they aren’t thinking and also do not feel much guilt. This is reflected in the text when Mary Maloney kills her husband the day he told her bad news, without thinking about the consequences. Adding on, Mary is very manipulative with the detectives. She convinces the detectives to eat her food, even though they aren’t allowed to.
The fact that she had to manipulate the policemen shows she is guilty. In most action movies, the Antagonist kills a person then tries to kill the witness. Mary Maloney killed her husband, then tries to manipulate the policemen to cover up the evidence. The author says, “ She carried the meat into the kitchen, placed it in a pan, turned the oven on high, and shoved it inside ( Dahl 4).”
Police withal interviewing people who have an idea about where Mary Maloney might have gone. Anne Smith, Mary Maloney’s neighbour had said she had no idea what Mary Maloney’s plans were, and had nothing to do with the situation. “I was only responsible for taking care of her child”, says Anne Smith, “I never knew she was a murderer and would run away without her child.” Police had also interviewed the grocer, Sam Stone. Stone had said Maloney has been visiting the grocers a lot, and she was most likely preparing aliments for when she would run away.
First impressions to characters never lasts, Mary being the desired wife who unconditionally loves her husband, on the other hand, ironically what readers can foreshadow did not seemed to be Mrs. Maloney to be the antagonist of the whole situation. Based on the story, “...enjoying his company.. She loved the warmth that came out of him when they were together alone”. Mary Maloney depicts the woman who is out of his husband’s league. This is a representation of situational irony because “she loved” him and in the end, she ended up murdering her husband.
Near the middle of the story when Mary mutilates Patrick, we as the reader saw this as an unexpected surprise; and so did Mary. The beginning of the story states that Mary counted each minute that went by until Patrick came home, which sounds like Mary is a bit obsessed with the detective.
Once she settled down she acts fast with faking a story by going to the store and coming home to the police. She ends up using the weapon as dinner for the police. The author showed how Mary used cowardice throughout the story through the literary devices of Symbolism, Foreshadowing, and Tone.
Mary Maloney provides the detectives with lamb that she kills her husband, Patrick, with. When the detective declares that the murder weapon is probably right under their noses, it is ironic because the reader knows that they are eating the weapon that the detectives are seeking. Furthermore, situational irony is displayed when Dahl narrates, “At that point, Mary Maloney simply walked up behind him and without any pause, she swung the big frozen leg of lamb high
“She asks them, please eat it” Mary made the detectives eat the murder weapon (the lamb). All these examples make Mary Maloney a very clever person. Therefore, Mary Maloney has many Traits. But these are her best caring, ruthless and clever.
