Examples Of Betrayal In Lamb To The Slaughter

Roald Dahl’s “Lamb to the Slaughter” shows how any individual, when forced to, is capable of betrayal if it means gaining something they desire enough, no matter how innocent they may seem. For one, Patrick Maloney chooses to (presumably) leave his spouse, Mary, for what he deems a better life, and in doing so chooses to betray her. Based on how eagerly Mary is waiting for her husband at the beginning of the story, the reader is given the impression of a hard-working husband who is loved dearly by his wife. That impression changes quickly, however, as Patrick is seen betraying his wife by delivering some news that causes Mary to watch “with a kind of dazed horror.” Judging by the fact that he also tells her that he will “give [her] money” and “see [her] looked after” (Dahl 12:13), it can be inferred that Patrick is

She is angry at him for delivering the news, shocked, and “couldn’t feel anything at all” as she went into the cellar to fetch the leg of lamb (Dahl 13). Mary can’t stand the idea of a life without her husband and impulsively decides to kill him to prevent his leave. She, much like Patrick, appears to be a loving and committed spouse up to the moment she carries out such an unexpected action. The final betrayal in the story is when Mary Maloney chooses to betray the detectives in order to erase evidence of her involvement in the murder and remove risk of being caught guilty of the crime. Mary “[begins] to giggle” when she hears a detective saying that he thinks the murder weapon is “right under [their] very noses.” (Dahl 18) She is amused at the irony of the statement, since the detectives are oblivious to the fact that the weapon is literally under their noses, and also because she is satisfied at her success in fooling them. The statement makes it clear that the detectives do not suspect her in the