In the book “Lamb to the Slaughter” Roald Dahl uses deliberate imagery to show Mary changing from a caring, attentive housewife to a psychotic, cruel murderer. Dahl provides hidden and suspenseful images of Mary Maloney to characterize her as a cruel and psychotic murderer. After buying groceries and killing her husband, Mary attempts to recreate the scene by making herself seem innocent, “‘Patrick!’ She called. ‘How are you darling?’” (Dahl 3). Through the use of apostrophe, Dahl is able to show the cruelty that lies inside Mary’s heart. The quote also shows that is psychotic and sadistic. She is aware that her husband is dead, yet she denies that he’s dead by treating it as a normal day. Additionally, while the policemen eat the lamb leg