Mia Franck
Mrs. Hall
Honors English 10
20 January 2023
Mary's analysis
William Shakespeare once stated, “Love is merely madness”. The third-person limited short story, “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl, focuses on the main character Mary Maloney, wife and murderer of Patrick Maloney. In this 1950’s household, Mary deceives the detectives into believing that the murder was committed by another person. Mary Maloney's giggle indicates that she is a crazy and deceitful character.
Mary's laughter only adds to her character's craziness. After the death of Mary's husband, she starts practicing lines she’ll say to the grocer in the mirror, “Hullo Sam,” brightly, and aloud. The voice sounded peculiar too. “I want some potatoes please, Same Yes, and I think a can of peas” That was better. Both the smile and the voice were coming out better now. She rehearsed it several times more” (Dahl 3). Mary, practicing over and over again her fake alibi, shows how her laugh was intentional knowing that the police just ate the evidence. Roald Dahl does this to tell the reader that Mary knows
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Toward the end of the story, we see that Mary is talking to the detectives and shares, “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 suppertime, and I know Patrick would never forgive me, God bless his soul, if I allowed you to remain in his house without offering you decent hospitality. Why don’t you eat up that lamb that’s in the oven” (Dahl 5). Not only was Mary pleading for the men to eat the murder weapon but she also puts on a fake act as a helpless widow. The giggle of knowing that she had completely fooled the men into believing another man killed Patrick as well as eating the murder weapon fully uncovers Mary's real self. Hence, Mary's lies only prove to her be more in the