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Lamb To The Slaughter Mary Maloney Essay

447 Words2 Pages

In the short story "Lamb to the Slaughter" by Roald Dahl, Mary Maloney betrays everyone with her intense, violent emotions, manipulation, and selfishness when finding out about bad news. In The Lamb to the Slaughter, Mary Maloney becomes violently emotional after discovering her husband’s devastating news. During the murder, "At that point, Mary Maloney simply walked up behind him, and without any pause, she swung the big frozen leg of lamb high in the air and brought it down as hard as she could on the back of his head" (Dahl 3). Mary’s reaction to bad news reveals how violent she is on the inside. Externally, Mary may appear like the perfect housewife and soon-to-be mother, as she is very loving, caring, and thoughtful. However, at this moment, she wasn't logically considering all the consequences of her actions and acted on her emotions by resorting to violence. …show more content…

"Hullo Sam," she said brightly, aloud. The voice sounded peculiar, too. "I want some potatoes, please, Sam. Yes, and I think a can of peas." (4) Sam would now be her alibi, so that during the time of the murder, it would seem that Mary was nowhere near the crime, thereby creating a false timeline for the detectives to work with. Establishing a false timeline for the detective to work with would help Mary lessen her chances of suspicion. Lastly, Mary Maloney reveals selfishness in the story when she doesn't consider how her actions will affect her child in the future. For example, Marry states, "On the other hand, what about the child? What were the laws about murderers with unborn children? Did they kill both mother and child? Or did they wait until the tenth month? What did they

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