Story Analysis
News Story
- Mary stood up to make dinner anyways and then Patrick said "Sit down, just for a minute. Go on, sit down. I've got something to tell you."
- What Patrick said to Mary was never revealed to the reader; but it seems that Patrick was with another woman.
5 Traits of Mary Maloney
- Five traits that describe Mary Maloney in the short story Lamb to the Slaughter are loving, her peaceful, clever, cold-hearted, and conniving.
- Mary Maloney only demonstrates her loving trait in the beginning of the story.
- Mary was still in complete shock, thinking that none of what just happened was real.
- The news story that I chose was about a women that got an eight-year sentence for killing her husband with a hammer. Catherine Ashworth (the culprit) pleaded guilty in November 2010 to manslaughter.
- This news story that I researched related to the story Lamb to the Slaughter because they are both about women murdering their husbands.
- Additionally, both of the women used a blunt object to murder their husband, and called someone a bit after they killed their husband.
- When Patrick decided to leave, Mary hits him with the leg of lamb.
- “Now and again she would glance up at the clock, but without anxiety, merely to please herself with the thought that each minute gone by made it nearer the time he would come.”
- Mary then leaves her dead husband on the floor of the house, and goes to buy vegetables.
Story Analysis
- At the grocery store Mary speaks as if she is getting vegetables for her husband which created tension in the story.
- Mary decides to call the police saying that her husband was found by her, dead when she got home.
- The police investigated for hours and the then were offered a leg of lamb by Mary.
- The police ate the only piece of evidence they could have found for Patrick Maloney’s murder. (This was a very ironic ending).
Research on Murder Punishments in the 1960s
- The punishment for murder in the 1960s was the death penalty.
- Mary Maloney murdered her husband and it was during the 1960s, if the police would’ve found out, Mary would have gotten the death penalty.
Story Analysis
- In the beginning of the story Mary waits for her husband to come home.
- Mary knew that after Patrick had a drink he would lighten up and speak.
- Patrick had a few drinks but he still did not want to say anything.
- Mary constantly offered dinner but Patrick declined every time.
Character Analysis
- Mary Maloney is a clever yet questionable character.
Mary's Conniving Trait
- I selected Mary Maloney because she is the protagonist in the story and she is the most interesting character in the story.
- Mary Maloney exemplifies her conniving character after she kills her husband and offers the policeman a leg of lamb which is the only evidence for the case.
- “Why don’t you eat up that lamb that’s in the oven? It’ll be cooked just right by now” Mary said.
Mary's Cold-hearted Trait
- Mary Maloney reveals that people may over react or take things the wrong way and that not everybody is good hearted
- Mary is cold-hearted after she kills her husband because of the lack of emotion she shows.
- “All right, she told herself. So I’ve killed him.” Mary says this right after she killed her husband that she seemed to be so in love with just earlier that day.
Introduction
Mary's Cleverness Trait
Lamb to the Slaughter is a short story written by the author Roald Dahl. The story is set in the 1960s in a city. It is an extremely tense and suspenseful story, with actions that no reader would expect.
- Mary shows her cleverness when she almost immediately leaves after killing her husband and sets an alibi with the grocer.
- She gets ready, practises what she is going to say to the grocer, speaks to the grocer, and buys vegetables all casually as if nothing happened at all.
Mary's Peacefulness Trait
- Mary is very peaceful, but only in the beginning of the story as well.
- “The drop of the head as she bent over her sewing was curiously tranquil.”
- This quote is showing that in Mary’s everyday life she is tranquil which means peaceful.
Lamb to the Slaughter