Lamb to the Slaughter

I read the text called lamb to the slaughter and I found it both interesting and entertaining. The thing I liked the best with the short story is that you have to read between the lines to understand the whole meaning.

The text is about the Maloney couple, Mary and Patrick. Mary is a typical sweethearted housewife, intelligent, conscientious and faithful to her husband. Dahl’s descriptions gave me the impression that the house is clean and well organized by Mrs. Maloney. I can also tell that she is pregnant because she is situated in their living room sewing something, probably for the coming baby. Mr. Maloney is a police officer, they have a routine that Mary has a drink ready for him when he comes home from work. This tells me that Patrick`s job litterally dries the life out of him and that it affect their everyday a lot.

in the beginning af the story everything goes as regular; he comes home and gets the drink. The regular routine turns when he wants to talk to her about something, he also starts to reject all of Marys food and drink offers. We can assume that he tells her that he has found some new girl and is planning to leave Mary.

She rejects with stubbornness and don`t want to face the naked truth that her husband that she loves with all her heart is planning on leaving her. She hits him as hard as she can in the back of his head with the lamb-leg without thinking, and realizes that she has killed him.

With a mind as clear as a crystal she acts normal and goes through with the plan. The police come to investigate the case, but conclude with not finding the murder of Mr. Maloney. Mary as intelligent as she is makes sure that the police in the end eats the lamb-leg which is the evidence.

After I read the story I honestly don`t think of Mary as the sweet and decent housewife as I thought she was in the beginging of the story,before she killed her husband.

Do you feel sorry for Mr. Maloney for being killed? Or do you think that he deserved to be punished after all?

Picture from the movie "Lamb to the slaughter"