Lamb To The Slaughter
...so suddenly sometimes? How does Mary Maloney, a perfectly happy housewife, change in a matter of seconds, in Roald Dahl’s “Lamb to the Slaughter”? After hearing her husband, a police officer, tell her that he is going to leave her, six months pregnant, she completely changes. Her first instinct is “not to believe ay of it, to reject it all. It occurred to her that perhaps he hadn’t even spoken, that she herself had imagined the whole thing” (Dahl). She walks down to the cellar and grabs something for them to eat for dinner. Grabbing the first object her hand met, she pulled out a leg of lamb. Mary walked back upstairs. This is where she began to change.
In the beginning of the story, Mary was crazy about her husband Patrick. The story talked about how she was pleased when she knew her husband was going to be home soon. She just loved sitting in silence with him just knowing he was present. Mary enjoyed his company. The moment Patrick walked in the door, she greeted him with a kiss and hung his jacket up for him in the closet. Right away, Mary went and made some drinks. She loved everything about her husband. This woman loved how he just “sat loosely in a chair, for the way he came in a door, or moved slowly across the room with long strides” (Dahl). Mary loved how he looked at her intently and his funny shaped mouth. She loved how he just sat silently when he was tired. Mary had these normal, everyday feelings about her husband, until this day.
Patrick told Mary he needed to talked to her. She noticed something was wrong with him the moment he drained his glass with one swallow, while the glass was still half full. He stood up and went to make himself another drink. This time, the drink was darker amber. He had put more whiskey into his second drink than in the first. She tried not to let it bother her and attempted to talk to Patrick. He did not...
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