Muhammad Zain
Period 7
“Lamb to the Slaughter”
It is said by a trusty phycologist Alexander Todorov, that first impressions on people are more than likely going to be wrong. The short story “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl, is about a lovely, expecting housewife that displays her dark side by lashing out and killing her husband right as he has an upsetting statement to say to her. Mary Maloney is an interesting character because of her unique ability of easily switching from her good to bad side, and vice versa. There are many qualities which describe Mary Maloney in the story, but the ones which truly scream out are, caring, clever, and impulsive.
Mary Maloney can quite clearly be seen as a caring person. For instance, right at the moment her husband came from work, she comforted him by putting away his jacket, and pouring him his usual drink. This can be read on page 1 of the story, where it says that Mary “took his coat and hung it up. Then she made…a strong [drink] for him and a weak [drink] for herself…” (pg. 1). This conveys, that she puts her husband first, and later herself, in everything involving luxury. Additionally, Mary knew immediately that her husband is feeling tired after seeing his body language and said to cancel their plans for the day. On page 1 of “Lamb to the Slaughter,” Mary advises that, “if you’re too tired to eat out tonight, as we had planned, I can fix you something” (pg.1). This explains, t...
