1. Which impression did the first character Mrs. Mary Maloney make on you?
The first impression I got from her, is that she was a housewife that did everything for her husband. Everything had to be tidy and perfect, so when her poor husband that had been working all day arrived, he would find the house in order. She gave me the impression of a woman that lives only for her husband, and not for herself.
2. As you were reading the first pages, what did you foresee?
Since I read the title, I knew that there was going to be a crime in the story. After reading the first pages I could guess that it was going to be Mary the murderer and the husband the victim, because she treated him very nicely while he was tense and was ungrateful with the serving she offered to him. This kind of ingratitude helped me to figure out that maybe there was going to be a revenge.
3. What news must he have given his wife? Which was Mary Maloney’s reaction?
From point of view, there are two possibilities. The first possibility is that maybe the husband didn’t love her anymore, so he decided that a divorce would be the better for both of them. The second possibility is that he might have been having a love affair with another woman, so he told her the truth.
Mary Maloney was first shocked – she couldn’t stand what was happening – but suddenly, she continues acting normally and tells him she was going to prepare supper, when in fact she had already planned the murder and the alibi.
4. How did she prepare her alibi? Was she successful?
She killed him with a leg of slaughter, and then started to cook it. Then she practiced how to sound natural so, when he spoke to the grocer, he wouldn’t suspect anything. When she arrived to the grocery, she had and ordinary conversation with him about what he would like for supper. Back at home, when she sees the dead body of her husband lying on the floor, she acts as if she was shocked - although she was alone. She calls the police, and after the questions they make to her, she convinces them to eat the murder weapon.
Mary Maloney was indeed, very successful, because she made a perfect alibi and left no clues that could involucrate her with the crime of her husband.
5. How did the “lamb” show the changing nature of Maloney’s character?
In my opinion, the lambs are very quiet and nice animals that behave very properly, such as Mary Maloney at the beginning. Then, the leg of a slaughtered lamb is used as a weapon – so, the lamb isn’t more ‘’innocent and nice’’. Mrs. Maloney turns from being a very nice – almost perfect – housewife, to be a calculating murderer. On the other hand, the lamb could be more related to Mr. Maloney, because maybe he had a fair reason for leaving her – turning him to be innocent despite of his desire to leave her – and that ends being murdered unfairly like a lamb.
6. When do you think the climax is?
I think the climax is produced when Mr. Maloney gives the news to Mary, and the sudden change she has on her attitude, when she changes from being on a state of shock and to acting naturally, and then killing him with the leg of lamb she took from the fridge, after telling him she was going to prepare supper.
7. Lamb to the Slaughter deals with themes such as:
A- Betrayal:
It is shown in the unexplained decision of her husband to leave her, even when she was pregnant. Also, the betrayal is shown with the sudden decision of Mary to murder him. Both are a betrayal to the marriage vow, and we could also say that the way she managed to trick the policemen was also a betrayal to the confidence the policemen had for her.
B- Identity
Dahl makes it clear through his description of the Maloney’s house that Mary is an ideal of a housewife, maintaining a tidy home and serving her husband. Mary’s sudden killing breaks the first impression that we have of her. The author demonstrates that the ‘‘identity’’ of any person can be fragile. Also, after killing her husband, Mary must reconstruct her identity for setting up her alibi with the grocer.
The writer apparently is suggesting that the essence of the human beings is that they are nasty and cruel. Finally, the detectives are proud of their ability to solve crimes, but still Mary manages to trick them under their noses.
C- Black Humour:
The image of the cheerful housewife smashing her husband with the frozen leg of lamb supposed to be for his dinner is blackly humorous for the unexpected murder weapon. There is a double meaning too, in Mary’s response to her grocer’s question about meat: ‘‘I’ve got meat, thanks. I got a nice leg of lamb from the freezer.’’ She had a leg of lamb from the freezer, but she also had rather large portion of dead meat on her living-room floor. Also black humorous is the grocer’s question about what she plans to give her husband ‘‘afterwards,’’ for dessert. From Mary’s point of view, Patrick won’t have an ‘’afterwards’’, since he is lying dead on the floor. The last example of black humor in ‘‘Lamb to the Slaughter’’ is the scene of the policemen and detectives sitting around the kitchen table eating the lamb, speculating about the murder weapon.
D- Perversity, cruelty and violence:
The husband is the first one to show a cruel nature. Although we never know why is he leaving her, it doesn’t matter, because she pregnant. Apparently, she had always been a very devoted wife to him, doing everything she could, so every time he arrived home tired, she would be there to serve him whiskey and prepare him supper. She lives for him giving him a good living, and he just decides to leave her.
Until this point, the reader may think ‘’Oh, poor Mary…she has been so nice to him, and that’s the way he thanked her?'' But when you keep reading, you can notice that Mary isn’t too innocent. She doesn’t hesitate too much, after receiving the shock of the news, of killing him. She goes straight to ‘’prepare supper’’ and takes out of the fridge the big leg of lamb. The perversity and violence it’s shown in Mary, when killing her husband and by ‘’knitting’’ a false alibi.
8. How did she get away with the murder she committed? What’s your personal view of the ending?
From my point of view, the story couldn’t have a better ending. The ending is very intelligent, because the alibi that Mary Maloney makes is almost perfect. She killed her husband who had been unfair with him, he looked out for a witness that could say that she was acting normally when they met, and , the most important of all, she cooked the evidence. Whatsmore, she didn’t only cooked the leg of lamb, but she also convinced the policemen that she was shocked , confused and devastated and made them eat the lamb. ¿Who would suspect of a poor woman that adored her husband and that her last desire for him was to prepare a delicious supper for him? Nobody would suspect of her, and if they did, it would be very late because there was no more evidence left.
