Love and It’s Effects on the Individual
Have you ever been betrayed by someone you’ve loved? How does it feel? In Roald Dahl’s suspenseful and climactic twisted tale, “Lamb to the Slaughter,” Mary Maloney goes through a very analogous situation. Mary, a very conventional and optimistic woman who is the perfect stereotype of a housewife, loves her husband unconditionally. She is pregnant, glowing, and lively, until it all changes at the time Mary gets betrayed by her husband as he leaves her. Her obsessive love leads to a destructive heartbreak. The sorrowful pain building inside of Mary leads her to be guilty in her own eyes, as she kills her husband with her cold-blooded heart. Ironically, she misleads her husband's …show more content…
Mary’s entire perception of the man she once loved changes. He is no longer the loving Patrick she once saw him be, but instead an insensitive man who leaves her and her unborn child. When Patrick leaves his wife, we see her as the victim. “‘Her first instinct was not to believe any of it.’ Up until the point before Mary kills him, we think he is atrocious. “‘So I've killed him,’ she says to herself calmly. Even though Mary kills him in a state of shock, she cleans up the murder and makes an alibi for herself in a calm, content state. She creates an image of innocence and tricks the authorities and shopkeeper into thinking she is happily making dinner for her husband, on a normal Thursday night. The police have always known her for a generous, considerate mother-to-be so they question her as little as possible. After the detectives, photographer, and the Doctor depart, the shopkeeper proves her innocence in his perspective. Her love for him also blinds the police officers because they always knew her as their friend's wife who treats him with love and care. This goes to further develop the author's theme of the effects of the individual’s obsessive love. The detectives think that she loves him too much to be capable of his
Have you ever been betrayed by someone you’ve loved? How does it feel? In Roald Dahl’s suspenseful and climactic twisted tale, “Lamb to the Slaughter,” Mary Maloney goes through a very analogous situation. Mary, a very conventional and optimistic woman who is the perfect stereotype of a housewife, loves her husband unconditionally. She is pregnant, glowing, and lively, until it all changes at the time Mary gets betrayed by her husband as he leaves her. Her obsessive love leads to a destructive heartbreak. The sorrowful pain building inside of Mary leads her to be guilty in her own eyes, as she kills her husband with her cold-blooded heart. Ironically, she misleads her husband's …show more content…
Mary’s entire perception of the man she once loved changes. He is no longer the loving Patrick she once saw him be, but instead an insensitive man who leaves her and her unborn child. When Patrick leaves his wife, we see her as the victim. “‘Her first instinct was not to believe any of it.’ Up until the point before Mary kills him, we think he is atrocious. “‘So I've killed him,’ she says to herself calmly. Even though Mary kills him in a state of shock, she cleans up the murder and makes an alibi for herself in a calm, content state. She creates an image of innocence and tricks the authorities and shopkeeper into thinking she is happily making dinner for her husband, on a normal Thursday night. The police have always known her for a generous, considerate mother-to-be so they question her as little as possible. After the detectives, photographer, and the Doctor depart, the shopkeeper proves her innocence in his perspective. Her love for him also blinds the police officers because they always knew her as their friend's wife who treats him with love and care. This goes to further develop the author's theme of the effects of the individual’s obsessive love. The detectives think that she loves him too much to be capable of his