Mary Maloney In Dahl's Tale

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Mary Maloney is a complex character. Explore the way in which Dahl introduces and develops her. The story is called ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’, which is part of a collection of short stories called ‘The Tales of the Unexpected’, written by Roald Dahl. These stories are grotesque and show the perverse nature of human beings. These stories all have a twist which is unexpected hence the name ‘Tales of the Unexpected’. The story begins with a tranquil atmosphere creating a very domestic scene. Mrs Maloney is a stereotypical housewife as she is: “waiting for her husband to come in from work”. Also, she is “sewing”. This is her favourite time of the day as it described as being “blissfull”. This shows she is very normal and is a good role model…show more content…
When reading the stories; both Mary Maloney and the Landlady seem sweet and lovable characters, a very misleading interpretation. “Warm, welcoming smile”. Also they both capture the trust of the male characters in the story very, very well. One odd similarity is the way the ladies kill, which is using a leg of lamb and by adding poison in the tea. “The tea tasted of bitter almonds”-The Landlady. Roald Dahl is clever in what he writes. He describes in a simple yet descriptive manner. Saying very little, yet a lot. He creates mental images of the whole story in the reader’s mind, which is done beautifully. In my opinion I think that ‘The Landlady’ is more sinister and unusual than the ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’. This is because in ‘The Landlady’ the reader doesn’t get to know the motives behind why she poisons men and then preserves them. Whereas in ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ we get hints as to what happens and it is understandable why Mary Maloney kills her husband. To conclude, Mary Maloney is a very complex character. Based on her instincts, Mary Maloney kills her husband because she could not handle him going “further and further away”. In the end she has to create an alibi to cover her remorseless crime in which she has to manipulate the police into eating the evidence. Mrs Maloney is quite a unique character; she has through her actions and scheming proven herself innocent and a victim. Through the use of Mrs Maloney, as well as dramatic irony and suspense, Dahl grips the
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