Roald Dahl’s murder mystery Lamb to the Slaughter is a story that revolves around a brisk change in mood and borderline insanity. Mary Maloney, the main character, is a pregnant wife that spends most of her time sedately waiting for her beloved husband, Patrick, to come home from work. However, when Mary is told by him that they’re going to have a divorce, things go a bit hemic. The theme this story revolves around is underestimating the vulnerable.
Near the middle of the story when Mary mutilates Patrick, we as the reader saw this as an unexpected surprise; and so did Mary. The beginning of the story states that Mary counted each minute that went by until Patrick came home; which sounds like Mary is a bit obsessed with the detective. The…show more content… Soon after, Mary’s once lonely home is flooded with officers that consistently tried their hardest to solve the case as well as comfort Mary at the same time. The events that follow are a flawless example of what the police officers think of Mary; weak and vulnerable. The officers that come to Mary’s home manage to completely the dismiss the fact that Mary herself might be the one to blame. A few paragraphs after the call with the police, we can see how Mary was treated by the detectives. A section of the paragraph reads, “The two detectives were exceptionally nice to her. They searched the house. Sometimes Jack Noonan spoke to her gently.” Therefore, these sentences prove that not one man in the home at the time gave a single chin stroke at the fact that Mary might be the killer. The cops assume that Mary couldn’t have done it, as she is too fragile to do so; which is wrong because a police officer is supposed to suspect everyone and not just the ones they think look the most penurious and bulky. Sexism also plays a role in the amount of fingers that pointed towards Mary during the investigation; which is none. Because Mary is a housewife, and consequently a woman, the police officers know for a fact that Mary didn’t commit the crime; not because she doesn’t have the guts to commit the crime, but because she couldn’t have committed the crime. Lamb to the Slaughter was published in Harper’s Magazine in 1953. During this time, women were considered to be weak and the kind of people that are not really “people.” Ordinarily, part of the influence of the world around Roald Dahl is visible in this book, as the police officers continue to assume that Patrick’s death was a result of a brawny male cuffing him in the head with a ponderous object. Near the end, Jack Noonan (one of the detectives) says,” Whoever
