Lamb to the Slaughter

Mary Maloney Victim or Villain

      In this story I believe that Mary Maloney is a Villain. For two huge reasons, first of all she committed a murder and she covered it up afterward Also she had certain moment in the story that left the reader really pondering their stand point on if Mary was victim or villain. The argument can be made that she is the victim because she loved him and it was a passion crime. However that is not the out look I have on this story.

      I believe that some people with very well make the argument that Mary was a victim in this story. The points they would use would probably be that she was a good wife. She spent almost all her night waiting for her husband to arrive home for a long days work. She cleaned and fixed drinks and food for him immediately after he entered their home. And to top it all off she was sixth months pregnant. After she was told that she was being left for another woman, she simply walked to the cellar grabbed a frozen leg of lamb for dinner came back upstairs, after a somewhat rude and un needed comment for her husband she walked up behind him and brought down the frozen leg of lamb as hard as she could on the back of his head. You could argue that this was a passion murder and that she did not have any pre planning and that for a moment she was so overwhelmed with emotion that she did not know the difference from right and wrong. Also she did cry very quite passionately after she had really snapped back into reality and realized what had happened, “no acting was necessary”.

      In my mind she would be a villain for many reason that the story suggests she is in fact a villain. A big point would be that even though she had suffered a hard blow by hearing she was being left for someone else she still proceeded to kill her husband. I mean if you love someone so much how could you possibly kill them. After the murder Mary did not drop to her knees in tears or start panicking at what she had done, no she had...