Lamb to the Slaughter - Who Is the Victim?

Who is the victim?

Full of irony, “Lamb to the Slaughter”, is about the theme of ultimate betrayal. Although Mary Maloney is clearly a good wife, her husband’s betrayal transforms her into a murderer, making the husband a victim. She has a mental disorder, she kills her husband with a leg of lamb, and after that, she is able to go to the grocery to fake an alibi and she gets rid of the murder weapon, by making the policeman eat it.

Marry the lovely, dedicated and kind wife, clearly has a mental disorder, killing her husband with the leg lamb is the ultimate prove of it, but throughout the story we have several evidence that demonstrates her psychological problems; we know that she is pregnant, for example (line 153-154). “What about the child? What were the laws about murderers with unborn children?” This quotation is significant because by being pregnant we assume that she would be responsible and take care of her and her unborn baby; but this does not happen instead of being a responsible “mother” she is really irresponsible, why? Do you think is normal having a pregnant women drinking alcohol? For example, (line 24-25). “Then she walked over and made the drinks, a strongish one for him, a weak one for herself” This quotation is significant because, I don’t think that is normal and safe; she is not trustworthy to raise a child.

Marry, after receiving the bad news from Patrick, went to the cooler and grabbed a leg of lamb, and with a hit, she killed her husband; for example, (line 135-138). “Marry Maloney simply walked up behind him and without any pause she swung the big frozen leg of lamb high in the air and brought it down as hard as she could on the back of his head” after killing her husband, (line 159-160) “She carried the meat into the kitchen, placed it in a pan, turned the oven on high, and shoved it inside” The two quotations are significant because after all that, she went to the grocery to fake herself an alibi, after such a terrifying act she is able to act normal and go to the grocery to fake her alibi; she arrives home and call to the police department, Patrick was also a police officer, so she already knew the officers that came to her house, she lied to them, telling them that she found her husband lied on the floor, the police believed her and began to investigate the perimeter.